What is a (Buddhist) Mandala?
Mandala (Sanskrit mandala “circle”, “completion”) is of Hindu origin and is also used in most Dharmic religions, such as Buddhism and Hinduism, to refer to various tangible objects. In Vajrayana they have been developed into sandpainting. In practice, mandala has become a generic term for any plan, chart or geometric pattern which represents the cosmos metaphysically or symbolically, a microcosm of the universe from the human perspective. A mandala, especially its center, can be used during meditation as an object for focusing attention. The symmetrical geometric shapes tend to draw the attention towards their center. Psychiatrist Carl Jung saw the mandala as “a representation of the unconscious self,” and believed his paintings of mandalas enabled him to identify emotional disorders and work towards wholeness in personality. The visualization and concretization of the mandala concept is one of the most significant contributions of Buddhism to religious psychology. Mandalas are seen as
