RELIGION-INFO.COM

A Guide to Religions, Religious Information and Help in Search for God

Mandala Art, Crop Circles & more

Mandala is the Sanskrit word for "circle", "sacred center" and "completion". (Note that "bindu" is the Sanskrit word for the center point of a circle.) Mandala appears or is used primarily in four mediums: art, meditation, nature and architecture.

Mandala art has appeared throughout the world for thousands of years. The practice of mandala art is done for self-expression, personal growth and spiritual transformation as well. Anyone can learn how to draw mandalas.

In meditation, a person can develop his/her ability to focus attention by visualizing or imagining a mandala. Psychiatrist Carl Jung believed mandalas can heal. For certain, mandalas can help people center their inner selves and that heightens self-awareness, which can lead to spiritual transformation.

Mandalas may also appear in meditation and dreams. Jung believed that a mandala can represent the "unconscious self".

Mandalas are a universal feature that occur in nature including our galaxy, solar system, planets, the cellular structure of the human body and circular structure of the basic atom. However. the important fact of mandala in nature has been recognized by and fully embraced only in the Hinduism and Buddhism religions. There is only limited evidence of mandalas in a few other religions including Christianity, Native American spirituality (in the form of medicine wheels and tee pees) and the religions of ancient people of what is now referred to as Great Britain.

The circular form of the mandala has been used in architecture for thousands of years and can be seen in most Eastern temples. In addition, mandala architecture appears in the form of igloos in Alaska and tee pees of Native American Indians.

The following books provide information about mandalas and instruction on how to draw and use them:



Mandala: journey to the center
by Bailey Cunningham
2002 DK Publishing Inc.
ISBN 0-7894-9740-9

the Mandala Healing kit
by Judith Cornell, Ph.D.
2005 Sounds True, Inc.
ISBN 1-59179-376-9

The Theory and Practice of the Mandala
by Giuseppe Tucci
1961 Rider & Company
2001 Dover Publications, Inc.

World Mandalas: 100 New Designs for Coloring and Meditation
by Madonna Gauding
2005 Godsfield Press, a division of Octupus Publishing Group Ltd., London, Great Britain



Like mandala art, some crop circles are spiritual symbols that can activate higher levels of consciousness..



Also, see Meditation

HOME