197. OF MANDALAS, RANGOLIS & YANTRAS - the SACRED GEOMETRY

A friend had asked what's a mandala. I'll let the pictures do the talking and inject some spiritual connection into it. Mandala is a Sanskrit word meaning Circle.

Everything in Creation is in cycles...

Sunrise Sunsets = day & night
High Tides Low Tides = ebb and flow
The 4 Seasons = an endless cycle
Births & Deaths = Reincarnation
Every Action a Reaction, every Sequence a Consequence, every Cause an Effect = Karma
The Women's menstrual cycle = the Circadian Rhythm

The 7 major chakras along the spine and the minor chakras throughout the Spiritual body are circular - Chakra is Sanskrit for wheel, there are 114 chakras - energy centers - in the Spiritual Body...

A Mandala is a symbolism in Hinduism and Buddhism, these 2 are closely interlinked. To Hindus, Buddhism is a spin-off of Hinduism - a strain.
Tibetan monks 'draw' mandalas as part of their practice. They are very intricate and may take several monks to produce one large one. In the process, they are totally focused. It's like art, when I'm painting, it's such a focused activity, it's meditative, one pointedness...nobody speaks...

Begin with a Sacred Geometry

At the end of each day the mandalas are erased as a show of detachment...that everything in physical life and the physical manifested world is impermanent. The monks create mandalas nearly everyday as part of their practice. The perfect circle of mandalas denote the Universe - a circle has no beginning no end...

Finely crushed white rock is dyed, the sand gives it a glistening effect...

The last act of detachment from his physical body upon death is to feed his remains to vultures on a hill (sky burial) where fellow monks chop his body into smaller pieces and literally throw him to the vultures...been done for centuries...it's a ritual, a tradition in Tibetan Buddhism - accompanied by chants and prayers for a good send-off.

Because they are erased each time, no 2 mandalas are ever the same...

a snowflake - a feathery ice crystal has a typical 6 fold symmetry. It's formation is a science - physics - details can be had in Youtube, it's fascinating. No 2 are the same...the finished product is art...

numerous black and white photographs were taken by a young American, barely 20, Wilson Bentley (1865-1931) whose curiosity and fascination led him to record snow crystals over 40 decades. This was in the 19th Century. It was later compiled into a book in which he spoke about impermanence

Rangolis

These are mandalas created for decorative purposes by ordinary folks to observe festivals like Deepavali, Pongal, the New Year, birthdays and their numerous festivals. I've come across them outside ashram doorways, temples, shops and homes. Done free hand with coloured rice grains, flour or sand or powder or flower petals...men and women excel in it - they sweep it away or the public walks over them for the same reason as the monks - as an act of non-attachment, impermanence...

Yantras

These are installed at home or a workplace based on Indian Feng Shui calculations (Vastu). The yantras are charged with mantras and prayer rituals done by astrology monks - they are customised for individuals based on their natal charts...

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And to release creative energy, one may create one's own mandalas like those an English friend did, below...

with semi precious stones

floral, fruity, leafy decorative home mandalas

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And to string all this together as to how, in what way is this a spiritual symbol - once again I look at Creation, I turn often to Mother Gaia as she's all around us. Mother, the female creative aspect of 'God' - the Divine Feminine - the one we can see, feel, touch - She's in all her 3 Kingdoms - Mineral, Plant, Animal, in all its diversity...

The dandelion is a simple creation, it resembles a mandala. Fields in my childhood years, were filled with dandelions and I go around blowing them! When examined under a microscope, they are quite complex really - designed from a sacred geometry, like a basic building block...her cells looking very much like mandalas...

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Come to think of it, covid-19 does resemble a mandala - is this Mother Gaia's idea of a joke to teach the small humans a lesson? She's cleaning up the mess left by the humans, hurting her Body, the environment, her creatures, her trees, her water bodies, she's putting the small humans on hold so she may heal and care for the other life forms she supports...