Mandala Meditation

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Tap into the healing powers of your mind and create a deep sense of serenity with this 15 minutes-long mandala meditation mainly using images of mandalas in Tibetan Buddhism with appropriate background music. Although ornate in design and rich in meaning, you do not have to delve into the religious or psychological symbolism of the mandala in order to appreciate the beauty of its form while concomitantly gaining from it a sense of serenity.

A mandala (''circle'', Sanskrit) is a symbolic diagram representing the universe or other aspects of Buddhist or Hindu beliefs. They are used as a focus and aid to concentration in worship and meditation. The preferred medium for mandalas is coloured sand, but they may also be painted and built on metal or wood. A common mandala configuration is a spiralling circle protected by a square with 4 points and enclosed within a larger circle. The 1st and 2nd images pertain to the Kalachakra (''wheel of time'', Sanskrit) mandala which symbolises the ultimate wisdom of the Kalachakra deity.

Swiss psychiatrist and father of analytical psychology Carl (Gustav) Jung (1875-1961) developed a psychology of totality based on the mandala symbol. The main concept of this psychology is the unified wholeness of self as symbolically represented by the mandala or ''magic circle''.

Jung viewed the total personality or psyche as consisting of 3 differentiated but interacting systems: ego; personal unconscious; and collective unconscious. The ego represents the conscious mind. The personal unconscious is a reservoir of repressed memories and complexes or constellation of interrelated thoughts, feelings, perceptions, and memories. The residue of human evolutionary development, the collective unconscious is the most powerful and influential system of the psyche comprising of primordial elements called archetypes. The most significant archetypes are: the persona; the shadow; the anima; the animus; and the self.

The self archetype is the most salient. It is the mid-point of personality around which all of the other systems are constellated and unified. The self is life's ultimate goal. When integration of all aspects of the psyche has been achieved, the person attains a sense of unity, equilibrium, harmony, wholeness, and stability. It is expressed through various symbols the foremost of which is the mandala. The unity and oneness of self is symbolised by the completeness of mandala-like figures and is revealed in dreams, myths, fantasies, and various religious and transcendental experiences.

Jung drew his own versions of the mandalas in order to help him reveal traits and ideas hidden deeply in his unconscious. The process also enabled him to decipher better the dreams of his patients and consequently make a psychological diagnosis. The thumbnail image or last image in the video is actually a mandala drawn by Jung himself. It represents the anima (feminine side of men) and animus (masculine side of women) archetypes.

For more information about mandalas, I highly recommend the following specialist books:
Tibetan Mandala: Art & Practice, the Wheel of Time (Crossman and Barou, c. 2004) and Psychology and Alchemy (Jung, c. 1944).

Mandala image credits:
1st image: Tibetan Kalachakra mandala by Quinn Comendant uploaded by Ibolya Horvath.
2nd image: Kalachakra sand mandala by monks from the Namgyal Monastery in Dharamsala, India. The Herbert F. Johnson museum, ca. 2007.
3rd image: Chenrezig sand mandala uploaded by Colonel Warden taken at the occasion of Dalai Lama's Visit at House of Commons, England ca. 2008.
4th image: Metal mandala found at Golden Temple (Kwa Bahal) in Patan, Gujarat, India uploaded by Nabin K. Sapkota.
5th image: Painted Vajrasattva mandala. Tibet, ca. 16th century. The Private Collection of Lionel and Danielle Fournier of Himalayan Art.
6th image: Painted Medicine Buddha mandala with goddess Prajnaparamita in center, ca. 19th century, Rubin Museum of Art.
7th image: Amitabha mandala, 19th century Tibetan school. Rubin Museum of Art.
8th image: Tibetan Mandala painted at the Sera Monastery, Tibet.
9th image: Vajravahi mandala.
10th image: Four Mandalas of the Vajravali Series, Tibetan, Central Tibet, Tsang (Ngor Monastery), Sakya order, Kimbell Art Museum Collection.
11th image: The Mandala of the Diamond World also known as "The Diamond Realm Mandala." Japanese hanging scroll, Kamakura period, 13th-14th century CE.
12th image: mandala by Carl Jung.