The Mandala

The word Mandala is a Sanskrit word loosely translated to mean “circle” but its meaning is far greater than a simple shape. It represents “wholeness” and like other sacred “wheels” can be seen to symbolically (and in some forms literally) contain all of creation.
The Mandala depicts sacred space and is a powerful tool of transformation. Most often the Mandala is a visual and graphic art form used for meditation and at the heart of its teaching it asks us to bring the lessons we learn in meditation back to our daily lives – back to our relationships with ourselves and each other.

But the power of the “circle of life” is everywhere – in snowflakes and apple cores, in faces and eyes, in sand paintings, circle dances, and medicine wheels, and in the shapes of planets and solar systems.
The Mandala, although it has deep roots in Tibetan and Buddhist practice, is a universal image found over and over again in nature itself and, in some form, in all cultures. Sacred geometry talks about the circle as a fundamental structure in the universe – the “foundation” that manifests our world. It is a circle that does not exclude but contains; does not separate but protects and holds opposing forces, paradox and chaotic matter in such a way that it can be transmuted and transformed – an alchemical process of the soul.
We believe The Mandala is the perfect symbol for the Center and for the land it sits on. The energy of this land “pulls together”, “aligns”, and “brings into focus” that which is pulled apart. It moves us towards wholeness and unity while celebrating the diversity of our physical world. Visitors describe it as a vortex or mandala of universal energy and big enough to contain the movement of human dynamics and spiritual questing as we go deeper into our own personal work. It is a sanctuary for “holding space” for our vision quests, healing work, pilgrimages, educational learning, and creative expressions.
-(By: http://mandalacenter.org)-