Mandalas

Working from home ensures the majority of my shelter-in-place days are full and reasonably distracting. Boredom hasn’t settled in yet. On the other hand, my wife Lynne has sought new ways to pass her time during the current pandemic lock-down. As writer Jessica Stillman says in her recent article for Inc.com, there may be silver lining to the secession of normal life as we know it. The sluggish boredom isn’t smothering good ideas; instead, it’s sparking a flowering of creativity. Boredom is your brain’s incubator for good ideas. In Lynne’s case, she discovered a new outlet for her creative urges: MandalaGaba.

MandalaGaba is an ad-free online website containing a suite of tools for generating mandalas, tessellations, and recursive drawings. While I’ve yet to give it a try, Lynne has played with it for several days now. So far, she’s created and saved dozens of simple mandalas, including the examples I’ve included with this post. She’ll undoubtedly soon generate examples of increased complexity, as many others have. The results remind me of the patterns I generated using the Spirograph kit I owned as a youngster.

Most people have a general understanding of what a mandala is. For those who may be unclear about what they are and their origins, the Invaluable.com blog contains a particularly good summary about their symbolism and salient characteristics:

“In their most basic form, mandalas are circles contained within a square and arranged into sections that are all organized around a single, central point. They’re typically produced on paper or cloth, drawn on a surface with threads, fashioned in bronze, or built in stone. While extraordinary as a standalone work of art, mandalas hold symbolic and meditative meaning beyond their vibrant appearance.

“A mandala is a spiritual and ritual symbol in Asian cultures. It can be understood in two different ways: externally as a visual representation of the universe or internally as a guide for several practices that take place in many Asian traditions, including meditation. In Hinduism and Buddhism, the belief is that by entering the mandala and proceeding towards its center, you are guided through the cosmic process of transforming the universe from one of suffering into one of joy and happiness.

“. . . Within their intricate circular patterns, you can find common symbols throughout mandalas. Traditionally, they include the presence of Buddha’s mind in an abstract form, most commonly represented as a wheel, tree, flower, or jewel. The center is a dot, which is a symbol considered free of dimensions. It is interpreted as the starting point, the beginning of contemplation, and devotion to the divine. From there, the dot is surrounded by lines and geometrical patterns that symbolize the universe, encompassed by the outer circle which represents the cyclical nature of life.”

Examples of the use of the geometric precepts and symbolism of mandalas in architecture abound. They’re evident in the design of many Buddhist and Hindu temples. They’re recognizable in historical Western examples as well, such as rotundas and baptisteries. Stonehenge is an especially ancient prototype. However, it was the builders of the layered, radial symmetry of some Buddhist structures who expressly applied the cosmologic symbolism of the mandala to architecture. The mandala generally consists of a sacred circle within which key deities reside in specific configurations in a multi-level square palace. The geometric diagram of the mandala opens in the four cardinal directions and is surrounded by concentric realms through which visitors pass or ascend toward enlightenment.

Borobudur temple, Central Java, Indonesia (photo by Gunawan Kartapranata / CC BY-SA (https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/3.0))

I’m interested in architectural symbolism and the meanings inherent in buildings. Intentional or otherwise, our buildings encode symbolism. Their forms can represent an aspect of a culture’s particular worldview. They can evoke desirable associations, values, and meanings, both spiritual and secular. Buildings modeled after mandalas just happen to be particularly overt illustrations of symbolism shaping architecture. Many cultures use mandalas to symbolize the universe, whether it is the universe within each of us or that of the infinite beyond.