Tag: mandala

We can find mandalas everywhere – in the East, in the West, in art, literature, even in dreams. Mandalas represent a resolution, or the beginnings of a resolution, of a conflict between the conscious and the unconscious.

Sangharakshita explores the symbolism of the mandala, circles of symbolic forms, found in the The Tantras (special scriptures of Vajrayana Buddhism) as a symbol of psychological and spiritual integration.

Excerpted from the talk entilted The Mandala – Tantric Symbol of Integration as part...

Today’s FBA Dharmabyte is Knowing Our Patterns by Karunavapi.

We live by patterns, mostly unconsciously. Using personal reflections, poetry and imagery of the Five Buddha Mandala, Karunavapi talks of mandalas as patterns of the unenlightened and enlightened mind. ‘Personal mandalas’ as the patterning of our own, unenlightened minds and the Five Buddha Mandala as the pattern of the Buddha’s enlightened mind. To appreciate the qualities of the Buddha, we can see them like light through a prism splitting into...

In this FBA Dharmabyte, Parami gives us “ ‘Knowing’ as a Lived Experience” from the talk “Living In The Greater Mandala”. A bodhisattva is a being intent upon awakening for the sake of all beings. Most of us, most of the time, are not as awake as we could be. We create suffering by trying to fit reality into our picture of how we think things should be - the bodhisattva helps us see how unhelpful...