The mandala, a sacred Buddhist symbol, is now increasingly used in personal development techniques. A few simple exercises that will help start the journey into our inner world.
Mandala (translated from Sanskrit as “circle”) is a tool of the Buddhist school of spiritual meditation, however, such symbolic spherical images can be found in almost all spiritual practices and in all corners of the earth, be it North American shamanism, Hinduism or even Christianity with its stained-glass rosettes in the walls gothic cathedrals.
The practice of creating and contemplating a mandala helps to learn how to focus and direct attention. Followers of many spiritual teachings resort to them. They are especially developed in Vajrayana, the tantric branch of Buddhism. In it, the sacred circle of a mandala made of multi-colored sand symbolizes the structure of the world, the path to Buddha nature, and the frailty of earthly existence.
It is not surprising that, along with the growing interest of Western society in Eastern practices, mandala exercises have become widespread in various methods of personality development, in art therapy courses. Psychoanalyst Carl Gustav Jung interpreted the mandala as a visible projection of the psychic, its expression. He studied mandalas with interest and drew them himself.
Why draw mandalas?
Jung considered the mandala a good tool for inner transformation on the path to self-realization. By the way, he noticed that in difficult life periods, the unconscious often prompts us to draw something like a mandala or see such figures in a dream, including in the form of a labyrinth.
He believed that the mandala helps to better understand what worries us on an emotional level. The strength of the mandala lies in its protective abilities: its circle, like the “dream catchers” of the American Indians, protects the spirit from scattering. The numerous geometric shapes that the circle contains symbolize various aspects of the personality. Try to find a resonance between them, “reconcile” them with each other – and you will see the way to the center of your “I”.
The inner child is the most reliable guide on the path to inner wholeness and peace with yourself.
The creation of a mandala, according to psychotherapists, leads to a meditative state that makes us especially receptive to the messages of the inner world. Drawing a mandala is very simple – even a child can handle it! By the way, Jung was convinced that it was the inner child that was the most reliable guide on the path to inner wholeness and peace with oneself.
So get your colored pencils ready. Take a few slow breaths in and out, close your eyes for a moment and immerse yourself in your inner world with the help of the four mandalas we have proposed. And then meditate on the words that pop into your mind.