The Sacred Mandala

The sacred mandala is one of the most amazing visual representations in Buddhism, the Mandala is a representation of the Buddhist universe, it can be a painting on a wall or on a scroll, it can even be made on the ground out of sand. According to Buddhist scriptures and writing, the Mandela which are created from sand give positive energy to the people and environment around it. The Mandela was introduced by the Buddha, there are many different designs each teaches a different lesson. When monks begin the make a Mandela there is an opening ceremony where the monks chant. The monks begin building the Mandela from the inside out. The Mandela takes any were from 5- 10 weeks to create. Once it is created it is destroyed nearly right away. The fact that it is destroyed is another way for Buddhist to understand the impermanence of life. Once the Mandala is destroyed the sand is poured into flowing water to share the energy of the sand with the world.

The Mandala is important because it not only helps to show the impermanence of life. It also is a visual representation of the Buddhist universe. This is important because if a Buddhist doesn’t understand the universe one can look at the picture and have an idea of what their universe looks like