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TIBETAN
ART Page 9
THE
MANDALA
A painted mandala dazzles the eye with its intricately symmetrical
structure and brilliant color. But however stunning to behold, mandalas
were not designed to entertain, or intrigue the eye. The mandala
is conceptual art in the same way that the figural images of deities
are conceptual: it is a visualization of the nature of cosmic reality,
as such sometimes called a cosmic diagram, and a means to spiritual
transformation. We must call it "art" only because it
is a visualization, a depiction, but it is more than that. Mandalas
are tools or aids to meditations. Beyond even that, they are an
intrinsic, indispensable element in liturgic ritual, which they
do not illustrate; rather, the ritual is conducted through the mandala.
Nothing could be further from the Western relation to art, in which
the viewer stands outside the painting, analyzes and perhaps admires
it -- an essentially passive and appreciative stance. The Tibetan
Buddhist, like Alice in Wonderland, steps through the picture plane
and, through a process in which he/she must actively participate,
requiring utmost concentration and mental stamina, becomes that
of which the center is the symbol. That transformation does not
fall spontaneously, as grace, upon the viewer: the practitioner
must engage in the process. The mystical experience is achieved,
not bestowed.
As with all other forms of Tibetan Buddhist art, the mandala is
not a realm for artistic expressionism, but rather the medium for
a sacred process: enlightenment, salvation, spiritual transformation.
As a mystical painting symbolic of divine order, there is no place
in this art for visions of chaos; in Western esthetic terms, the
sensibility is classical, not romantic.
Thus these forms or diagrams are integral to understanding Tibetan
Buddhism as well as integral to its practice. Since the mandala
represents the conceptual core of Jampa gompa in Lo Monthang, this
gompa thus represents a statement and a teaching about the nature
of ultimate truth -- a school of advanced study. Jampa brings us
close to the heart of Vajrayana. Rather than a more conventionally
decorated gompa, Ngorchen Kunga Zangpo chose instead to create a
special space for initiates.
As the literature on mandalas is extensive, this discussion attempts
to set forth some of the main ideas about the mandala: its design,
meaning, and purpose.
In its simplest form, a mandala is a mere circle, and is sometimes
seen as such, as in a plain, unadorned circle crudely chiseled into
the stone doorstep of a house. The circle is an ancient symbol of
absolute completeness; in Vedic times it represented the disk of
the sun; to Hindus it is a chakra or energy center, and to Buddhists
it signifies the wheel of life and the wheel of the law -- the symbol
of the teaching of the Buddha Shakyamuni. No mere design or ornament,
the mandala circle is inseparable from the concept of a sacred space,
made so by ritual enclosure.
A cross may be a symbol of Christian faith, but a mandala is actually
a portal into magic. At ceremonies to drive out evil spirits and
thus safeguard and purify a home, a lama may sprinkle a substance
that has been blessed (usually rice, or any type of grain) around
the edges of the room to create a protected enclosure, and he may
even sprinkle rice around the shoulders of a person in a protective
ring. A thread, blessed by a lama and tied around the neck, becomes
a protection cord. An entire community may be protected by a ceremony
in which a procession of monks circle the perimeter of the village,
sprinkling rice and placing sacred objects at certain corners. The
space within has been purified, all demons driven out, and the magic
circle is a line of defense, within which there is protection from
hostile forces. The space thus ritually consecrated becomes sacred,
thus conferring sanctuary, which is inherent in the meaning of a
mandala. As the circle delineates the consecrated space, the ritual
motion appropriate to such a place is encirclement, and Tibetans
perform "kora," or circumambulation, around any holy object,
be it a prayer drum in a village chapel or Mt. Kailash, the sacred
mountain, around which pilgrims walk (or perform full bodily prostrations).
The orthodox circumambulate clockwise, while the Bonpos make their
circle counterclockwise. It is thus in a clockwise direction that
one should process through a gompa, itself a three-dimensional mandala,
a place of sacral purity.
Not
only does a mandala confer protection, but with the proper rituals
and proper use, it also confers power.
Beyond those simplest of mandalas -- the circle incised on a doorstep,
the ring of grain around a room, or the ritual demarcation of a
protected space, are the complex, intricate, beautiful, and often
mystifying images painted on thangkas or on gompa walls, or painstakingly
created on a floor from particles of colored sand. Just as for drawing
the image of the Buddha, both the space and the artist must be prepared
by certain rituals, and the image itself drawn with mathematically
exact proportions in order to serve as a spiritual medium, so there
must be ritual preparation before the drawing of a mandala. The
surface must be purified and the space consecrated by the appropriate
rites, the outline of the mandala drawn according to precise rules,
and the makers of the mandala must take certain vows. The magnificent
diagram about to be delineated and then colored is not about magnificence
-- its beauty being incidental. It must be consecrated and empowered
if it is to serve its sacred function, spiritual transformation.
The defining element in the design of a mandala, no matter how complex,
is symmetry. Enclosed within the mandala's outer circle may be an
intricate pattern of circles, squares, and triangles, but they must
adhere to the fundamental rule of geometric symmetry. In this way,
the mandala becomes the visual expression of the Buddhist belief
that the core principle of the universe is unity, deriving from
the inter-relatedness of all phenomena. Human beings are constantly
distracted and misled by the chaos of the mundane world and the
multiplicity of phenomena, mistaking the impermanent as if it were
lasting, and confusing illusion with reality. The ultimate reality
is the interrelatedness of all phenomena -- an indivisible whole,
the quintessential unity. And since the mandala is a teaching and
a representation of non-duality, of unity, therefore order and harmony
are intrinsic to its design. As an emblem, the mandala is the key
to discerning the divine order of ultimate reality, and to refuge
in this hidden truth.
However numerous the beings depicted in a mandala, at the center
is one deity (whether single, in yab-yum, or represented by the
deity's abstract symbol). And however complex the component parts
of the mandala, they are concentric, so that movement from any part
of the mandala leads to its central point, which is the symbol of
the One, the cosmic unity, the matrix. This is the still, silent,
dimensionless point at the heart of reality, undisturbed by the
outer chaos. And since harmony, order and serenity are the qualities
sought by the practitioner who uses the mandala, it must, through
its structure, be a visual emblem of such harmony. However exuberant
in its figures and complexity, the design of the mandala is controlled.
Through its purity of line and concentric, symmetrical order, the
mandala focuses on the essential nature of reality.
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