Mandala and Community

The sacred geographies of yantras and mandalas

Temples, Cosmos, City

The sacred geometries called yantras and mandalas are technologies employed during Tantrik sadhana to invoke the presence of many beings and wisdoms. But their structures are also architectures that can correspond to temples, the cosmos in its entirety, or a city.

Yantras in the Indian Tantrik traditions, and mandalas in both Indian and Tibetan traditions come in diverse forms. Many have four exterior gates like the gates of an ancient city or the doors to a temple.

The lines and intersections and shapes of the interior may form concentric circles, interlocking triangles, squares, rings of lotus leaves, and other configurations.

In the Indian tradition, three-dimensional yantras are carved out of crystal, mercury, and stone. Tibetan Buddhism is famous for its mandalas of colored sand.

Many yantras in the Tantrik traditions invoke the creative, world-building power of Devi. In the center are a single or three downward-facing red triangles invoking Devi’s creative force as she incites the process of creation from the absolute to the appearing of dualistic experience.

Sometimes the center of the yantra is a simple red or blue bindu indicating that all of manifest life flows from the absolute.

Both yantras and mandalas are explicitly technologies or instruments for recognizing the nature of reality. In Trika Shaivism, we would say for recognizing the nature of the Self.

Different “takes” on the same reality.

The temple is a place of worship. In the Tantrik and Hindu traditions, a temple is where one goes for darshan: to see God and to be seen by God. This mutual gazing is a vector for the transmission of knowledge of the nature of the Self, one’s own nature. Through ‘having’ the darshan of the deity or God or Guru, we can recognize ourselves and all else.

Manifest life--the cosmos--is also a temple. It is the house of God and a place of worship. The Temple is the micro cosmos.

A city is also a micro cosmos. It embodies the diversity of manifest life in a human size. A city is explicitly where we go to meet others, have interesting conversations, experience chance encounters and surprises, indulge in the arts and different cultures, engage in commerce, and learn to navigate a diverse, shifting landscape.

The yantra or mandala, whether as temple, cosmos, or city, teaches us, among many other things, that the nature of reality may be realized in the course of everyday life and that participation is foundational to the nature of manifest life.

The poet Rumi called this participation the “constant conversation.”

Spiritual communities as mandalas

Spiritual communities are sometimes referred to as mandalas.

In Vajrayana (Tantrik) Buddhism, the mandala is a sacred enclosure or energetic field within which practitioners encounter the presence of buddhas and bodhisattvas.

Monastic communities and lineages often conceive of themselves as collective mandalas centered around a teacher (lama or guru) who occupies the inner position analogous to the bindu at the center.

In Tantrik lineages, the term mandala refers not only to a geometric or ritual diagram but also to the community of practitioners, teachings, and energies gathered around a teacher.

A creative energy emanates and animates from the center, connecting and guiding the community. But in a healthy spiritual community, the mandala is not governed by competition between the center and whoever inhabits the spaces further out from the center.

While the teacher or other representative of wisdom is at the center, the location in the mandala of students near and far should ideally be governed soley by the desire of students.

If we consider a city and its larger metropolitan geography, some people want to live downtown or in crowded places where the “action” is. Others want to live in quieter neighborhoods with easy access to both the center and seclusion at home. Still others want to live further out in the suburbs. Those who choose the most “rural” locations, e.g. furthest from the center, might visit the center only rarely or enjoy the center from afar.

This is a completely natural process in which students should be free to find their own place.

Sometimes teachers do try to bind students in unhealthy ways, subverting students’ natural inclinations. They use the concept of a “center” to magnetize students and incite jealousies and competition that enable them to control students.

In our culture here in the U.S., I’ve encountered some students over the years who want to be seen as being at the center, but who actually have very little interest in doing practice or participating in the community. The “center” is a brand for them, not a real desire.

Fundamentally, the center just means you are “centering” spiritual life and your relationship to your teacher and community. If you want to do this, fine. If not, fine. But it is helpful to know that you are free to chose according to your natural desire.

Mandala at Jaya Kula

We refer to the Jaya Kula community as “the Mandala.” We consider anyone who engages in any way to be an aspect of our Mandala. So, for instance, those who subscribe to the newsletter, or who listen to our podcast or read something I’ve published, but who never interact with us or come to teachings are aspects of our Mandala.

Then there are people who show up for social events, or who participate in some way with the community, but who don’t have an interest in working closely with a teacher.

There have been folks whose primary commitment is to a different tradition, but they like to “visit” our tradition now and then.

At the center, there are students who are working very closely with me and who support the community in many ways because they have chosen to do this.

Each person is respected and cared for in recognition of their inherent and equal value. At the same time, each person has a totally unique relationship with our Mandala and with me.

Those closest to the teacher through their sadhana, creative energy, seva, and devotion, collaborate with the teacher to hold the shape and purpose of the Mandala for everyone.

This collaboration and the energy of the Mandala that it sustains are among the great beauties and blessings of human life.

with infinite love,
Shambhavi

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