page_title: Mandala
section_title: Buddhism
hierarchical_section_title: Mandala / Buddhism
caption_attribution_description: English: Newar Buddhists of Nepal make a mandala (sand painting) depicting the Buddha as part of the death rituals on the third day after death and preserve it for four days.
context_page_description: A mandala is a geometric configuration of symbols. In various spiritual traditions, mandalas may be employed for focusing attention of practitioners and adepts, as a spiritual guidance tool, for establishing a sacred space and as an aid to meditation and trance induction. In the Eastern religions of Hinduism, Buddhism, Jainism and Shintoism it is used as a map representing deities, or specially in the case of Shintoism, paradises, kami or actual shrines.
  In New Age, the mandala is a diagram, chart or geometric pattern that represents the cosmos metaphysically or symbolically; a time-microcosm of the universe, but it originally meant to represent wholeness and a model for the organizational structure of life itself, a cosmic diagram that shows the relation to the infinite and the world that extends beyond and within minds and bodies.
caption: Sandpainting showing Buddha mandala, which is made as part of the death rituals among Buddhist Newars of Nepal
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