The Mandala lessons:

• Yantras and Creative Meditative Visualization

Armando Montilla

Yantras and Creative Meditative Visualization or the pursuit of enlightened design.

In Tibetan Buddhism, a mandala is an imaginary palace that is contemplated during meditation. Each object in the palace has significance, representing some aspect of wisdom or reminding the meditator of some guiding principle. Tradition dictates the shapes, sizes and colors of these objects. There are many different mandalas, each with different lessons to teach. Most mandalas contain a host of deities as well as inanimate objects. As the Buddha in his enlightened form is no longer in this world, one of his epithets indicate that he is tathagata, or 'thus-gone'. In the absence of his physical body, the mandala represents his 'body of enlightenment'.While the Tibetan mandala provides a vehicle to acquire wisdom, in the Indian tantric tradition another method was used to communicate knowledge: Yantras, or diagrams that express a practice visually. Just as modern scientists have developed equations such as E=mc² to communicate their knowledge, so have the tantrics developed equations expressed in the language of geometry. There are hundreds of yantras, some simple, some extremely complex. The most comprehensive of all is Sri Yantra (also called Sri Chackra), which contains the entire doctrine and practice of Sri Vidya. Some believe that hidden in the images of erotic sculptures found in Hindu temples there is a sacred tantric geometry; one can either be deluded by the sexuality of the images or enlightened by deciphering the geometrical patterns therein. Through meditative visualization processes, ways to create design and architecture can be explored beyond traditional medium. With the aid of sacred geometrical guidelines conductors for positive flows of energy, based on a complete balance with nature, sustainability and cosmic laws, can be obtained. The intention of this paper is to elaborate on these methods. The question remains: Can we arrive to such highs levels of creation in harmony with the universe?