Mandalas: An Introduction

 

On This Page:

From Cycles to Circles

Circles and Cycles

What is a Mandala?

The Quest to Understand Life's Cycles

Some Thoughts to Mind

East and West

Circles and Mandalas

Mandalas and Formulae

Mandalas and ORIANA's Web Site

Thank you

Page Credits

 

On Other Pages:
URL for this page: http://www.pinnaclefarms.ca/ORIANAsite/Mandalas/Intro/IntroMandalas.html

From Cycles to Circles

Earth Air Fire WaterFrom the journey of our galaxy through the endless expanse of time and space to the daily rotation of the Earth on her axis, life expresses itself through ever-changing, never-ending cycles.

From ancient times to modern day, understanding those cycles has been at the heart of human exploration of the mind, body, world, and spirit.

The objective of the ORIANA mandalas is to express and experience knowledge. It is a place for answering, and asking, questions. An appropriate first question to ask is: what is a mandala?

"Mandala" is an eastern word but before we can explain what a mandala is we need to understand a bit about the difference between western and eastern ways of discovering knowledge. We start with a circle.

Circles and Cycles

Picture a circle with a dot at one spot on the circumference.

Start a motor that turns the circle at a constant rate.

Now, try to ignore the circle and just concentrate on the up and down motion of the dot.
 

The diagram below may help you.

In this diagram, we use a motor that turns the circle every half second (this is a constant rate, though it is not continuous motion). After the first 1/2 second, the circle turns 15° clockwise. The dot moves down and to the left. After one second, the circle has turned another 15° and the dot has moved further down and further to the left.

We have measured the amount the dot travels up and down after each half second and made a mark to the right of the circle to show the up / down position of the dot as time passes.

The pattern that is made by the up and down motion of the dot is called a sine wave.

Like gentle swells on the ocean, a continuous sine wave can be a pleasant thing to watch, or it can make you feel a bit queasy.
 

Sound WavesRadio Waves

All sounds, from the screech of nails on a blackboard to a symphony orchestra, are made up of sine waves. Radio and TV signals are also made up of sine waves, as are the waves on the ocean. And electroencephalograms show that even the brain produces sinusoidal* waves.

*sinusoidal means "having the form of a sine wave"

 

Fourier TransformPicture of Jean FourierSine waves permeate everything to such an extent that Jean Baptiste Joseph Fourier, a physicist and mathematician, was able to show that you can build any shape just by combining the correct set of sine waves. These Fourier Transforms may not be magic, but they certainly are fascinating.

The relationship between the rotating circle and the sine wave provides insight into many significant phenomenon and inventions, including motors, generators, electronics, radio, TV, and the transmission of electromagnetic waves, to name a few. In time, this Mandalas section will contain more information on these, but by now you are probably wondering what all this has to do with mandalas.

What is a Mandala?

Mandala comes from Sanskrit, the language of classical literature in India. To answer the question that has been posed, we must first look at East and West and compare how ideas evolved in these two cultures.

The Quest to Understand Life's Cycles

At the beginning of this page, we said that seeking an understanding of life's cycles has been at the heart of human exploration of the mind, body, world, and spirit.

To gain this understanding, Western philosophers explored the world around us, seeking common patterns and processes in the things we can see, hear, smell, and touch.

These early philosophers, often alchemists, were the forerunners of the modern scientist.

In the East, the desire to understand life's cycles took a different approach.

Eastern philosophers sought understanding by exploring their own thoughts, seeking patterns and processes that would lead to an understanding of how and why we create the world around us.

Just as the space shuttle is often used to symbolize Western advancements, so the lotus symbolizes Eastern accomplishments.

The "thousand-petalled" lotus depicts the multi-dimensional nature of the mind. The fertile, marshy areas where the lotus grows represent the Earth, where the mind can realize its highest states of awareness.

Some Thoughts to Mind

It is worth pointing out that, though we have thousands of thoughts every day, no one has ever seen one, touched one, smelled one, or heard one. Scientific instruments can detect many types of electrical and chemical activities in the brain, probes can be used to trigger certain kinds of thoughts, and drugs can be used to change our moods. However, the actual thoughts are a completely unpredictable, personal, subjective experience, known only to the individual.

Western science can influence the mind, but it cannot know it.

EEG and Thoughts

East and West

Circles and Mandalas

In the Circles and Cycles section, we looked at sine waves and their relationship with circular motion. The knowledge in that section was the result of Western exploration.

If you investigate this further, you will find that sine waves and circular motion represent basic principles in mathematics and physics and permeate significant portions of many fields of science.

In Eastern explorations, researchers have also found that there are basic principles and that these principles exhibit the same kind of cyclic simplicity of the sine wave. They have also found that the knowledge could often be expressed in patterns that have a strong circular symmetry. These patterns are called mandalas.

Pythagorean TheoremMandalas and Formulae

Mandalas are like scientific formulae in that they:
1. succinctly express a great amount of knowledge; and
2. provide a way for others to use that knowledge.

The main difference is that formulae are defined and applied, mandalas are realized and experienced.

Mandalas and ORIANA's Web Site

Mandalas serve two functions:

  • to express the knowledge that has been realized

    and

  • to provide a way for others to experience that knowledge.

We have chosen the name "Mandalas" because a primary purpose of all of ORIANA's endeavours is to express knowledge in a way that it can be understood (experienced) by as many as possible, for the enjoyment and betterment of all.

All ORIANA Mandalas fall within one or more of ORIANA's Communications Interfaces. The

page provides a short description of mandalas that have been completed or are in process.

Mandalas for the following topics are planned for the future:

  • Diesel-electric locomotives (InterCI)

  • Internet Layers and Players (InterCI)

As noted on the Sponsors page, we invite you to suggest topics that you would like to see covered. Just let us know.

Thank You

Page Credits

John Walker

All photographs of Earth from space, site-wide.

http://www.fourmilab.to/

Dharmapala Thangka Centre and Monastery of NgorDharmapala Thangka Center - School of Thangka Painting

http://www.bremen.de/info/nepal/

http://www.ambaa.org

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