Yoga Practice 113 - Mandala-Jung-Tantra-Meditation

According to Carl Jung Resources 2009 "Mandala is a graphical representation of the center (the Self for Jung). It can appear in dreams and visions or it can be spontaneously created as a work of art. It is present in the cultural and religious representations.

In the yoga practices mandala can be a support for meditation or an image that must be internalized through mental absorption. This image organizes the inner energies and forces of the practitioner and puts them in relationship with his ego.

Generally speaking a mandala is a geometrical form - a square or a circle - abstract and static, or a vivid image formed of objects and/or beings.

In our dreams the mandala indicates the phenomenon of centering the individual psychic in which the ego reconsiders its (dominant) position through the assimilation of the collective unconscious contents (symbols or archetypal images).

In modern dreams mandala can be a sophisticated electronic device - an electronic watch or a sophisticated circular machinery. Often the UFOs seen on the sky are also mandala symbols.......

Jungian therapy uses techniques in which the patient is guided to a personal confrontation with the collective unconscious, with archetypes.

This confrontation aims at the assimilation of archetypal images, in short, the individuation, an extensive process that leads to the realization of a psychic totality that includes equally the conscious and the unconscious."

I believe both the philosophy of Tantra and Jung's work on the unconscious are referring to the same phenomenon.

The article by ExoticIndiaArt :- Tantra: The Art of Philosophy explains that "Tantra has developed a system of thought which makes us see the universe as if it were within ourselves, and ourselves as if we were within the universe..........the way to fulfillment is through recognition of our wholeness linking man and the universe. This hence is the broad aim of Tantra art, achieved through visual symbols and metaphors."

I believe Yantras seen in Tantric Art are also Mandalas and represent the inner states of human consciousness, Self as described by Jung. Shown in the picture above is Jung's Mandala of his inner consciouness.

I believe the purpose and practice of meditation is to help a seeker to access their inner consciousness.