I first mentioned the mandala in 1929 in The Secret of the Golden Flower. For at least thirteen years I kept quiet about the results of these methods in order to avoid any suggestion. I wanted to assure myself that these thingsmandalas especiallyreally are produced spontaneously and were not suggested to the patient by my own fantasy. I was then able to convince myself, through my own studies, that mandalas were drawn, painted, carved in stone, and built, at all times and in all parts of the world, long before my patients discovered them:
I have also seen to my satisfaction that mandalas are dreamt and drawn by patients who were being treated by psychotherapists whom I had not trained. In view of the importance and significance of the mandala symbol, special precautions seemed to be necessary, seeing that this motif is one of the best examples of the universal operation of an archetype
CW9.1 ¶ 623The Sanskrit word mandala means circle. It is the Indian term for the circles drawn in religious rituals:
CW9.1 ¶ 629In the great temple of Madura, in southern India, I saw how a picture of this kind was made. It was drawn by a woman on the floor of the mandapam (porch), in coloured chalks, and measured about ten feet across. A pandit who accompanied me said in reply to my questions that he could give me no information about it. Only the women who drew such pictures knew what they meant. The woman herself was non-committal; she evidently did not want to be disturbed in her work
CW9.1 ¶ 629MANDALAS IN TIBETAN BUDDHISM
Elaborate mandalas, executed in red chalk, can also be found on the whitewashed walls of many huts. The best and most significant mandalas are found in the sphere of Tibetan Buddhism. I shall use as an example a Tibetan mandala, to which my attention was drawn by Richard Wilhelm
CW9.1 ¶ 629THUMBNAIL
Mandala as a yantra
The diamond thunderbolt, the Dorje, standing in the centre
A mandala of this sort is known in ritual usage as a yantra, an instrument of contemplation. It is meant to aid concentration by narrowing down the psychic field of vision and restricting it to the centre
CW9.1 ¶ 630Usually the mandala contains three circles, painted in black or dark blue. They are meant to shut out the outside and hold the inside together. Almost regularly the outer rim consists of fire, the fire of concupiscentia, `desire,' from which proceed the torments of hell. The horrors of the burial ground are generally depicted on the outer rim
CW9.1 ¶ 630PADMA or `LOTUS FLOWER'
Inside this is a garland of lotus leaves, characterizing the whole mandala as a padma, `lotus-flower'
CW9.1 ¶ 630MONASTERY COURTYARD
WITH FOUR GATES
Then comes a kind of monastery courtyard with four gates. It signifies sacred seclusion and concentration
CW9.1 ¶ 630Inside this courtyard there are as a rule the four basic colours, red, green, white, and yellow, which represent the four directions and also the psychic functions, as the Tibetan Book of the Dead shows
CW9.1 ¶ 630CENTER AS GOAL OF CONTEMPLATION
Then, usually marked off by another magic circle, comes the centre as the essential object or goal of contemplation
CW9.1 ¶ 630This centre is treated in very different ways, depending on the requirements of the ritual, the grade of initiation of the contemplator, and the sect he belongs to. As a rule it shows Shiva in his world-creating emanations. Shiva, according to Tantric doctrine, is the One Existent, the Timeless in its perfect state
CW9.1 ¶ 631CREATION BEGINS WITH THE
UNEXTENDED POINT
Creation begins when this unextended pointknown as Shiva-bindu (fig. ^) appears in the eternal embrace of its feminine side, the Shakti. It then emerges from the state of being-in-itself and attains the state of being-for-itself, if I may use the Hegelian terminology
CW9.1 ¶ 631In Kundalini yoga symbolism, Shakti is represented as a snake wound three and a half times round the lingam, which is Shiva in the form of a phallus. This image shows the possibility of manifestation in space
CW9.1 ¶ 632From Shakti comes Maya, the building material of all individual things; she is, in consequence, the creatrix of the real world. This is thought of as illusion, as being and not-being. It is, and yet remains dissolved in Shiva
CW9.1 ¶ 632CREATION BEGINS WITH AN
ACT OF DIVISION OF OPPOSITES
Creation therefore begins with an act of division of the opposites that are united in the deity. From their splitting arises, in a gigantic explosion of energy, the multiplicity of the world
CW9.1 ¶ 632The goal of contemplating the processes depicted in the mandala is that the yogi shall become inwardly aware of the deity. Through contemplation, he recognizes himself as God again, and thus returns from the illusion of individual existence into the universal totality of the divine state
CW9.1 ¶ 633SQUARING OF THE CIRCLE
As I have said, mandala means `circle.' There are innumerable variants of the motif shown here, but they are all based on the squaring of a circle. Their basic motif is the premonition of a centre of personality, a kind of central point within the psyche, to which everything is related, by which everything is arranged, and which is itself a source of energy. The energy of the central point is manifested in the almost irresistible compulsion and urge to become what one is, just as every organism is driven to assume the form that is characteristic of its nature, no matter what the circumstances
CW9.1 ¶ 634This centre is not felt or thought of as the ego but, if one may so express it, as the Self. Although the centre is represented by an innermost point, it is surrounded by a periphery containing everything that belongs to the Selfthe paired opposites that make up the total personality
CW9.1 ¶ 634This totality comprises consciousness first of all, then the personal unconscious, and finally an indefinitely large segment of the collective unconscious whose archetypes are common to all mankind
CW9.1 ¶ 634A certain number of these, however, are permanently or temporarily included within the scope of the personality and, through this contact, acquire an individual stamp as the shadow, anima, and animus, to mention only the best-known figures. The Self, though on the one hand simple, is on the other hand an extremely composite thing, a “conglomerate soul,” to use the Indian expression
CW9.1 ¶ 634DORJE AS THE DIAMOND
THUNDERBOLT IN THE CENTER
The diamond thunderbolt, the dorje in the centre, symbolizes the perfect state where masculine and feminine are united. The world of illusions has finally vanished. All energy has gathered together in the initial state
CW9.1 ¶ 636FOUR DORJES IN THE
GATES OF THE INNER COURTYARD
The four dorjes in the gates of the inner courtyard are meant to indicate that life's energy is streaming inwards; it has detached itself from objects and now returns to the centre. When the perfect union of all energies in the four aspects of wholeness is attained, there arises a static state subject to no more change. In Chinese alchemy this state is called the “Diamond Body,” corresponding to the corpus incorruptible of medieval alchemy, which is identical with the corpus glorificationis of Christian tradition, the incorruptible body of resurrection
CW9.1 ¶ 637MANDALA SHOWS UNION
OF ALL OPPOSITES
This mandala shows, then, the union of all opposites, and is embedded between yang and yin, heaven and earth; the state of everlasting balance and immutable duration
CW9.1 ¶ 637For our more modest psychological purposes [in discussing mandala symbolism] we must abandon the colourful metaphysical language of the East. What yoga aims at in this exercise is undoubtedly a psychic change in the adept
CW9.1 ¶ 638The ego is the expression of individual existence. The yogin exchanges his ego for Shiva or the Buddha; in this way he induces a shifting of the psychological centre of personality from the personal ego to the impersonal non-ego, which is now experienced as the real “Ground” of the personality
CW9.1 ¶ 638