The Mandala in Tibetan Buddhism by Martin Brauen - ARAS
The Mandala in Tibetan Buddhism by Martin Brauen - ARAS
The Mandala in Tibetan Buddhism by Martin Brauen - ARAS
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Difficulty of comparison<br />
Jung recognized that a mandala does not really have to be pa<strong>in</strong>ted or<br />
drawn, but can also be danced, as some of his female patients did, or executed<br />
and experienced <strong>in</strong> ritual. On the basis of an early Christian ritual described <strong>in</strong><br />
the apocryphal Acts of John (ca. third century), he exemplified the ritual circle<br />
process as a:<br />
mystical round dance that Christ arranged before his crucifixion.<br />
He ordered his disciples to take hold of each other’s hands and<br />
form a circle. He himself stood <strong>in</strong> the middle. <strong>The</strong>y moved <strong>in</strong> the<br />
circle while Christ sang the song of praise. vi<br />
What Jung wrote <strong>in</strong> his commentary on this Christian round dance could<br />
be reused almost uncut as a commentary on a Buddhist mandala round-dance:<br />
From time immemorial the circle and center has been a symbol of the<br />
div<strong>in</strong>e, illustrat<strong>in</strong>g the unity of the <strong>in</strong>carnate god: the s<strong>in</strong>gle po<strong>in</strong>t <strong>in</strong> the center<br />
and the many of the circumference. Ritual circumambulation often leans<br />
consciously on the cosmic allegory of the rotat<strong>in</strong>g night sky, the ‘round dance of<br />
the stars’, an idea still conta<strong>in</strong>ed <strong>in</strong> the old equation of the twelve Apostles with<br />
the constellations of the zodiac. . . . In every case the ceremonial round dance<br />
aims at and br<strong>in</strong>gs about the impression of the circle and center as well as the<br />
mov<strong>in</strong>g of each po<strong>in</strong>t of the circumference <strong>in</strong>to the center. Psychologically this<br />
arrangement denotes a mandala and there<strong>by</strong> a symbol of the self, on which are<br />
aligned not only the <strong>in</strong>dividual I, but at the same time many others of like m<strong>in</strong>d<br />
or l<strong>in</strong>ked dest<strong>in</strong>y. vii<br />
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