What is a Mandala?

The most basic definition of a mandala is “circle.” Mandala is a Sanskrit word that literally translates to “circle”.

Ok, then why don’t I just teach people how to draw circles? LOL!

Upon further research, I found that in Sanskrit, manda = “essence” and la = “container.”

Essence container. Now we’re talking.

A mandala is a circular, essence container.

Many people have heard of the sand mandalas created by Buddhist monks. These beautiful mandalas are meticulously created with grains of colored sand. Once complete, they are deconstructed and transported and released into a close body of water. Read more>>

Quotes on Mandalas

The mandala is a simple but extremely powerful symbol of creativity, expansion and life, a circle in a square (that you get all creative with)

— Kathy Rausch, Activate Divine Creativity, The Life-Changing Magic of the Mandala

If you have any trepidation about the mandala, realize that every flower is a mandala and a perfect representation of the miracle that YOU are.

— Kathy Rausch, Activate Divine Creativity, The Life-Changing Magic of the Mandala

A mandala is simply a circle which contains symbols, and in most art is enclosed in a square. In Sansrkit, mandala means “container of sacred essence”

— Kathy Rausch, Activate Divine Creativity, The Life-Changing Magic of the Mandala

There are no rules or limitations to what a mandala is about.

— Kathy Rausch, Activate Divine Creativity, The Life-Changing Magic of the Mandala

Creating mandalas opened up my creative energy and helped me grow out of a deep depression to a fulfilling, happy and healthy life.

— Kathy Rausch, Activate Divine Creativity, The Life-Changing Magic of the Mandala

“Most mandalas have an intuitive, irrational character and, through their symbolical content, exert a retroactive influence on the unconscious. They therefore possess a “magical” significance, like icons, whose possible efficacy was never consciously felt by the patient.”

— Carl Yung, Mandala Symbolism

Each person’s life is like a mandala – a vast, limitless circle. We stand in the center of our own circle, and everything we see, hear and think forms the mandala of our life.

— Pema Chödrön

Making a mandala is a universal activity, a self-integrating ritual.

— Jose Arguelles

The mandala is a map for spiritual transformation.

— Tsultrim Allione

Sometimes ‘mandala’ is translated as ‘essence container’, a phrase that hints at its psychological and mystical meanings.

— Madonna Gauding

“In spite of some things that are not to our liking here on earth, we cannot deny that there is a mathematical harmony in the universe.”

— Yogananda, Paramahansa, Journey to Self-Realization

A mandala is…an integrated structure organized around a unifying center.

— Dzogchen Ponlop Rinpoche

Sometimes ‘mandala’ is translated as ‘essence container’, a phrase that hints at its psychological and mystical meanings.

— Lori Bailey Cunningham

The mandala is a map for spiritual transformation.

— Tsultrim Allione

We experience the seamless, unimpeded flow of everything that arises and dissolves within the reality-sphere that is the mandala of our own existence. Nothing is out of place; everything gives unique expression to an infinite network of conditions that are implicated in every manifestation from the most miniscule to the most cosmic, from the most insignificant to the most magnificent.

— Peter Fenner

Awareness of the mandala may have the potential of changing how we see ourselves, our planet, and perhaps even our own life purpose.

— Bailey Cunningham

Everything that shows up in your mandala is a vehicle for your awakening. From this point of view awakening is right at your fingertips continually.

— Pema Chödrön

Creativity: The Magic Elixer of Life.

I cringe when someone tells me, “I don’t have a creative bone in my body.

If you weren’t creative, you would have no bones… you’d be dead.

This is the truth. Plain and simple.

Your body needs creativity to function. 

No, I’m not saying you are somehow magically doing an oil painting you’re not aware of.

I’m stating the fact that your body is constantly creating, every day, 24/7, 100% of the time.  Read more >>

Quotes on Creativity

Creativity is a highfalutin word for the work I have to do between now and Tuesday.

— Ray Kroc

Everybody born comes from the Creator trailing wisps of glory. We come from the Creator with creativity. I think that each one of us is born with creativity.

— Maya Angelou

I cringe when someone tells me “I don’t have a creative bone in my body.” If you weren’t creative, you would have no bones… you’d be dead.

— Kathy Rausch

Do whatever brings you to life, then. Follow your own fascinations, obsessions, and compulsions. Trust them. Create whatever causes a revolution in your heart.

— Elizabeth Gilbert, Big Magic: Creative Living Beyond Fear

The universe buries strange jewels deep within us all, and then stands back to see if we can find them.

— Elizabeth Gilbert, Big Magic: Creative Living Beyond Fear

Be the weirdo who dares to enjoy.

— Elizabeth Gilbert, Big Magic: Creative Living Beyond Fear

You can measure your worth by your dedication to your path, not by your successes or failures.

— Elizabeth Gilbert, Big Magic: Creative Living Beyond Fear

So this, I believe, is the central question upon which all creative living hinges: Do you have the courage to bring forth the treasures that are hidden within you?

— Elizabeth Gilbert, Big Magic: Creative Living Beyond Fear

A creative life is an amplified life. It’s a bigger life, a happier life, an expanded life, and a hell of a lot more interesting life. Living in this manner—continually and stubbornly bringing forth the jewels that are hidden within you—is a fine art, in and of itself.

— Elizabeth Gilbert, Big Magic: Creative Living Beyond Fear

Anyhow, the older I get, the less impressed I become with originality. These days, I’m far more moved by authenticity. Attempts at originality can often feel forced and precious, but authenticity has quiet resonance that never fails to stir me.

— Elizabeth Gilbert, Big Magic: Creative Living Beyond Fear

Done is better than good.

— Elizabeth Gilbert, Big Magic: Creative Living Beyond Fear

If you’re alive, you’re a creative person.

— Elizabeth Gilbert, Big Magic: Creative Living Beyond Fear

We express our individuality from the inside out.

— Kathy Rausch, Activate Divine Creativity, The Life-Changing Magic of the Mandala

Children naturally grab what’s in their environment and run with it! They do what the like with no thought of what others will think of it.

— Kathy Rausch, Activate Divine Creativity, The Life-Changing Magic of the Mandala

Expression begins immediately at birth with the simple act of crying,

— Kathy Rausch, Activate Divine Creativity, The Life-Changing Magic of the Mandala

Creating a mandala allows you to express with abandon. No kidding.

— Kathy Rausch, Activate Divine Creativity, The Life-Changing Magic of the Mandala

The mandala is a simple but extremely powerful symbol of creativity, expansion and life, a circle in a square (that you get all creative with)

— Kathy Rausch, Activate Divine Creativity, The Life-Changing Magic of the Mandala

Your inherent creativity needs to expand. If you’re not creating you’re dying, It’s that simple.

— Kathy Rausch, Activate Divine Creativity, The Life-Changing Magic of the Mandala

Creation is freaking amazing, and I am part of it!

— Kathy Rausch, Activate Divine Creativity, The Life-Changing Magic of the Mandala

IF YOU ARE ALIVE, YOU ARE CREATIVE.

— Kathy Rausch, Activate Divine Creativity, The Life-Changing Magic of the Mandala

There is no truth to the statement “I don’t have a creative bone in my body.” If you think that then the jokes on you — you wouldn’t HAVE a bone in your body, you wouldn’t HAVE A BODY.

— Kathy Rausch, Activate Divine Creativity, The Life-Changing Magic of the Mandala

EVERY LIVING BEING and every “thing” began with an elegant act of creation.

— Kathy Rausch, Activate Divine Creativity, The Life-Changing Magic of the Mandala

Creation is freaking amazing, and you are part of it! Every day. Every moment. Every thought. Every breath. Every interaction.

— Kathy Rausch, Activate Divine Creativity, The Life-Changing Magic of the Mandala

Sadly, many people think that if they can’t pick up a paintbrush and paint a masterpiece, they’re not creative. We don’t appreciate how simply being live requires creativity.

— Kathy Rausch, Activate Divine Creativity, The Life-Changing Magic of the Mandala – 2015

…creative entitlement simply means believing that you are allowed to be here, and that—merely by being here—you are allowed to have a voice and a vision of your own.

— Elizabeth Gilbert, Big Magic: Creative Living Beyond Fear

…there is no stopping the creative force that is within each and every one of us No stopping it. It is yearning to be expressed.

— Kathy Rausch, Activate Divine Creativity, The Life-Changing Magic of the Mandala

I fear we’ve lost our ability and drive to be spontaneously creative. We don’t have to be. We can sit around on our asses all day if we choose.

— Kathy Rausch, Activate Divine Creativity, The Life-Changing Magic of the Mandala

Your creativity is like a muscle, the more you use it the stronger it becomes.

— Brian Tracy, Book: Change Agents

You can actually become more creative by changing your mind-set. Anyone can innovate, if they choose to. Disruptive innovators do it by choice, not chance. Their everyday actions swap out an “I’m not creative” mind-set for an “I am creative” one. And then magical (not mystical) things unfold.

Expression is endless and unavoidable.

— Kathy Rausch, Activate Divine Creativity, The Life-Changing Magic of the Mandala

Let my soul smile through my heart and my heart smile through my eyes, that I may scatter rich smiles in sad hearts.

— Paramahansa Yogananda