About Mandalas Mandala is a Sanskrit word that means "circle". In the Buddhist and Hindu religious traditions their sacred art often takes a mandala form. The basic form of most Hindu and Buddhist mandalas is a square with four gates containing a circle with a center point. Each gate is in the shape of a T. These mandalas, concentric diagrams, have spiritual and ritual significance in both Buddhism and Hinduism. The term is of Hindu origin, but is also used in Buddhism. In the Tibetan branch of Vajrayana Buddhism, mandalas have been developed into sandpainting. In various spiritual traditions, mandalas may be employed for focusing attention of aspirants and adepts, as a spiritual teaching tool, for establishing a sacred space, and as an aid to meditation and trance induction. Its symbolic nature can help one to access progressively deeper levels of the unconscious, ultimately assisting the meditator to experience a mystical sense of oneness with the ultimate unity from which the cosmos in all its manifold forms arises The psychoanalyst Carl-Gustav Jung saw the mandala as "a representation of the unconscious self" . In common use, mandala has become a generic term for any plan, chart or geometric pattern that represents the cosmos metaphysically or symbolically, a microcosm of the Universe from the human perspective. The Kalachakra is a Sanskrit term used in Tantric Buddhism that literally means "time-wheel" or "time-cycles". The Kalachakra tradition revolves around the concept of time (kala) and cycles (chakra): from the cycles of the planets, to the cycles of human breathing, it teaches the practice of working with the most subtle energies within one's body on the path to enlightenment. The present Dalai Lama has given thirty Kalachakra initiations all over the world, and is the most prominent Kalachakra lineage holder alive today. Billed as the "Kalachakra for World Peace," they draw tens of thousands of people. Generally, it is unusual for tantric initiations to be given to large public assemblages, but the Kalachakra has always been an exception. The Dalai Lama and others have stated that the public exposition of this tantra is necessary in the current degenerate age. The Kalachakra sand mandala is dedicated to both individual and world peace and physical balance. The Dalai Lama explained that "It is a way of planting a seed, and the seed will have karmic effect. One doesn't need to be present at the Kalachakra ceremony in order to receive its benefits."