MANDALA KALACHAKRA/LOTUS - Wheel of Time
These Mandalas consist of a Kalachakra in the center, and the support of the Lotus.
The lotus flower recalls purity, beauty, fertility, transformation and self-healing ability. In fact, in the iconography of the Buddhas and the Bodhisattva, they are depicted sitting on a throne in the shape of a lotus flower.
Kalachakra Mandala is the graphic (most detailed) and drawn representation of Mandala created with colored powders, by Tibetan Buddhist monks, during the Kalachakra initiation rite. Achieving the rite provides access to higher knowledge.
These Mandalas consist of a square base, a system with four zones/islands, and externally eight smaller islands (the wheels of the Dharma), which support the center, the seat of knowledge. The four islands represent the four elements, through which it is possible to reach the center, where is knowledge. The Earth element is black (it goes down), the Air is orange, the Fire is red and the Water is blue. This is called also “Journey of Soul”. These 4 elements has 3 levels, to represent 12 different aspects and proprieties. Soul needs to pass through these aspects to complete himself and reach the self-knowledge.
So the symbolic meaning of this design, is the representation of the systems that make up the universe, to reach the highest and deepest knowledge of the Universe system, and self-knowledge. The resulting geometry gives the depth to the Mandala, representing precisely the multiplicity of systems, one inside the other. So it is considered the "representation of the Universe".
There is a legend about this sacred geometry : Siddhartha Gautama, the Buddha, saw this design projected on the roof in a meditative phase. In that moment he had the intuition and the realization that all things are part of systems within each other, individually but at the same time, part of a larger system; he saw in a fractalic way, that everything has its function in the small, to allow something greater to exist, and so on. So this is the realization of the interdependence of things. This design is able to activate the intuition of universal dynamics, finding them in every context. The importance of this design is really high for the tradition, in fact Tibetan monasteries are conceived and built with this geometry, so seeing the Kalachakra Mandala is like observing a monastery from above.
The Mandala Kalachakra is also called the house of the Buddha or the house of knowledge.
The material is cotton canvas, and the colors are water-soluble pigments, both minerals and organic materials, tempered with a solution of grass and glue.
