Definition
A centered ritual configuration representing a sacred domain, cosmology or organized presence of deities in Hindu and Buddhist traditions.
In the vajrayāna, a ma-sala can represent the palace of a divinity and be inscribed in an initiation. The sand ma-sala are destroyed ritually; their manufacture is not a mere leisure.
To be retained
- Name the specific tradition
- Distinguish ritual support and decorative pattern
- Respect Initiative Images
- Understanding the gesture of dissolution
Origin of the term and context
Ma的的ala means in particular "circle" or "domain" in Sanskrit. The word has literary, political and ritual uses broader than modern circular drawing.
Why does it matter?
Geometry and coloring can support attention and expression. These effects do not automatically validate tantric cosmologies and do not make any roses equivalent to a traditional ma
- Name the specific tradition
- Distinguish ritual support and decorative pattern
- Respect Initiative Images
- Understanding the gesture of dissolution
How can it be explored or practised?
- Study a public ma-ala in a reliable museum
- Read the legend of figures and directions
- Create a personal composition without assigning to a lineage
- Observe attachment to the result and let it evolve
Misconceptions and points of caution
- Some images are reserved for insiders.
- The word does not mean any circular drawing.
- A ma-ala is not a scientific map of the universe.
Perspectives from different traditions
- Vajrayāna: a awake domain used in initiation and meditation.
- Tantra Hindu: Yantra and ma--ala in separate rites.
- Contemporary art: formal inspiration, to be identified as adaptation.
To go further
- The Circle of Bliss — John Huntington and Dina Bangdel
- The Art of Buddhism — museum resources