THE WORLD OF MIND & MANDALAS 

 from the View of The Great Perfection 

Hevajra Mandala, 15C Tibet

A Seminar with Ian Baker, Eva Natanya, and B. Alan Wallace

The symbolism and iconography of Buddhist mandalas have evolved through centuries of social transformation in India and Tibet, and their depictions of interconnected worlds resonate with contemporary psychology, physics, and cosmology. 

In this seminar, Ian Baker will explore the ways in which mandalas have developed within Buddhist cultures and yet point to dynamic truths about human existence and the nature of reality as an interdimensional whole. 

Eva Natanya will respond to his presentation from the perspective of the Guhyasamaja Tantra, The “King of Tantras,” and Alan Wallace will then expand on this theme by introducing the perspective of the Great Perfection, or Dzogchen, regarded by many as the pinnacle of Buddhist contemplative inquiry into the nature of consciousness and its role in the natural world. 

In this context, as opposed to the common view of a single universe composed of matter and energy, in which consciousness plays only a marginal role, here every sentient being is presented as manifesting at the center of his or her mandala, such that an integral totality arises relative to each sentient being in the universe, with consciousness fundamental to the whole of reality. 

The theme of mandalas, Guhyasamaja, and the Great Perfection will then be related to insights from quantum cosmology, in which the role of the observer is fundamental to understanding the processes of nature. 

Given the current destruction of the ecosphere by societies dominated by materialism, hedonism, and consumerism, we are urgently in need of a paradigm of creative engagement that integrates the deepest insights from the world’s contemplative and scientific traditions.

This seminar will seek to address this challenge, both in theory and in practice.

Times:  14.00 – 17.00 UK / 06.00 – 11.00 Pacific / 09 – 14.00 Eastern

 

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