The word “mandala” is commonly used to refer to the entire universe according to Buddhist cosmology, as when someone offers a mandala to request a teaching.  It is also used as the term for the celestial abode of a meditational deity, a celestial palace that manifests out of the deity’s boundless compassion and wisdom.  Images of these types of mandalas are often painted or drawn with coloured sand as a crucial element in tantric ritual.  The basic structure of a mandala is sometime preserved in the structure of large Buddhist pilgrimage sites, such as the magnificent Gyantse Kumbum in Tibet.

“When you become enlightened, you see yourself as a buddha and everything appears to you in pure form: the place as a mandala and the beings in pure forms of the deity.”

Lama Zopa Rinpoche