Mandala is a Sanskrit word that means "circle". In various spiritual traditions, mandalas are used for focusing attention, as a spiritual teaching tool, for establishing a sacred space, and as an aid to meditation. The psychoanalyst Carl Jung saw the mandala as "a representation of the unconscious self," and believed his paintings of mandalas enabled him to identify emotional disorders and work towards wholeness in personality. In common use, the 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. (adapted from Wikipedia).