Mandala
Method
Mandala Method and the Five Wisdoms
The Mandala Method, developed byLama Tsultrim Allione (Tara Mandala), is a contemplative approach rooted in the Five Wisdom Families. Rather than rejecting difficult emotions and patterns, it explores the wisdom hidden within them. Through visualisation, inquiry, meditation and embodied reflection, practitioners learn to transform habitual reactions into insight, compassion and a deeper sense of wholeness.
What is Mandala?
The word mandala means "circle" or "sacred whole." In Tibetan Buddhism, the mandala is a symbolic representation of reality itself: a centre surrounded by diverse expressions of life. The centre represents the ground of being—open awareness or emptiness—while the surrounding directions express the many energies, qualities and experiences that arise from pure potentiality.
Traditionally, mandalas are used as a map of perception and mirror of the psyche. In the West, psychologists such as Carl Gustav Jung recognised the mandala as a universal symbol of psychic integration and wholeness.
The Mandala Method brings these Eastern and Western perspectives together, using the mandala as a living map of consciousness and human development. It was developed on the basis of acclaimed work described by Lama Tsultrim Allione in her book: Wisdom Rising: Mandala of the Empowered Feminine.
Five Wisdoms
According to Buddhist psychology, our experience arises from a fundamental ground of awareness that is naturally open, luminous and awake. When this ground is not recognised, experience becomes filtered through habitual patterns of perception. These patterns often appear as emotional reactivity, fixed identities or recurring conflicts.
Buddhism describes five primary patterns, sometimes called the Five Poisons: Ignorance, Anger, Pride, Desire, Jealousy. The Five Wisdom Families offer a radically different view of these patterns. They are not flaws to eliminate, but distorted expressions of innate wisdom. Each family reveals a particular way awareness manifests in the world: Clarity, Equality, Discernment, etc.
Through practice, we learn to recognise both the habitual expression and the wisdom hidden within it. Gradually, emotional reactivity becomes insight and ordinary perception opens toward what Buddhism calls pure perception.
Practice Benefits
Mandala Method offers both a map and a method for inner transformation. Rather than analysing experience conceptually, the practices invite direct exploration of how patterns are formed and freed.
Benefits may include:
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A clearer map of personal perception and conditioning
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Access to subtle levels of insight beyond ordinary thinking
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Recognition of the innate wisdom hidden within difficult experiences
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Greater capacity to engage life from clarity and purpose
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Integration of psychological growth and spiritual practice
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A direct experience of wholeness that includes, rather than rejects, all aspects of oneself
Over time, practice shifts the question from "How do I get rid of this pattern?" to "What wisdom is this pattern trying to reveal?"
“Those who adopt the practices offered here, women and men alike, may indeed feel their wisdom rising and act as forces for healing in the world.”
Sharon Salzberg, author of Real Happiness and Real Love
Mandala Method: 1-on-1 Work
The Mandala Method is offered as a one-to-one process conducted in person or online via Zoom. Each journey is unique. Depending on the practitioner's needs, different practices may be emphasised and the sequence adapted.The structure below provides the general framework. Minimum 3x sessions are recommended.
Session 1 — Orientation to Mandala & Core Themes
Session 2 — Foundational Practices: Mandala Work with Art, Element Meditation, Light & Sound Practice
Session 3 — Five Buddha Mandala: peaceful, wrathful and blissful dimensions; foundational visualisation practice
Session 4 — Journey with the Buddha Visualisation
Session 5 — Life Review Meditation & Integration
"All the five practices Joanna facilitated were helpful for me. Most importantly, I gained a deeper insight into the encumbered pattern of anxiety, and the innate deeper joy underneath. I warmly recommend her as a highly competent facilitator for these practices."
-Kristian Merckoll, Zen Priest
"Rather than rejecting what is painful, confusing or challenging, the mandala provides a sacred container in which every experience becomes a doorway to wholeness."
Lama Tsultrim Allione
