3-D Mandalas

There's the saying that every back yard holds a thousand wonders. Well, my backyard includes the Rubin Museum of Art in New York City and it alone holds thousands of wonders. The Rubin specializes in Tibetan and other Asian inspired art. Currently, it is host to an exhibit of Carl Jung's Red Book, the fascinating record of Jung's "waking dreams," products of what he referred to as the active imagination. Jung was particularly fascinated by mandalas, the intricate, geometric representations of a universe. Several floors above the Jung exhibit is a show dedicated to Buddhist mandalas, which are used in meditation. Most wondrous of all were the two 3d animation videos that took the viewer inside the mandala. Check out a not-so-high-quality version of one of the videos at http://www.metacafe.com/watch/774525/3d_kalachakra_mandala/

Absolutely wondrous. Although the Rubin mandala show closes today, the museum website still has an "Explore Mandala" link that allows you to click and drag geometric forms into a mandala space. The more layers you make, the more interesting it all becomes. Sort of like life.