Andreas Hoenigschmid, 31, builds a Sand Mandala  at Santa Monica beach during high tide on Thursday, February 11, 2010. Mandala's are a concentric diagram having spiritual and ritual significance. In various spiritual traditions, mandalas may be employed for focusing attention of aspirants and adepts, as a spiritual teaching tool, for establishing a sacred space, and as an aid to meditation and trance induction. In common use, 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.

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