Distinguish mandala and mandara:

Mandala and mandara are two Sanskrit letters. Mandarava is a flower in heaven.

In Buddhism, Mandala is a bodhimanda, a spiritual gathering place of the sage and devoid of evil.

In the Japanese Taisho Sutra, there is a passage as follows: “Mandala is where the minds of the bodhisattvas reside. It is also the place the minds of the yogi settle. Knowing that, the enlightened one… The visualization of the mandala of the practitioner heals him from their confusion. It also heals the confused mind of all sentient beings and dispel all doubt. Mandala is no different from the mindset, and the mindset is no different from the Mandala. Why is that? Because the mind and mandala are one. (Quoted from Taisho 18:41) This is the deepest and strongest assertion of the meaning of mandala.