permaculture

[David Bryce <dbryce@bigpond.net.au>]

If this seems a dumb question but I'm only just learning about permaculture.

We have started a community garden in my town and had an experienced 
community garden person come and run introductory workshops for us. He went 
through a lot of material stressing the importance of a mandala garden to a 
permaculture setup. I'd never heard the term before and did a google search 
for "Mandala". Everything it turned up was about Buddhism and Tibetan sand 
art, etc.

I have searched for mandala garden using google and have found only pictures, 
how to do it, etc. Nothing about basic philosophy. I have found some 
discussions on whether or not mandala gardens are superior to ordinary 
rectangular or any-shape gardens.

What I want to know is how much is the concept of the mandala garden tied to 
Buddhist philosophy? I do not wish to offend anyone but I am not a Buddhist 
and have no desire to be involved in anything that has that philosophy built 
in to it.

Regards - Dave in Australia