Mandala Meditations 4

Here's a mandala that started out as a pencil drawing, and which I reconstructed later on the computer. The Adobe Illustrator program allowed me to achieve interesting effects with the gradient tool.

My mandalas often start out as no more than doodles, a solitary pastime as I wait for restaurant dinners to be served.

I've given a couple of workshops on mandalas and noticed that many people look at a seemingly elaborate design (like today's header) and say, "I don't know where to begin!" That's because they're seeing the whole and finished image, and not the symmetrical, repeating parts.

The making of a mandala is a process, and it's not unlike constructing a snowflake from folded paper. If you make a paper snowflake, you concentrate on a sub-unit that will be repeated, and the final result will reveal itself later (and be a surprise). Mandalas can also reveal themselves, and of course you can edit and refine your design.

One fun approach to making a mandala is to create a simple black and white line mandala and then to use it as a template for a variety of interior designs and colorations. They can all have very different personalities.

I do this often, and as you can see, the template is just a starting point for which there are countless possibilities. It can be very meditative, and it's a lot of fun!

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Mandala Meditations 3

Back when I was in college, I often doodled as I listened to lectures. (Incidentally, studies have shown that doodling while listening makes the mind more retentive.) One of my recurring doodles was the image seen above, a very basic mandala. I was intrigued that a design so simple could be such a successful 3-dimensional illusion. Can you see the areas that are concave and convex? If not, just back away from your screen several feet.

time.com

Later, as I was reading the work of the psychologist Carl Yung, I discovered that he interpreted my doodle-mandala as representing separation from parents. That got my attention because I was, in fact, producing the mandala while I was away from home for the first extended period. I started to read more about Jung and his own interest in mandalas.

jungcurrents.com

Jung himself saw the mandala as a healing tool (or an expression of healing), and he created mandalas — circular meditations — on a regular basis. His mandalas were often dream interpretations. Above is Carl Jung's first mandala.

Here are some wonderful 19th-century type ornaments. Jung believed that circles and squares, and certainly circles within squares, were symbolic of wholeness. I'm always collecting images that could be mandalas or elements within mandalas, which is why I put these handsome ornaments aside in a file.

Or how about this 1827 utopian town plan by J. B. Papworth? The town center is a classic mandala, what's called "the circle squared." Perhaps Mr. Papworth was a student of Tibetan mandalas . . .

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The Mandala of Yamantaka, above, comes from the fascinating book,

Mandala, by José and Miriam Argüelles, 1972.

Here's one of my own mandalas — I call it The Blue Light Special. If you focus on it long enough, those blue dots will become quite hypnotic!

You can read more about my mandalas and how I create them here and here. In my next posting, I'll talk about a couple of mandala exercises. Stay tuned!
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