Mandala is . . .
MANDALA ‘circle’ in Sanskrit: A circular design symbolizing the cosmos and specific to a deity.
By focusing our meditation(s) on a Mandala, or creating a Manadala after a meditation brings us a travel beyond the walls of our reality, to a new reality to other realities of calm, tranquility to other energies of cosmic awareness.
Mandala in Nature
Mandala in Nature
The “circle with a center” pattern is the basic structure of creation that is reflected from the micro to the macro in the world as we know it. It is a pattern found in nature and is seen in biology, geology, chemistry, physics and astronomy.
On our planet, living things are made of cells and each cell has a nucleus—all display circles with centers. The crystals that form ice, rocks, and mountains are made of atoms. Each atom is a mandala.
Within the Milky Way galaxy is our solar system and within our solar system, is Earth. Each is a mandala that is part of a larger mandala.
Flowers, the rings found in tree trunks and the spiraling outward and inward of a snail’s shell all reflect the primal mandala pattern. Wherever a center is found radiating outward and inward, there is wholeness--a mandala.
Max Mason, England
We did not know if Max knew what a dream was. We assumed he had dreams because everyone seems to have dreams, even if they cannot always remember them. We were curious about Maxi’s dreams, as I guess all parents are about their child’s inner life. We would ask Max about his dreams though we were never sure that it was his dreams he was telling us about.
Sometimes, when we asked him about what he had done at the child-minders, he would enthusiastically say, “Seaside!” The child-minder certainly had not taken Max there, but he very much wanted to go.
It was the same with his dreams. When he said “Puddles”, we did not know whether he had dreamt about jumping in them, or whether that was what he wanted to do next.
Max is two and half years old and sleeps for a couple of hours every afternoon. Sometimes he is slow to wake. If we have to leave earlier than usual, I have to wake him up. I do this very gently because he gets quite grumpy if he is woken quickly. Recently, I had to wake him up. I got down on the floor next to the cot, where I could see his sleeping face, and started quietly talking to him, till I saw him stirring and waking up. I stopped talking as he opened his mouth and he said, very clearly: “Zebra”. He opened his eyes and then there was a long pause. Finally, he said with real disappointment in his voice:
“Oh . . . . . where’s it gone?”
clear1@britishlibrary.net
Brigette Gajewski, Germany
brigitte.gajewski@GajewskiART.de
Mandala was completed by Crystal C. a grade seven students as a project for Humanities Fine Arts Integration at G.W. Graham Middle Secondary School, Canada. This mandala was later painted onto wood and used to decorate the chain link fencing outside the school.
