Circular, vaguely or finely symmetrical drawings that usually show a center and a periphery—such are called \u201cmandalas,\u201d a word used in India. They recognize that certain kinds of art can stimulate meditation. <\/p>\n
I began drawing mandalas when I was about 30 years old. I was influenced in 1972 by a book titled \u201cMandalas\u201d by Jose & Miriam Arg\u00fcelles<\/a>. It seemed a good way to integrate symbolism, geometry, and art. Lately I\u2019ve realized that these drawings<\/a> are vehicles for my intuition. <\/p>\n My wife Allee reminded me of this passage recently written by Swami Chidvilasananda (aka \u201cGurumayi\u201d): Allee says this is a kind of meditation form for me, and what\u2019s true is that I don\u2019t put a lot of conscious effort into them. I set them up with care, but even this is sort of intuitive, and once I get some geometric frame, I get ever more spontaneous, though it might be called inspired. I wouldn\u2019t use that term, but neither am I particularly self-conscious.<\/p>\n I do sense in the drawing a deep sensibility I have about the way things are: There is an outpouring, a blossoming, an ever-more-complex branching and inter-connecting -ness of life that I feel is subtly exhilarating, glorious, sobering, awe-some, sometimes awful\u2014but even what seems awful is, on deeper contemplation, awe-full, and not for humans to interpose judgment. Like death. Hm. Not easy to be neutral, but that\u2019s what the message is.<\/p>\n I buy that we are programmed to desire, and in the philosopher Whitehead\u2019s words, we desire to live, to live well, and to live better. There\u2019s always that gradient of what we sense as better. So these mandalas hint at a far deeper and broader effort in that same way, to be ever-more alive, and to pursue whatever value there is in ways that are ever-more inclusive and aesthetically rich.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":" Circular, vaguely or finely symmetrical drawings that usually show a center and a periphery—such are called \u201cmandalas,\u201d a word used in India. They recognize that certain kinds of art can stimulate meditation. I began drawing mandalas when I was about 30 years old. I was influenced in 1972 by a book titled \u201cMandalas\u201d by Jose […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[38,24,13],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-1412","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-art-mandalas-doodles-scripts","category-autobiographical","category-spirituality-and-philosophy"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/blatner.com\/adam\/blog\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1412"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/blatner.com\/adam\/blog\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/blatner.com\/adam\/blog\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blatner.com\/adam\/blog\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blatner.com\/adam\/blog\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=1412"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/blatner.com\/adam\/blog\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1412\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":1413,"href":"https:\/\/blatner.com\/adam\/blog\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1412\/revisions\/1413"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/blatner.com\/adam\/blog\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=1412"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blatner.com\/adam\/blog\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=1412"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blatner.com\/adam\/blog\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=1412"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}
\u201cFor eons, sages and yogis have had visions of mandalas in meditation and understood such images to represent the power of the Supreme Self. Drawings and paintings based on these mandalas have been used as tools for contemplation and meditation. Focusing one\u2019s awareness on a mandala is conducive to experiencing the divine within oneself and the entire universe.\u201d<\/p>\n