Posted by Pollavon on July 29, 2001 at 15:44:17:
In Reply to: the great idea that struck me at Village Inn posted by giveawayboy on July 20, 2001 at 17:27:51:
Hello again Bill,
We also should talk about mandalas. They have also been a love of mine. I have studied them from a Jungian perspective focusing mainly on Celtic and Tibetan Buddhist, the latter being incredibly intense and full of symbolic meaning that would take years to learn. I had the pleasure and honor of seeing the Tibetan Buddhists from the Loseling Monestary construct a sand mandala at the Oglethorpe University Museum when I was a student. To date, it remains the holiest experience of my life in the sense that it prompted complete, spontaneous, ecstatic tears of wonder and amazement in the presence of God. I also participated in the dismantling ceremony and have some of the sand which I keep with my sacred things. I also have a book of Hildegard Von Bingen's mandalas and was taught about them briefly in class. I remember screaming out "she's a witch!" very proud of the fact that a Christian nun practiced herbology, healing and the like. I sure was a rebel!
Here's some info about Jung and mandalas:
These symbols assisted Jung in helping his patients complete the individuation process of welding together the different elements of the psyche bringing an inner-feeling of wholeness and unity. He used the mandala for two reasons: to attain a direct experience with the inner center without societal influence, and to restore a lost sense of balance. The circular form of the mandala inherently provides a feeling for its viewers that "life has again found its meaning and order". Jung explains that the spheric mandala is the ultimate symbol of the completely balanced psyche, including the relationship between man and the whole of Nature. Within mandalas the orientation of the spiral axis symbolizes the permanent collective unconscious where the self retains its center even through spiritual highs and physical lows. Likewise, there are two opposing yet complementary sides of a mandala which are conservative in that they restore a previously existing order yet are creative in that they give expression and form to something that does not yet exist, something that is new and unique. Tibetan Buddhist and Celtic cultures create and meditate with mandalas.(The Essential Jung, Anthony Storr).
I'm including a link to a page on my Web site I'd love to talk with you about sometime. It was God-inspired in a moment of rapture and I look back at it from time to time and still wouldn't change it.