Traditional Sand Mandala - by Geoff Fitzpatrick
My Journey with Mandalas
've always liked the notion that the world we experience 'outside' is completely interconnected to the state of consciousness we have cultivated 'inside'.
But a while ago I hit a stumbling block. Even though I fully believed in this concept, it was still just a theory for me. I longed to know how exactly do we raise our consciousness in an age where there are literally thousands of meditation
techniques and belief systems to choose from? - I found the whole area baffling.
Then I stumbled upon Mandalas and in all sincerity my life has never been the same since. From the moment I began constructing these geometric shapes an opening occurred. I began to experience firsthand a new depth to my life.
In their traditional form mandalas are best known as Buddhist icons whose primary function is to transform our ordinary perception of reality into a pure perception of the Buddha nature which permeates all of existence. My confidence has been enhanced
through discovering that this art-form I stumbled upon not only dates back into ancient history, But there are rich writings explaining how Buddhist adepts used mandalas not merely as an aid for meditation but as a gateway through to the realm of the Gods.
As I created more and more mandalas and meditated upon them I uncovered a wealth of rich inner experiences. Night after night I would create these sacred circles often opening to beautiful spaces of bliss and rapture and enjoying insights into
the structure of the cosmos for example. But equally as often I would open to some deeply personal issue that was affecting my life. Sometimes the experience felt as if it was guiding me back to the origin of such an issue.
It was at this stage I started looking for a map or a framework of meaning that I could integrate into my explorations with mandalas. Through a nice combination of serendipity and coincidence I found just that map in Transpersonal Psychology.
Finally I came across a model of the psyche that not only acknowledged the presence of enhanced states of consciousness but promoted accessing them for healing and growth.
Transpersonal psychology at its core is a model of the human psyche that goes beyond the ego-level. It asserts that you and I are more than ‘name and form’ and deems the spiritual nature of humanity not only valid but essential for psychic health. It
is a discipline that grew out of the divide between Freudian psychoanalysis and Jungian Analytical psychology during the 1960’s. Nowadays Transpersonal Psychology is a wheel with many spokes. Dr. Stanislav Grof is amongst the most well known founders and having studied his work over the last seven years I have come to regard the map of consciousness put forward by him as the most helpful tool for my work with mandalas. Embedded in Grof’s cartography of the psyche are three broad categories of
inner experience. This allowed me to understand the landscape of the psyche in a new and empowered way.
Above all the single most valuable component of Transpersonal Psychology in my experience has been the concept that we all have within us an ‘inner healing wisdom’. Take the example of cutting your finger, at first the skin will become punctured,
blood will flow out, harden become a scab and in time; fall off, allowing the skin to repair itself and return to its original form. It returns to wholeness. Now it is not too big a leap of faith to extend this concept to the human psyche. Just like our skin our fragile psyches can become cut, ruptured or fractured. Well in the view of Transpersonal Psychology our psyches are endowed with an inner healing mechanism just like our bodies are. The psyche continually tries to move us towards
wholeness. However its job is greatly hampered by an absence of the time or space needed for healing.
The way we live today is so fast, so full of one task after another that we remain trapped for the most part in one state of consciousness. This rapid pace of living is a hindrance to the states of awareness that are most conducive for allowing this
inner healing wisdom become active.
Mandalas represent a sacred enclosure, a safe space that puts the white water of the mind aside. These geometric shapes are encoded with rich information and are alluring symbols that attract the contents of our unconscious up into the light of our
awareness. This is the process through this inner healing mechanism works.
