Making Your Own Mandala
Mandala is a Tibetan word for wheel and in the physical
art form represents the circle of a belief, an awareness,
an innermost, expression from the heart. A mandala can
guide one toward self-realization and introspective self-therapy
beyond any other art form. It becomes a self-teacher,
offering messages and enlightenment. Creating a
mandala allows artists to get in touch with their own
mysteries, their own deep beliefs. The art comes from
the personal and realizes the transpersonal, a tremendously
powerful exercise.
Ancient Buddhism shows us mandalas made of sand, which
is still a popular material today, representing mandala
art in many Buddhist communities. Sand mandalas are used
to teach that time itself is impermanent; the present
moment is very delicate, very beautiful; we must capture
it right now. I have seen many sand mandalas in Buddhist
temples in various parts of Nepal, Bhutan and Thailand.
They capture an essence of fragility, the virtue of time,
while telling a story of paradigms and continuity.
In Tibetan culture everything has meaning, everything
has great value. Words like synchronicity and coincidence
do not exist there. Adjectives are collective; there are
no personal pronouns. The mandala reveals a participation
within the artist of his personal awakenng, feelings,
transformation. Mandalas are created as a visual transformation
of beliefs, and for no other reason.
The Dalai Lama recognized a world that was in great need
of healing when, in the late 1980s, he revealed to the
world many sacred Buddhist mandalas that had previously
been viewed only by traditional practitioners. The mandalas
as an art form then became a popular subject of lectures
in colleges, museums and study groups.
These ancient works, which had been hidden for thousands
of years, once exposed in the West inspired many artists
and therapists to begin creating mandalas to develop renewed
attentiveness.
Paul Heussennstamm was a graduate of a well-known art
school and a successful fashion designer, partnering in
business relationships that sustained him very well. He
made the "mistake" of going to pick up his children
from an art program they were taking on Thursdays; his
wife at that time normally performed this duty, but on
this
particular day it was his turn. He says that he walked
into this room of children painting, the smells and colors
just "blew him away," and he asked the teacher
if he could join his children in painting every Thursday.
He insists, "I didn't find art; art found me."
He began to get excited about some of the things he had
loved as a child,
added Thursdays to his weekly itinerary away from his
"real job," and for over ten years now has been
painting full time. There is a year wait on his commission
list.
"A mandala is a wonderful practice for taking people
away from their own self-control, which is the enemy of
creative art. I can do this, I can't do that, I'm not
talented. It is mind thinking, and the mandala is just
heaven to get away from that place and into your own unconscious
because you are constantly going around in a circle, so
it's a wonderful practice of getting people out of themselves."
Paul made these profound comments before he explained
how anyone can make his or her own mandala.
Paul starts his mandala workshops by emphasizing the importance
of ritual. Meditation, yoga, anything that can open his
students to self-realization is encouraged. Paul says,
"One of the things they don't teach in college is
ritual and all of the good artists I know have rituals."
Many times he guides students into ritual by playing very
loud music - rock and roll, chanting, whatever - leading
to an aroused, focused, concentrated effort to be reflective.
The next step required, after ritual, is to make a list
that expresses your core values. This is a visual list,
not a written list. Even if you are capable of drawing
only stick figures at first, do that. Once the list of
symbols important to your "wheel of life" is
complete, your next step is to do a rough sketch. This
is accomplished without
concentrating at all on the physicality of what you are
doing. There is no right or wrong as you sketch a mandala
without any self-control.
Your sketch complete, you might start thinking about your
specific symbols in a circular pattern. Many people have
great difficulty finding the center of a piece of paper.
I was astounded to make this discovery in several community
college courses I taught years ago, and Paul shared his
bewilderment with this consistent occurrence in his workshops.
Next you create the diagonals while paying attention to
the radius and the concept of the integration of the male
and the female, the yin and the yang. The circle represents
your female side, while the square, identified by the
diagonals, represents the male. We each have feminine
and masculine qualities no matter what our gender. Next
we begin to perceive the vertical axis of the mandala,
the male, and the horizontal, representing the female.
The symbol in the very center of your final mandala sketch
should be of that which is closest to your heart. Things
that are extraneous can be placed at the farthermost area
outside of the circle, emanating from the nucleus. Significance
should be placed on the symbols representing male and
female thinking within the vertical and horizontal elements
of the composition. Geometry naturally begins to take
form and function within this final sketch as you develop
the significance of your composition.
Choosing color and beginning the final painting of your
mandala happens after you transfer your sketch to canvas,
masonite or whichever substitute you have selected for
the final version. It is important while choosing color
that you stay focused on opening your heart instead of
your mind. The natural discipline of the mandala, forming
a circle that you build from, allows you to escape in
timelessness, taking you to a new realm of creativity.
Let the colors pick you. It will lead you to places where
you have never been but now can go naturally. It is best
in the beginning to do a mandala with a group so that
you maintain the quality of not thinking too hard.
Music, the outdoors, anything that creates an environment
of free-spiritedness enhances mandala art.
Mandala art can widen our perspectives and throws out
many old opinions of the self. Everyone can become a mandala
artist when they find a place insde of them that is expressive.
Paul analogizes doing mandalas to having a TV with a hundred
different channels; the mandala is the same thing. Go
to your own heart and open up the
channels. The mandala teaching helps us to understand
that there is nothing new to really learn about the creative
process itself, but is raises a question: How can we tap
into it? It is not necessarily about talent but about
being present and aware. It exposes what we already know
but have put away because of mislearnings, constraints
we place on ourselves or perceptions we own for whatever
reasons.
Being provoked, intentionally, to introspect, results
in a very positive outcome for the mandala painter. Expecting
the unexpected - tranformation - has resulted in 100 percent
success for Paul's students. In the history of Paul's
workshops no one - not even students who have never held
a paintbrush in their hands - has failed to complete a
beautiful mandala.
The art of mandala painting is a stepping stone to many
discoveries about yourself. The only way to achieve creative
utopia is to accept every semblance of our artistic selves
without judgment, no rights, no wrongs. A mandala can
be a visual reminder to us in our hurried worlds that
timelessness does exist if we make a place for it.
Creativity is there if we are open to being aware of it.
Utopia is ours for the creating!