Mandala - Part 4

Second attempt of Exercise 2.

Regular readers know that one of my current project is working from a book about Mandala.  The title of the book is Mandala Luminous Symbols for Healing by Judith Cornell, PH.D.  As I blogged last week, I had difficulty getting started on the second exercise because I had a block against doing something that felt childish.  After I finally did the lesson I had a great time with it.  I decided that I should try the lesson again giving it more attention and doing the lesson in a round shape.

This time I learned something about expectations.  I started out with an expectation that I would have

First attempt.

the same type of fun experience that I had the previous time I did the exercise.  Not so much.  I learned other things, I enjoyed the experience, but it
was not the same experience I had of having my Inner Child come out to play.  I guess I was a little disappointed, but I also realized that by coming to the exercise with expectations I had set myself up for that disappointment.  I think it is important to enter into theses things with no expectations and to be open to the lessons learned.  I did learn something from doing the exercises again.

When I did the exercise this time, I felt that I concentrated more on sensing energy.  In my drawing I tried to represent what I was feeling of the flux and flow of energy.  I concentrated on feeling energy move.  I was trying to feel where energy was strong and where energy was less strong.  For a while I had thoughts about the spaces in between: those small spaces that energy must jump across to get from one space to another.  I was also trying to express that I was simultaneously part of the field and yet in some ways separated from the field.

Adding a third hand added a new dimension to things.  Two hands tended to make me think that this is just me.  A third hand, since it was also mine, made me think that there was another part of me that was participating; some inner portion of myself that had come up to take part in the endeavor.

The book had suggested an 18 inch circle.  If you did not have a large enough piece of paper it suggested using just a half sheet of black paper.  The first time I did this exercise I used a portion of a sheet of paper.  The sheet I used was barely large enough to get two hands drawn on it.  I actually had started out with a circle drawn on it, but had to choose between keeping it circular or having enough room for two hands.  This time I grabbed a platter and traced a large circle.  However, the circle was only 14 inches.   In a way I'm glad that I used the smaller diameter.  This drawing took just over three hours to complete.  I don't always have that kind of time.  It was not necessary to color in the entire circle.  That is just what I was inspired to draw.

Being inspired may not be the only driving force behind my drawing.  About two-thirds of the way through the drawing I was wondering what had possessed me to take on such a detailed picture.  At that point I realized that my enthusiasm for the second drawing was not just inspired by making a picture of my hands.  I realized that during the guided meditation a suggestion had been made that I would feel free to visit that exercise again and again.  And here I was, gleefully plunging into the same exercise a second time.  I should know better.  I have learned a great deal about Neuro-Linguistic Programming.  I thought I should bring this up in case any readers should purchase the book and suddenly find themselves unexpectedly deciding to make numerous aboriginal style hand paintings.  There appear to be post-hypnotic suggestions embedded in the meditation.  They are more effective when listened to on the CD than just reading them.  It is worthwhile to read the exercise through before listening to the CD and decide if there are suggestions that you might want to cancel out.

Anyway, enough on that for now.  Next blog post will be on my walking stick project.  It is still raining.