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Yantras and mandalas? (Read 1037 times)
betson
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Yantras and mandalas?
Aug 20th, 2006 at 11:37am
 
Greetings,
Do any of you who go OB or meditate alot
have any mandalas around as wall art?
I really like the designs but now that I'm
doing more afterlife activities i wonder if
a mandala would be just a decoration or
would it grab my consciousness when I didn't mean it to?
( I'm already sort of spacey.  Roll Eyes )

Any advice appreciated!  bets

Here's some pretty ones at  www.cafepress.com/sanatansociety.
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There are more things in heaven and earth, Horatio,
Than are dreamt of in your philosophy.
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dave_a_mbs
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Re: Yantras and mandalas?
Reply #1 - Aug 20th, 2006 at 5:00pm
 
I think that you're totally safe with meditative art on your walls. In fact it may be salutary.

Most yantrams and mandalas are pretty austere, as compared to a Pepsi advert, Breugal the Elder's renditions of hell, or Titian's voluptuous nudes. These have occasionally intruded on me. Conversely, the tradition of mandalas and yantrams has pretty well kept them in the category of tools. In fact the word xxx-TRAM means "a tool for xxx". A "Man-dala" translates into "Man=mind" and "dala=circular or repeating" (like the "recirculating monk", more commonly called the Dalai Lama").  So a "mantram" is actually a "mind-tool".  Looked at in this way, the effect is to prepetually act to return you to the valid parts of the experiences you have had through their use.

This reorienting effect is quite subtle, but can be useful. (As an example, when visiting the holy sites of other faiths, most of us notice that we have a reduced tendency to eat junk food, talk loudly, tell bad jokes etc. It's not that we can't, but that the urge feels incompatible, not appropriate, not in good taste, a desecration of the higher values otherwise presented.) Art of this type certainly doesn't "grab" anything. Instead, it sort of seeps into your psyche and keeps on pushing you back toward unity with the Oneness, in unconditional love, openminded awareness and exquisite joy.

So, enjoy!
Blessed be in all you do.
dave
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