MM14 Why Creating Your Own Mandala?

Why Creating Your Own Mandalas?

Yes, the question might be asked: why going through the trouble of creating mandalas by hand when you can download software that can do most of the work for you and get you some good looking mandala in a few minutes? It is like asking: why do Zen practitioners want to learn to walk very slowly?

And the general answer is: it is a question of increasing awareness. The PROCESS of constructing a mandala by hand is just as valuable as the result itself. During this process, you will learn many priceless lessons and you will undergo a TRANSFORMATION. Upon completion of your mandala, you will be a different person, you will have acquired benefits the internet mandala would not have given you.

Here are some of the benefits that hands-on mandala making provide:

1. JOY. There is a great inner joy in creating and seeing the result of your creation unfolding in front of your very eyes. Entering and exploring creativity is a source of  continuous amazement and delight: at times, we realize that our creative potential is infinite. We are always surprising ourselves by being more creative than we thought.

2. EMPOWERMENT. By creating your first mandala, you realize that you can bring into the world something unique and meaningful. Only you could create that specific mandala. This leads you to also realize that you can do anything you set yourself to do: the progressive build-up of your mandala design and then the coloring process are all steps leading to a sense of success and achievement.

3. CENTEREDNESS. By going back and forth, on the paper, between center and periphery with your eye, with your compass and with the geometries you trace, you do the same within yourself: you organize your energies, thoughts and emotions around your own center, you strengthen your sense of being the center of your own mandala.

4. SELF-INTEGRATION. Your mandala will bring together aspects of you that were not recognizing each other before. It is like putting together a puzzle: suddenly new meanings appear. In the same way, mandala making can help you to integrate parts of yourself into a larger whole: suddenly you can understand new, larger aspects of yourself.

5. SELF TRUST.  Creating a mandala has nothing to do with being a professional "artist". In fact, it is better to not be a professional anything, so you are not encumbered with rules & ideas. Anyone can create a beautiful mandala by following simple instructions. By accepting the challenge of making your own mandala, you can prove to yourself that it is okay to trust yourself AS YOU ARE.

6. GUIDANCE. In the process of making your own mandala, be attentive to the insights that float through your mind and heart. You will get understanding on an emotional intelligence level and in subtle spiritual levels. So, it's good to go slowly and listen to the various conversations that the process activates. Your mandala is a PARTNER and communicates with you.

... and many more benefits unique to you...