The Living Mandala

One night, as I was trying to go to sleep, I suddenly found myself in the middle of the most wonderful visualization.  I was viewing myself simultaneously from a 3^rd person vantage point as well as from my normal perspective.  But instead of seeing the  body of flesh that I have come to recognize as me, I was instead all of these intertwining ribbons and rivers of light, in various shades of rose and coral and gold and white, in a kind of  “Alex Grey” stylized composition (for those of you who are familiar with that artist). It was quite unexpected, and it was beautiful…….I could see that these different colors of light corresponded with different manifested areas of my normal body of flesh, for example, different organs or systems seemed to be certain colors, but these colors weren’t really fixed, they shifted and changed.  And there were also other things that were manifested as a part of me in this wonderful body of light – things that I don’t normally associated with my body of flesh.   But I could see them there, in that moment.

And it was amazing, and I sat there looking at myself in wonder, completely amazed at how beautiful, what a genuine work of ART  the human body truly is, I was just blown away by  what glorious beings we truly are, and wondered how we manage to walk around all day, day after day, completely unaware of this.  And as I am marveling at all of this, I suddenly become aware that this beautiful body of light was standing in the middle of something.  There were all these different shapes around me, all created out of similar bands of light, subtly flexing and changing.  And then I noticed that it seemed that these shapes were what they were because of the removal of what I’ll have to call ‘the floor’, for lack of a better word.  Where portions had been pulled away, or etched, or carved away, light poured through and created these 3D images that seemed to rise, and surround me.   And I knew that it was my hand that had manipulated and removed these sections of this flooring, and allowed the light to spill upward and become these things.  And I stood there wondering “what IS all this?” And no more did the question come forward than the answer appeared - I suddenly realized I was standing inside a 3 dimensional Mandala.  But instead of the flat images I had seen before in books, this was a holographic, 3d Mandala.

I hope I do not offend anyone, but I have to stop here for a moment and say this was verrry curious for me because I’ve never given much thought to Mandalas.  I realize they’ve been included in bits of video that I’ve used in MY videos, but truly, the closest I’ve ever come to contemplating mandalas was in my daughter’s movie “The Last Mimsy”. 

So, why haven’t I?  well, it’s not anything against mandalas at all, but the reason I haven’t is something I’d like to stop and bring into your awareness.  Because, no, I don’t contemplate mandalas. And I don’t use crystals, or read palms, or use Tarrot cards, or numerology, or astrology, or fractal geometry, and I don’t try to channel other entities. I don’t directly employ any methods, but not because there is necessarily anything wrong with them.  In fact, they’re all pretty-much the very same thing:

They are all simply tools that we use for ONE REASON: We use them to give ourselves permission to access glimpses of the Truth that we do not believe we can access otherwise. Can you see this?  So, if you use one, remember that it’s not the method you choose to employ that’s important…..  What is important is that when you try and use them, you are saying in a very direct way “I want to know this”.   You are seeking the “Ask and Receive” through these methods. And so you will receive, according to your belief.  How accurate you are will be determined by how much your filters remove or taint what you receive.  But that’s all these methods are…..They’re just tools, or in another word, placebos. 

And  I have chosen to not rely on any particular method, and for one main reason:  Whatever I choose, becomes my expected and defined delivery system.  And if I believe that “this way the way I access this information”, my belief structure shifts to thinking that THIS is the only way I can uncover what am seeking, and I accidentally put this thought on my bottom shelf. And because of the power of my belief in this limiting thought, the limiting thought begins to become my reality.  It becomes true and remains true for me, until I remove those limitations, and this is not my personal preference.

However, I have to say this: Sometimes our personal filters are much much greater than the filters that these methods employ. So when we use them and give ourselves to them, and if we lose ourselves in them, we can sometimes actually see more clearly than otherwise, especially in cases where we are unaware that we even possess personal filters that flavor all we try to understand.  But in reality, they are, without exception, just smoke and mirrors, parlor tricks we are pulling on ourselves.  And we are now coming into an age where if we choose to continue to use these methods, we might want to at least begin to realize what it is that we are using. 

We should begin to find it harder and harder to believe that some ‘anonymous Santa Claus’ is leaving these gifts for us under our tree while we sleep.  We should begin to suspect the true bearer of these gifts of insight, because the true bearer, is Us.  And this is the path I have taken and what I have tried to do because I do see this, and I like the Truth to be as pure as it possibly can be.  So, instead of believing in and using any particular method, I instead believe that the Truth will come to me by the best way possible. This is my belief.  And so it does.  But I never know how it will appear….I just let it surprise me, and leak into my awareness by whatever means it finds.  Like it did in my holographic, living Mandela vision. 

Now, the very next morning after seeing this vision, I went on one of my meditative walks.  I find these walks very useful, because they allow me to give my body something to do by walking up and down my long driveway, while I just let my thoughts wander and watch them like a puppy, romping about.  Sometimes if I have something in particular that I want to know, I will consciously think upon it briefly as I begin my walk, and then I drop it, and simply observe my mind romping about .  Well, usually it romps.  Sometimes it seems to nap.  And other times it quickly dashes out of sight right away, eventually returning from God-knows-where with the most remarkable things, and lays them at my feet.  And this morning, that’s exactly what happened.  I stopped dead in my track, and my mouth dropped open in surprise….

Please, join me in part 2 to for the rest of The Living Mandala.

Welcome back to part 2 of The Living Mandala. 

So, I had stopped dead in my tracks, unable to move as the understanding suddenly unfolded in me: I suddenly understood what the vision the night before was trying to point out - that THIS, everything I was looking at, every blade of grass, every cloud in the sky, everything was this living holographic Mandala.  And I had created it, and I moved within it.  I saw that we are living in these Mandalas of our own creation.  Everything around me WAS my expression, they were my symbols, my manifestations, my creations, rising up and existing because I declared, consciously or unconsciously, that they would exist.  We have released into our world everything we encounter.

This world around me – it’s my Living Mandela.  Your world surrounding you is YOUR living Mandala, created by your own hand as surely as I created mine.  And together, collectively, our mandalas  compose yet a larger mandala of the world, like cells that join together and form the physical body of flesh, each cell,  alive and existing in its own right, it’s own existence, yet joined with the whole.  Can you see this?

This….your world….is your mandala.  Design it however you wish, for it is a direct expression of who you are.  And while you’re at it, you’d better make friends with your body if you have not done so already because  your body is not just an illusion, it is your expression, your creation.  Your body is your most intimate mandela.  Sometimes different schools of thought have mistakenly instructed that we are to distance ourselves from our physical bodies, thinking they are merely illusional, or even worse, detrimental to our awakening, but this is not true. This is NOT true.  Our bodies are the most intimate and creative expression of ourselves a we understand us right now.  So it is no wonder that we instinctively use this most intimate expression of ourselves, to express ourselves most intimately with each other. Our bodies are like our art projects.  They are our inner made into the outer. 

But wait a minute, you say.  Surely that can’t be true. If so, then why aren’t our bodies always reflecting our ever-evolving self awareness?  Why do they sometimes seem to be broken or damaged, or display illnesses, or manifest in ways we don’t prefer, ways we don’t think are attractive or desirable? 

Our bodies are faithful mirrors of our thoughts.  But sometimes these are thoughts have been given to us by others, by science, by religion, by so-called education, by our ancestry, by cultural beliefs.  But regardless as to where the belief comes from, or how it gets on our bottom shelf, once there, thy will be done.  Our bodies obediently manifest and reflect whatever is there.  And sometimes we hold conflicting beliefs, or incorrect beliefs that we simply aren’t aware of, so what we manifest seems botched or inaccurate.  It isn’t what we meant at all.  But we can’t get mad or frustrated about that.  That’s like getting mad at your TV for showing one program when you now want a different one.  It can’t, because you left it on THAT channel.  So, If you don’t like what it is showing, CHANGE THE CHANNEL.  If you were watching a drama , but now prefer a comedy, don’t get mad – make the change.  And to make the change, we must look and find these beliefs, modifying them if they are not what we want.  Sometimes this change is effortless, but other times we may find ourselves clinging to the old, much to our surprise, even when we do not like it, and we find it requires repeated, diligent efforts to change. But change it must.

So, consciously or unconsciously, we are these living mandalas…….and as these living mandalas, we are living within larger yet mandalas that we’ve created as our little worlds…..and on even a larger scale, together those little worlds create our collective world at large.  And on and on it goes, accurately expressed in illustrations like the Mandlebrot fractals – no matter how close or how far you look, you see the same gathering, the same rising, it goes on infinitely, creating the appearance of space, creating the appearance of time, the appearance of people, of countries, of universes, of galaxies, all dynamic interactive systems, living mandalas.  The innate joining together of the smallest to the largest, each unique, yet each innately the ALL. 

And this is what I saw that day.  I hope I‘ve done this video well enough that you can begin to see it too.  You are a living mandala, your body is a living mandala of your creation, and it arises with and moves among with the other creations that you have allowed to shine through and create what we call our little worlds.  And together, like cells form the body, those worlds form our collective world.   And on an on it goes.  So now you can see how it is that when one rises, we all rise. 

Today, we stand within Platos Cave, unaware that our freedom is ever at hand.  Unaware of our inherent unity as a one.  unaware that each of us, by our very nature, is exquisite, splendid beyond comprehension. 

You are a living mandala of your own design, and your physical body is the expression of what you currently hold within. 

Your world is your living mandala of your own design, also the physical expression of what you currently hold within.

So, if you prefer something different, change what is within…..and what is without, will  follow.  It must.

This is the meaning of:    as above,     so below.  

I offer you these thoughts for your consideration.