Creative Order - Exploring the inner world of Mandalas

Having worked with mandalas for over 12 years one of the most remarkable things I have noticed is how they can change your state of being almost instantly. Often I will start creating a mandala in a quite fragmented frame of mind.
But step by step, as I work from the centre of the circle out towards the edge I experience an intense and beautiful healing journey that feels like I am moving from a state of fragmentation towards wholeness. Upon finishing I often am filled with a wonderful sense of satisfied completion, at ease with myself and the world, happy and content.

Left Brain / Right Brain Synchronisation

This happens because mandalas speak to both hemispheres of the brain simultaneously. The geometric patterns of order contained in mandalas speak to your left brain and provides a sense of order and coherence that is pleasing to that logical and rational side of our selves. At the same time however you are invited to make the creation of the mandala you own, choosing what colours to use, what combinations of the pattern to include in your mandala and what to leave out. I have witnessed hundreds of people start to create a mandala with the same underlying template and the same palette of colours and every time each individual mandala is emerges completely different. They become expressions of each individual’s internal processes.
Inducing a Trance-like State

Because both sides of the brain are ‘given something to do’ so to speak when one embarks upon creating a mandala an enhanced quality of attention is enjoyed. It becomes almost easy to become deeply absorbed in the process and you can experience your awareness deepen and become much more focused and one pointed. Whenever we get so immersed in the moment the outside world simply floats away. Much of our thinking and our day to day concerns just evaporate and we are left with an abundance of energy to really experience the present moment in a very deep way.

Activity and Receptivity

When you make a mandala you employ two different modes of being. Choosing what colours to use, what designs and patterns to include or omit are all examples of active engagement with the art form. However there is a natural counterbalance when you step back to gaze at what you have done. It is only natural to stop and check in on where you have got to. Admire where you are and reflect upon what you have just created. This is a receptive action, a passive moment of allowing what you have just created drop deeper into your psyche. Practically all art forms have this dynamic at play to varying degrees.

Many of the great spiritual traditions include this interplay of activity and receptivity in their meditative and reflective practices. We need to employ both attributes when engaging in any form of inner work. The active component is willing us to ‘show up’ in the first place. To get to that yoga class or to attend that meditation course we need to use our will to get us there. But more often than not it is through the power of Grace, or that receptive state that our greatest insights and upgrades in consciousness are experienced.

Connection with higher forces

Ultimately having worked with hundreds of people creating mandalas and through my own work with the art form I have become convinced that mandalas open us to connection with a higher intelligence. Depending on one’s disposition this can be quite simply a ‘higher self’ a connection with that aspect of yourself that has guided you from within at your best moments. It is often called intuition.
For me because of my spiritual beliefs I frame this connection to a greater intelligence beyond me, certainly beyond the little me. The shapes, patterns and codes of geometry embedded in mandalas are the exact same patterns that are exhibited in our DNA, the forms flowers display, the movement of the plants and the shape of the galaxy. These same patterns continually recur at all levels, and for me there is a remarkable intelligence in this creative principle. It is a beautiful pattern of order that we can come into harmony with. When we do the world instantaneously becomes more wonderful and beautiful and you feel connected to something beyond yourself.