Swept Away by Sand Mandalas

Tibetan sand mandalas have always fascinated me. The monks work for hours and days on incredibly intricate designs, tapping or vibrating colored sand through long metal cones. When it's finished, it's simply swept away. Typically, the sand is then scattered to the wind, or into a body of water. Sometimes it's put into small containers or bags and divided among the spectators so they can take part in the scattering.

When I went to see a sand mandala swept away at a local university, the person I was with at the time was frankly horrified at the concept. "How can they destroy all that work?" he asked."Why bother to do it at all if they're just doing to sweep it away?" He found it extremely depressing. We talked about our feelings. I'd always found it to be liberating and energizing, as it represented the natural cycle of birth and death we all experience. I love sand mandalas because I need to be reminded of the impermanence of all things, and I need to remember how precious is every moment of every day, and how quickly it can all pass by and disappear, and then I have a deeper appreciation and thankfulness of everything in life.

Check out this video of the Dalai Lama and other monks engaging in the construction and destruction of a Tibetan sand mandala.

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Mandala of the Lunar Quarter: Full Moon November 21, 2010

 

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Full Moon of November 21, 2010

For this mandala, I left it quite empty on purpose. Even if you don't celebrate the "traditional" American Thanksgiving, now is the time when most civilizations in the Northern hemisphere are collecting the last harvest of the year, and beginning to celebrate using the food from all the harvests. It's always been a good time to begin contemplating the long winter ahead, watching each night getting longer and longer as the days grow shorter and shorter, until the longest night of the Winter Solstice, December 21st. This is a very quiet and humble mandala for a very quiet time.

How is your life quieting down with the Earth? How is your life becoming unquiet? Around the holidays, perhaps your life seems quite stressful, too full and energetically draining. You could simply allow peaceful colors and patterns to gently fill the empty spaces in this mandala, then hang it up in your kitchen or wherever you'd like to have a reminder to breathe and clear your head for a few moments.

This is also an excellent mandala to print out for children to color during holiday feasts. You might be surprised at the beauty and wonder that comes about when children are given simple designs to color! Share your finished mandalas with links in the comments section below, or email me a JPEG no larger than 5megs to mandalamama@ymail.com. Enjoy!

My Birthing Mandala

I colored many, many mandalas while I was pregnant with my daughter, especially the last 2 months when I was on bed rest. Some of the mamas in my due-date-group started coloring them also, we found it so relaxing and fun! I started coloring this mandala just after my surges (contractions) started. It really helped to have something creative to do during my labor.

My doula (birth assistant) and I colored a few mandalas together, and I chose this one as my "focus" - I hung it on the wall where I could focus on the center of it, and I was also chanting "Om mani padme hum" with each surge, one syllable at a time. I had a drug-free labor, even though I felt "pain," it felt more like I was on a giant roller coaster - that overwhelming feeling of "I wanna get off but I can't yet, whooo!" The doctors and nurses poked fun at me for laughing and giggling all throughout labor, even transition. When I first got there they doubted I was in labor because I was walking back and forth and smiling and singing ... I had a check, and my cervix was at 6 cm. Mandalas and meditation ROCK!

Later, when breastfeeding, the first few weeks were quite intense, and I had this on the wall near my bed and focused on the center whenever I needed. I've used it as a meditative focus for the stressful times we all go through as mamas. It really helps to have something, anything, you can focus on that sends positive energy flowing through you. Try creating or coloring a mandala and see what happens.

Now my daughter can sit down and meditate in front of it, and instead of a traditional "time out" we call it "time in, to calm down." She really loves it, it's helped her countless times.

Enjoy!

Mandala of the Lunar Quarter

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Mandala of the Lunar Quarter - Last Quarter - November 13, 2010

The Earth is slowly but steadily turning so that the Northern hemisphere will have shorter and shorter days until the Winter Solstice. The leaves around me have almost all fallen after blazing so brightly. I could smell winter in the air this morning, as the frost covered the blades of grass in crystalline beauty.

Click on the image above then right-click and "Save images as" to save it to your hard drive. If 100 people color the same mandala, we end up with 100 completely different mandalas, they're like snowflakes in that way! If you color this mandala, feel free to link to your images in a comment below, or email a JPEG no larger than 1meg to mandala.mama@yahoo.com. We'd all love to see your finished works.

Paint-It-Pink Mandala Project

October was Breast Cancer Awareness month, but your help and support is needed every day of the year. Perhaps you know someone who's had breast cancer, or it's affected you personally. Breast cancer is the most common female cancer in the United States, the second most common cause of cancer death in women (after lung cancer), and the primary cause of death in women ages 45 to 55.

My mom died in December of '92 at age 61. She had ,acute inflammatory breast cancer (AIBC) which meant by the time she found a bruise-like discoloration on her breast, it had already metastasized.

I remember vividly when she told me the news: she called and asked me, "Do you still do your monthly breast self-exams?" I said I did. She was relieved, and told me to keep it up. Then she told me during a self-exam she'd noticed a reddish bruise on the side of her breast, that she'd gone to the doctor the next day, and explained what the diagnosis of acute inflammatory breast cancer meant. She was gone six months later.

AIBC is quite rare; it occurs in approximately 2% of all cases of breast cancer. The two-year survival rates for acute inflammatory breast cancer have greatly improved over the years since my mom died. I wish she could be here now, with me, drawing and coloring as she always did with me, even as an adult. My mom was a tremendous inspiration to me and always will be, and now for my daughter as I tell her the stories of her grandma.

The Paint-It-Pink Mandala Project (example at left is by Brenda Crocker of New Zealand) is "a continually expanding collection of pink mandalas made by people world-wide in support of breast cancer awareness" and a percentage of its proceeds from workshops, art kits, special exhibitions and other retail products goes to the Barabara T. Sabo Scholarship Foundation.

Find any blank mandala you can, or buy a kit from the Paint-It-Pink store, color it pink and pass it on! Unfortunately, the site no longer seems to be taking new images for exhibition, however, check out flickr nd other photo-sharing services, search "breast cancer mandalas" or "pink mandalas" and be sure to upload and share your pink visions with the world!

Mandalas Heal

The healing powers of creating and coloring mandalas have been well documented. Creating or coloring a mandala can have a calming and relaxing effect, releasing beneficial hormones such as endorphins into the blood stream while at the same time  essening the release of adrenaline or cortisol (the "stress hormones"). The mindful meditation that naturally occurs from concentration on mandala creation and/or coloring helps focus the mind and can alleviate many symptoms of mental illness. Medical and psychological research has consistenly shown that the attitudes of one's mind can effect how successful treatment is for individuals. Carl Jung stated that creating mandalas provides a sense of unity between the self and others.

For all of these reasons, mandala creation and coloring is an ideal therapeutic tool for people who have experienced trauma, illness or are simply stressed. The circular, repetitive design helps to integrate all of the emotions associated with stress and provide much-needed order. Art therapists often utilize mandalas as a therapeutic tool for healing, conflict resolution, self-awareness and self-expression. It's also been said that it's easier to express the pain and emotions through art therapy compared to traditional talk therapy.Try a mandala today!

"Mandalamama Foodiboo"

At left, my SL neko-mimi avatar standing in front of an animated kaleidoscope mandala I purchased, and a Tibetan singing bowl I created.

In the 3D virtual world Second Life (SL), my name is Mandalamama Foodiboo. I collect, create and animate mandalas, just as I've done on the web. I've been in SL under various guises ("alts") since 2006, and I've learned quite a lot about building and scripting objects in SL. I'm so excited to begin building my own mandala and meditation center, please visit and give me your feedback.

I also created a group, "Mandalas: Circles of Healing" that is free for anyone to join, and I'll be giving out freebies through the group, as well as hopefully hosting mindfulness, meditation and chakra healing groups. You can search for and join the group (it's free) in SL to post notices and landmarks for your own mandala-related sims and sites, as well as receive updates, event notices and freebies.

If you're in SL and want to submit mandalas to be displayed at my Circles of Healing Center, IM me in-world before you send them to me. The finished images must be in JPEG or PNG form and should be sized no larger than 1024 x 1024 pixels.

Here is my Second Life in-world address: Mandalas: Circles of Healing. Search the "People" tab for my name and IM me if you're new to SL and need help getting started. There are so many supportive groups in SL, especially for the disabled. It's been quite healing for me, even though I'm disabled and sometimes house-bound, to make friends from all over the world and it's been great for my self-esteem to continue being creative and productive every day.

Kaleidoscope Creator Uses Flickr Photos

Check out the  Kaleidoscope Flickr App  and use other people's photos, or your own. Just drag your cursor around to create kaleidoscopic designs. Not sure if you can save them, but you can take a screenshot. Windows: Alt-Print Screen, then paste in WordPad or any graphics program; Mac: Command-Shift-3, will save as a PNG on your desktop.