Living  in  a  Cosmic  Mandala

Alan Hammond   August 9, 2009

The word mandala is from Sanskrit and means circles with centers. This motif is used in the art of various religions, primarily perhaps Buddhism and Hinduism. Often, circles are drawn with elaborate designs made within them, usually to depict the Cosmos. These works of art are produced in paint, perhaps mosaic, and sometimes in colored sand. After the mandalas are made in colored sand, they are destroyed. This in itself symbolizes the impermanent nature of the cosmic scheme of things. I thought we might look at some of the principles involved in the mandala and bring those principles more vividly to our consciousness and to our living experience.

The mandala is a design that appears throughout the macro and the micro aspects of the Cosmos. We see the pattern in atoms, solar systems, and in galaxies. We can bear in mind that, although we may immediately think of the physical Cosmos, it is in fact a multidimensional entity. Consider for a moment that each living physical form and person radiates energy, so each form extends an influence into the Whole. Every form and person is therefore at the center of a radiant mandala, and each center is a focus of cosmic Being—“I Am.” It is astounding that this vast, cosmic, intricacy of design is intended to interact harmoniously in this living, ever-changing organism, and rep- resents countless relationships interacting constantly in the Whole.

Some years ago we devised a seminar process designed to actively engage with these cosmic principles and to let them become more vivid in our awareness and in our living. In this seminar experience, the thirty-five or so participants would sit in a large circle, and then were invited, as the Spirit moved, to individually stand up and move in the circle. Now remember, each person is a center of unique radiation. Someone would start the process and, after they had been in the circle for a moment or two, someone, moved by the current of the Spirit, would feel related and would stand and join them in the circle, seeking to find the right distance from this other person. Then others would join, and their task was to find their appropriate position and relationship to the others already moving in the circle. I trust you can imagine this experience. It is fairly easy to relate to one other person in a circle, but as more bodies are added it becomes more complex to sense exactly where one should be in relationship to them all. There was, of course, no coercion involved. Everyone had to let others behave and express their sense of relatedness, and then move relative to them.

We recognize that proximity to different sources of radiation affects our experience. On the macro scale, proximity and movement of other planets affect us. Here immediately on Earth, the presence of other forms affects us. It could be the ocean, a mountain or a forest. Of course the proximity of other people affects us. I am sure we have noticed that if there is a group of people, the arrival of one other person changes the experience of the whole. This may be, and usually is, an unconscious process for all concerned; nevertheless, the total constellation of vibration changes when the other person appears.

Going back to the people in the circle, I remember on one occasion a lady came close to me in this process; she apparently felt she should be about a yard away. I didn’t feel too comfortable with that. I thought it was a bit close and blocking other lines of energy that I felt were appropriate. So I took a step back. She took a step forward! We did this a couple of times and I thought, well, this is getting nowhere! But then, in the current of the Spirit I realized I could modify the situation if, instead of facing her, I turned obliquely away from her. Apparently she felt all right at that distance, and I felt relieved.

So there are ways, you see, of deflecting radiation, with which we are not comfortable. You might say that I changed my physical attitude to her. As we shall see later, it is also possible to change our mental and emotional attitude to people, forms and situations that we deem to be too close, and perhaps uncomfortable.

Our whole experience of life, and therefore of relationship with everything and everybody, is really this process of feeling right with the distance, the intensity of the current felt, and the actual interaction with the forms and people in our worlds. Without having the time to examine this too thoroughly now, we can appreciate that the optimum distance between all the objects and people in our world would be optimum for our experience of creativity. So we are considering the art and science of Being, and of creative relationship in Being.

We cannot always choose the forms or the people that appear around us in our world. We must remember, after all, that the Cosmos does not exist simply for our comfort. There is work and creative challenge present with us. Sometimes, perhaps we criticize others in our mandala-world because they irk us. But maybe the problem is our inability to adjust accurately and finely to their proximity. The finer our spiritual substance, the finer will be our ability to adjust to all the relationships in our world, and therefore bring greater harmony into that mandala.

Another person’s physical proximity is not necessarily the criteria for their vibrational, or spiritual, proximity to us. We can be at quite a physical distance from other people, and yet know within ourselves a vibrational and spiritual closeness, and therefore experience an ongoing creative relationship. What I’m going to say next may sound a little esoteric. But there are human beings in the Design who we never see at all, and yet we are connected to them through fine vibrational substance. This can facilitate a creative relationship.

The relationships of atoms, molecules, forms, solar systems, galaxies, are constantly changing—and so are our personal relationships with everything and everybody. The experience on this planet depends on the relationships of many heavenly bodies. This includes not just the physical relationships, but there are also other dimensions, of which the human consciousness is now unaware. These larger patterns of relationship are, in principle, the same as we know in human relationships. The Earth can only have its right relationships in the Cosmos, and therefore the right experience, if its radiation is on Tone. And we well know that its radiation is not now on Tone, primarily due to the state of human beings.

We as individuals can only know right relationships in our lives, in our mandala, with anyone, with anything, if the radiation coming from us is of Love, Truth, Life—the Tone. Our central relationship (speaking now of the outer consciousness) is with our true spiritual Identity. Once this true Identity is established, all other relationships emerge from this. In this unified Identity, we can accurately sense what fits with Self. We sense what fits in quality, in proximity, and in role. The Cosmos and all therein are composed of these constantly changing relationships. And underlying every single relationship is Love. This is worth remembering. In our every relationship we have opportunity to discover the experience of a unique nuance of Love.

We do not impose on others or their space. I suppose the exception to this statement would be with children, or with severely distorted people who need drastic guidance. But we are not particularly speaking of those sorts of relationships now. Of course, we know that Angels, the true Identity of all human beings, can be trusted to behave as they should in the shifting Design. We also know that in the world the way it is now, discernment is needed, and some caution, because human beings often use freedom for license. We are not foolish in our initial patterns of relationship.

Let’s consider for a moment some of the forms in our worlds (which are, remember, forms of radiation) that don’t seem creative to our experience. We can’t eliminate them all. Some we may move further away from, but others, because of the complexity of the Design, are close to us. So let us consider utilizing them creatively. We’ve previously mentioned people who criticize us. Most people don’t like being criticized, but we take a different attitude. We may not like criticism either, but we listen and see if there is any justification for their observation. If there is, then we are delighted and remedy our behavior or change whatever is needed. Many difficult situations, if dealt with in a creative spirit, can make our expression clearer, more refined, stronger. We can, by our attitude to any form or situation, turn these things into positive creativity. We can incline our attitudes at every level away from the negative and hostile elements in our mandala, and let our creative Spirit, radiation, modify everything in our worlds.

Each of us is at the center of our personal world, circle, and we may experience an exciting, personal, living mandala. A large part of our mandalas are not created solely by our own radiation; there is the radiation from everybody else too. But we should consider the quality of our radiation, because we know that this invisible power attracts and repels objects and people in our world. We can, by our radiation, modify the effect of absolutely everything in our world.

Now obviously not all of our radiation is conscious, but we can intensify our creative intent. Our own distortions often cause us to mistranslate the radiation coming from others and from circumstances in our worlds, and this just adds to the world chaos. But if we persist with the intent of on-Tone expression, then patterns begin to emerge in our lives that have cosmic Identity, and science behind them. Actually, of course, everybody’s mandala and everybody’s world has appeared and will appear on the basis of Divine science. However, we are concerned with changing the quality of our radiation back into the pure Tone of Being. The Tone then places us where we should be and allows us to be aligned with the larger Archangelic action. At the core of such a vast process are the intelligence, the power and the purposes of the Cosmos.

Human beings use physical objects as symbols that can be used in various ways to bring invisible, vibrational factors to consciousness. There are many religious symbols utilized in this way. For example, the Christian religion evokes such factors with a cross; Buddhism with statues of the Buddha. And there are a myriad other such symbols. Symbols are used by human governments—flags, for example, may represent a nation. Symbols can be used to bring vibrational factors to consciousness and focus to be worked with, as is done at weddings. In the Western world, the exchange of rings is symbolic of the exchange of eternal love. Thus, in many ways, symbols bring qualities of radiation to focus in our worlds.

This, however, may be seen as a somewhat elementary view of symbolism. The truth is that every physical object is a symbol of spiritual and vibrational factors, present to be portals for radiation and work. When we express our energy, our Spirit, toward any object, we are releasing our radiation into the Cosmos, into the Whole. It is worth remembering that we cannot skip over those people and things that are closest to us in our worlds, in our mandalas—imagining we are going to offer something magnificent to the world at large, to God and the Cosmos—yet neglect the quality of our interchange with what is immediately present with us in the Design of Being. We simply cannot skip over it. Radiation moves from us into the Cosmos through those people and objects closest to us. Also, the radiation from the Cosmos comes to us through these same portals. Each person and form in our immediate world is our connection into the larger Whole. What a marvelous arrangement this is! It makes something so vast very manageable to us in our creative work.

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