mandala

On 11/1/05, roshan sahi < roshansahi@gmail.com> wrote:

Today is the night of Deepavali, I can hear firecrackers in the distance, though, I am sure in Bangalore it must be a real racket as well as very polluting.
Still, through various conversations I have had recently, is the reminding topic of the bomb blasts in Delhi, which I think is felt, in a very complicated way, the tragedy of the modern era; where people are vulnerable on any occasion to be a victim of a larger political conflict. How this is going to resolve and when is there going to be a situation of peace, is understood as a very precarious issue in the context of the present day situation.
I think what with the earthquake in Kashmir the various flooding in Bombay, Calcutta, Chennai, Bangalore and many other places, and now the tension and worry of crazy militants moving about and causing havoc with a vicious target of picking on common innocent people, seems to be an unreal situation. Otherwise it is very difficult to analyze the situation and know what kind of underlying currents are shaping the present times.
I think in Europe there has also been some thinking over all this, and I am sure in America too. It seems a kind of global crisis that is prevailing, and I guess a factor that will affect the way in which we think about world events. In some ways this has been somewhat in my mind as to try and understand how situations such as these various events construct our temperament and state of mentality. To become accustomed to issues that are real life questions, and also relatively affecting the way we relate to the world outside and also to the world in us that we contemplate in: the experience of media and information regarding world events too, I feel has immensely changed the perception of our self. The way we are all collectively informed and involve in a social context I think is crucial to the shaping of self.
To this I wonder what value and meaning a person who one with nature has, with the present course of world events? Is it such that we have no more the sense of connection – and harmony with the world in which we live, and that every information – insight into the nature of things now revolves around themes of violence, terrorism and conflict. I feel there is some real underlying meaning of life that we miss in the present information technological system that removes us and changes our perception of things – to relate to a world full of danger.
This makes me even more conscious when I meet people who ask me 'have I seen what it is really like on television? When children are exposed to the horrors of what is happening... I find it difficult to relate to and say, well there are lots of things actually going on in the world. And we never really know what it is all about... there is also a very beautiful world that is right in front of our eyes that we need to relate to and care for.
Reality becomes a very relative issue depending on what we are concerned about, what we see, and what we find meaningful. To be living in a context where there is so much of life going on all around, friendly people, and peace, and yet all this confusion otherwise?
I was wondering about the themes - the healing mandala, the screen and boundary. How all this can be seen as a continuum of reflection to the way in which we perceive and conceptualize a mediation of ideas and processes that transform and realize in to deeper meanings and insight in the processes of our contemplation? How is the mandala understood as integral to our relation to the world – universe?

Through a screen: reality, we see inwardly
Breaking boundaries of perception
An insight into a greater – infinite – world
That is the space within our heart
Atom, mandala within – knows no self, the universe.

Today I reflected on this theme of how we relate to the way of continuity
and growth: change. The way plants relate to the changes in the seasons, and also the different contexts within which they exist. How does this also refer to the urban development that is presently affecting natural processes and the way, we as humans effect and become ourselves a part of the whole cycle and system of our own construct and manifestation? To somehow be more at one with processes: those processes which are harmonious and co-relative and operative within nature, in change: in peace. I feel this is the healing of the mandala that we have forgotten to tend as humanity: the mandala is wholeness.