Sunday, August 10, 2008

My Beloved

My Beloved, please ask everyone to notice how
the One Being sends rain from the sky
and immediately the fields green.
The One's sight and sense cannot be fathomed,
so subtle, nurturing, mysterious
bringing the seed-self of all beings to fruition.

~Sura 22.63, Quarain

Saturday, August 09, 2008

Friday, August 08, 2008

A Sufi Story about Competition

Once upon a time, a sultan set up a competition with a very rich prize for the most accomplished visual artistry. He invited teams from around the world. Both China and Greece sent delegations of artists. Each side could order whatever materials it wanted, and the wall of a room was provided for each to do its work. A curtain separated the two rooms.

The Chinese team asked for a plethora of paints made from many different plants and minerals, which provided an unimaginable array of colors. The Greek team asked only for materials for sanding and polishing.

When the two teams were finally ready, the Chinese unveiled their wall first. They had used every color of the rainbow, in a most harmonious design. The sultan was dazzled. Then the Greeks unveiled their work, throwing back the curtain between the two rooms. They had used no paint, but had polished their wall to such a degree that it reflected the work on the Chinese side. Through the play of light and air, the Chinese design seemed to move, and was even more fantastic and beautiful.

~Neil Douglas-Klotz

Thursday, August 07, 2008

Gems From Mandala Oasis

From Cheryl A Finley at Mandala Oasis we have these beautiful mandalas:

Peace... blooming out all over

Spiritual Insight

Harmony and Flow

Venus Flytrap

Ancient Portal

Powerful Beyond Measure

Wednesday, August 06, 2008

Listen to me carefully

“Listen to me carefully,” I commanded. I walked him through it once again “Where you feel holding, let go. Where you sense strain, be easy. Where you are moved to push, hold back. When you find something that feels open and easy, stay there and breathe into it. "

~from Diary of the Lady Beloved by Grace Gibson

Tuesday, July 15, 2008

Why Religion?

Religion means "to bind back." Its purpose is to turn us back into ourselves, to the well inside from which we are endlessly creative. God is a well that does not run dry. Religion is the process by which we constantly check in with God, as a child checks in with her mother. Once she feels secure, she is free to roam and wander. So do we need the constant reassurance that we are loved and protected, guided and watched over. There we have the strength and self-esteem we need to show up fearlessly in a fearful world.

~Marianne Williamson

Monday, July 14, 2008

An Unusual Mandala for Coloring


Here's an interesting mandala for you to color.
Click to enlarge, then download, print, and color.
Have fun!


Sunday, July 13, 2008

The Seed of God

The seed of God is in us.

Now

The seed of a pear tree
Grows into a pear tree;
And a hazel seed
Grows into a hazel tree;

A seed of God
Grows into

God.


~Meister Eckhart

More great mandala art and poetry can be found at my new website, Mandala Madness, hosted at shirleytwofeathers.com

Saturday, July 12, 2008

Green Peace

Joy Mandala Desktop Wallpaper

Here is a desktop wallpaper created especially for you. Add some serenity to your workspace, and download the full size image here.

Friday, July 11, 2008

I looked for myself

I looked for my self,
but my self, but my self was gone.
The boundaries of my being
had disappeared in the sea.
Waves broke. Awareness rose again,
And a voice returned me to myself
It always happens like this.
Sea turns on itself and foams,
and with every foaming bit
another body, another being takes form.
And when the sea sends word,
each foaming body
melts back to ocean-breath.

~Jelaluddin Rumi

Wednesday, July 09, 2008

Meditation for Starting Out in the Journey

Host unlimited photos at slide.com for FREE!


With one hand lightly on your heart, breathe easily and gently, feel the awareness of breath and heartbeat creating a clear, spacious place inside. Breathe with the sound of the word bismillah (BiS-MiL-LaaH). When we remember to connect our heart to the Heart of the Cosmos, we recall that, as the Sufis say, "God is your lover, not your jailer."

~Neil Douglas-Klotz

Tuesday, July 08, 2008

Beginning

The Sufis often begin something new by breathing the Arabic word "bismillah", which can be translated poetically:

We begin by remembering
the sound and feeling of the One Being,
the wellspring of love.
We affirm that the next thing we experience
shimmers with the light of the whole universe.

~Neil Douglas-Klotz

Monday, July 07, 2008

Sunday, July 06, 2008

It is too clear

 

It is too clear and so it is hard to see.
A dunce once searched for a fire with a lighted lantern.
Had he known what fire was,
He could have cooked his rice much sooner.

- Zen Saying

Saturday, July 05, 2008

For Your Coloring Pleasure


Here's an interesting mandala to color,
Click to enlarge, then download, print, and color.

The artist is unknown to me.
If you created this mandala, or know who did, please let me know so I can provide credit and a link.

Have fun!

Friday, July 04, 2008

Happy Fourth!


Poi Circles, originally uploaded by hendriko.
Long exposure shot of poi artist Nick Woolsey from playpoi.com.The pattern Nick is spinning here is known as compound circles or flowers. For more information on this pattern see Nick's video tutorial "The Secret of Poi Flowers".

The trouble with the future is that it usually arrives before we are ready for it.


~Arnold Glasow

Thursday, July 03, 2008

Squaring the Circle Revisited

The mosiacs from the Squared Circle group at Flickr tweaked my curiosity and I started wondering if a Mandala really does qualify as a "squared circle." My internet search for the meaning of this phrase landed me at Wikipedia from which comes the following explanation:

squaring the circle

"Squaring the Circle is a problem proposed by ancient geometers. It is the challenge to construct a square with the same area as a given circle by using only a finite number of steps with compass and straightedge. More abstractly and more precisely, it may be taken to ask whether specified axioms of Euclidean geometry concerning the existence of lines and circles entail the existence of such a square.

In 1882, the task was proven to be impossible, as a consequence of the fact that pi (π) is a transcendental, rather than algebraic irrational number; that is, it is not the root of any polynomial with rational coefficients. It had been known for some decades before then that if π were transcendental then the construction would be impossible, but that π is transcendental was not proven until 1882. Approximate squaring to any given non-perfect accuracy, on the other hand, is possible in a finite number of steps, as a consequence of the fact that there are rational numbers arbitrarily close to π.

The term quadrature of the circle is sometimes used synonymously, or may refer to approximate or numerical methods for finding the area of a circle."

Well, that started out simply enough, and then it went right over my head. Math was never my best subject.

Wednesday, July 02, 2008

Tuesday, July 01, 2008

A Sufi Story

One day a neighbor found Mullah Nasruddin sitting in a tree in his garden, in the process of sawing off the limb on which he was sitting.

"Mullah, you'd better stop, otherwise you'll fall down," said the neighbor, then went back inside his house. Sure enough, Mullah kept sawing, the limb broke, and he fell. Mullah ran next door and pounded on his neighbor's door.

"O, great one, please forgive me," said Mullah, "I didn't know I had a psychic for a neighbor! Could you please predict what will happen to me tomorrow?"

The neighbor tried to deny that he could predict the future, saying that what he had told Mullah was just common sense. But Mullah wouldn't listen and kept after him. Finally, the neighbor became exasperated and said, "Mullah, for heaven's sake, for all I care you can drop dead tomorrow!"

The next morning, Mullah woke and said to his wife, "Our neighbor is a psychic and he told me that I would drop dead today, so I have to prepare." He took his donkey along for company and went to the graveyard, then dug a grave for himself and lay down in it. As the day ended, he was still lying there and thought, "I must be dead now. This isn't really so bad!"

Then a pack of dogs came by and started harassing his donkey. The donkey began to bray and make a racket. Finally, Mullah yelled from the grave, "You dogs - get out of here! If I weren't dead I'd get out of my grave and give you a thrashing!"

Saturday, June 21, 2008

There is no need to run outside
for better seeing,
Not to peer from a window. Rather abide
at the center of your being;
for the more you leave it, the less you learn.

~Lao Tze

Friday, June 20, 2008

Maze Mandala for Coloring



Here is an unusual mandala for your coloring pleasure.
Click to enlarge, then download, print, and color.

The artist is unknown to me.
If you created this mandala, or know who did, please let me know so I can provide credit and a link.

Have fun!

Wednesday, June 18, 2008

Exploring Energy Flow

To demonstrate how energy flows where attention goes, and how thought affects physical energy, pick up a chair by its seat and feel the weight of it. Then put it back down. Now focus your attention on the very top of the chair's back and pick it up by the seat again. if your focus is good the chair will feel lighter. Regardless of how you want to explain it, the practical fact is that if you have to lift anything you will find it easier to do if your attention is focused on the very top of the object or even in the air a foot above it.

~Serge Kahili King

Tuesday, June 17, 2008

Attention Goes Where Energy Flows

Attention is quite naturally attracted to bright lights, shiny objects, and loud noises, but we may not realize that the common factor of all three is their energy intensity. Attention is attracted to any strong source of energy that stimulates any of our senses, even those subtle senses of which most people are unaware.

Certain people, because of their emotional intensity or sensory focus, have such a strong aura or energy field that they automatically attract the attention of others whenever they come into view. On a larger scale, some geographical areas - usually areas of high earthquake activity or potential - have a higher energy intensity than others, thereby attracting greater populations, which increase the energy even more.

Much is written nowadays about sacred power spots, but I think their power is a passive one that allows you to relax and destress from the really active power spots of urban centers. The tingling sensations and psychic phenomena experienced at such places occur as you begin to relax and your bottled-up energy from the more highly active place you came from begins to flow. Human beings are such energy generators themselves, howvever, that if a lot of them move to a nice, quite, passive power spot, they can soon turn it into an active, dynamic, and possibly stressful power spot.

~Serge Kahili King

Monday, June 16, 2008

God




God created all things in such a way
That they are not outside himself,
As ignorant people falsely imagine.

Rather,
All creatures flow outward, but nonetheless remain with God.

God created all things in this way:

Not that they might stand outside of
God, nor alongside God,
Nor beyond God.
But that they might

Come into God
And receive God
And dwell in God.

For this reason everything that is

Is bathed in God,
Is enveloped by God,
Who is round-about us all, enveloping us.

~Meister Eckhart

Sunday, June 15, 2008

This is interesting

Map of Jericho

I grew up on stories about Joshua and the Battle of Jerico, so I found this particular labyrinth image really interesting. Is it true? I have no idea. What I do know is that it was painted by Elisha ben Avraham Crescas in the 14th century Farhi Bible, and that it is titled "Map of Jerico".

... more cool stuff about Labyrinths can be found at my new website, Mandala Madness.

Saturday, June 14, 2008

How To Draw A Labyrinth



I know this is cyberspace, but I beg you to draw some labyrinths with paper and pencil (you remember those crude stick-like writing implements?). The construction of a labyrinth is a lesson in sacred geometry...

... So sorry, but this post has been moved to my new website, Mandala Madness, and can be found in its entirety here: How To Draw A Labyrinth



Friday, June 13, 2008

Prayer of the Chalice

Father, to Thee I raise my whole being,
a vessel emptied of self. Accept Lord,
this my emptiness, and so fill me
with Thyself-- Thy Light, Thy Love,
Thy Life-- that these precious gifts
may radiate through me and over-
flow the chalice of my heart
into the hearts of all with
whom I come in contact this
day, revealing unto them
the beauty of
Thy Joy
and
Wholeness
and
the
Serenity
of Thy Peace
which nothing can destroy

Wednesday, June 11, 2008

Another Visiting Labyrinth


Labyrinths are not difficult to create, here is a nice one from Knowth.com
Garden Labyrinth with standing stone, the larger stones in the ground (at the front in the photograph) mark the setting sun at the winter solstice, equinox and summer solstice. Three stones on the east of the labyrinth (at the back in the photograph) mark the rising sun at the winter solstice, equinox and summer solstice.

... I am sorry, but this post has been moved to my new website, Mandala Madness, and can be found in its entirety here: Another Visiting Labyrinth

Tuesday, June 10, 2008

On Walking A Labyrinth

There are two basic principles:
  1. On the labyrinth, everything is metaphor.
  2. There is no right or wrong way to walk the labyrinth.


Walking the labyrinth is quite personal. There are many different reactions to a labyrinth walk—joy, contemplation, revelation, sadness, elation, etc. Be unselfconscious and give yourself permission to let your reaction be expressed as it chooses—crying, laughing, dancing, singing. There should be absolutely no judgement or embarrassment associated with a labyrinth experience. Don’t be surprised by your reaction. Remember, there is no right or wrong way to walk the labyrinth. Trust Spirit....

... I am sorry, but this post has been moved to my new website, Mandala Madness, and can be found in its entirety here: On Walking A Labyrinth

Monday, June 09, 2008

Consciousness

Consciousness thus proceeds from the more limited to the more comprehensive, from lesser to greater intensity, from lower to higher dimensions, and each higher dimension includes the lower ones by coordinating its elements in a wider and more intricate structure of relationships. ... Thus the reality of a lower dimension is not devaluated or eliminated by the higher one, but only relativized.
~Lama Anagarika Govinda

Saturday, June 07, 2008

A short history of the labyrinth


The classic eleven circuit labyrinth was laid on the floor of Chartres Cathedral in about 1201. The oldest labyrinth associated with Christianity dates from the 4th Century and is found at Repartus, Orleansville in Algeria.

.. So sorry, but this post has been moved to my new website, Mandala Madness, and can be found in its entirety here: A Short History of the Labyrinth

Friday, June 06, 2008

A labyrinth Poem

Rows of ragged rocks outline a path for healing?

Brown, decaying leaves hug the winter ground – a blanket to transform?

The labyrinth awaits the sojourner--
almost calls her name--
Will you enter my simple boundaries
and journey my paths
One Step at a Time?

... I am so sorry, but this post has been moved to my new website, Mandala Madness, and can be found in its entirety here: A Labyrinth Poem

Thursday, June 05, 2008

Visiting Labyrinths



People have been creating and walking labyrinths for thousands of years. 

This small collection of labyrinths has been moved to my new website, Mandala Madness, they can be found here: Visiting Labyrinths

Wednesday, June 04, 2008

What is a Labyrinth?


The labyrinth is an ancient spiritual tool that has been used throughout the world for over four thousand years. A labyrinth is a circuitous path with one entrance point that leads through a series of switch-backs to its center.

.... I am sorry, but this post has been moved to my new website, Mandala Madness, it can be found here: What Is A Labyrinth?

Tuesday, June 03, 2008

Your life is a sacred journey



Your life is a sacred journey. And it is about change, growth, discovery, movement, transformation, continuously expanding your vision of what is possible, stretching your soul, learning to see clearly and deeply, listening to your intuition, taking courageous challenges at every step along the way..

... so sorry, but this post has been moved to my new website, Mandala Madness, hosted at shirleytwofeathers.com, and can be found here: Your life is a sacred journey

Monday, June 02, 2008

The Land's End Labyrinth




From San Francisco Labyrinths,
here are some beautiful images of the Land's End labyrinth.

... So sorry. This post has been moved to my new website, Mandala Madness, hosted at shirleytwofeathers.com. It can be found in its entirety here: The Land's End Labyrinth




Sunday, June 01, 2008

Blessing Of Light

Matrix of Light

May the blessing of light be on you,
light without and light within.

May the blessed sun shine on you
and warm your heart till it glows
like a great peat fire,

so that the stranger may come
and warm himself at it,
and also a friend.

-oOo-

This free desktop wallpaper can be downloaded at Flickr.
Enjoy!

Saturday, May 31, 2008

Energy Mandala to Color

Unusual Energy Mandala

If you enjoy coloring mandalas, here's something a little bit different.

The full size image can be downloaded at flickr.
Have fun!

Friday, May 30, 2008

Wednesday, May 28, 2008

Allow Yourself

There are
worlds
beyond universes
to which you
rarely allow yourself
to travel.

Know there
go there
there there.

~Bernard Gunther

Tuesday, May 27, 2008

Fractal Mandala Art

annie's charm fractal wallpaper
Annie's Charm

orange blossom fractal wallpaper
Orange Blossom

tangents fractal wallpaper
Tangents

antimatter chamber fractal wallpaper
Antimatter Chamber

full bloom fractal wallpaper
Full Bloom

butterfly of love fractal
Butterfly of Love

nexus of nowhere fractal
Nexus of Nowhere

event horizon fractal
Event Horizon

Aren't these beautiful?
They are available for download as full size high resolution desktop wallpaper at Time Out of Mind.
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