The Conception Mandala


Book Description

This practical guide shows how both men and women can participate actively and with heightened awareness in the supreme mystery of conception. The authors explore the importance of rituals and other methods of conscious conception in various spiritual traditions. They also present clear and succinct advice on the process of preparing for parenthood.




Solfeggio Mandala Activation Guide


Book Description

Discover the sophisticated patterns, geometry, balance and energy of the Universal Solfeggio Frequencies. As one is able to access higher (faster) Universal Frequencies one is able to access Divine consciousness. The Universal Solfeggio Frequencies in combination with Mandala's are a new and powerful tool to connect with the creative energy of the universe in an entirely new way. Take the journey into to the light and transform your connection with your true self. Each Mandala gives a special activation for the person or life form receiving it and works completely in Divine Integrity. Angels = Color = Frequency = Geometry = Solfeggio = Language of Light




The Circle of Bliss


Book Description

Published in conjunction with a 2003 exhibition co-organized by the Columbus Museum of Art and the Los Angeles County Museum of Art, this hefty, oversize (10x13 catalogue features approximately 160 powerful masterpieces of Indian, Nepalese, Tibetan, Chinese, and Mongolian art produced over the pa




An Illustrated History of the Mandala


Book Description

Everyone’s heard of mandalas; now we have a uniquely rich history and explanation of their history and meaning. This book is a history of the genesis and development of the mandala from the fifth and sixth centuries, when the mandala first appeared in India, to the eleventh century, when the Kalacakratantra appeared just before the disappearance of Buddhism in India. The 600 years of Indian esoteric Buddhism that concluded the 1,700-year history of Indian Buddhism could be said to have been the history of the development of the mandala. (The Kalacakratantra integrated earlier mandala theories into a single system and established a monumental system unprecedented in the history of esoteric Buddhism. It was thus the culmination of the development of Indian Buddhism over a period of 1,700 years.) The analysis is at the micro level and includes numerous illustrations and charts. Particular attention is paid to proper names, mudras, and mantras that have been overlooked by scholars in philosophy and doctrine, and the author tackles issues that cannot be explained solely from a historical viewpoint, such as geometric patterns, the arrangement of deities, the colors, and their meaning in Buddhist doctrine.




Unfolding A Mạṇdala


Book Description

Ellora is one of the great cave temple sites of India, with thirty-four major Buddhist, Hindu, and Jain monuments of the late sixth to tenth centuries A. D. This book describes the Buddhist caves at Ellora and places them in the context of Buddhist art and iconography. Ellora's twelve Buddhist cave temples, dating from the early seventh to the early eighth centuries, preserve an unparalleled one-hundred-year sequence of architectural and iconographical development. They reveal the evolution of a Buddhist mandala at sites in other regions often considered "peripheral" to the heartland of Buddhism in eastern India. At Ellora, the mandala, ordinarily conceived as a two-dimensional diagram used to focus meditation, is unfolded into the three-dimensional program of the cave temples themselves, enabling devotees to walk through the mandala during worship. The mandala's development at Ellora is explained and its significance is considered for the evolution of Buddhist art and iconography elsewhere in India.




Life Spiral Process: A Workbook to Holistically Honor & Celebrate Your Life


Book Description

This is a workbook designed to guide and support participants of the Life Spiral Process℠, a holistic twelve-week art, writing, and witnessing journey for people at mid-life. The Life Spiral Process℠ is focused on various points of choice, chance, challenge, and change in one's life, and provides new insights for exploring the second half of life. The workbook provides clear step-by-step instructions and images for creating the art piece, reflective questions and text for each stage of life, and two sections on setting intentions and envisioning the future.




James Joyce’s Mandala


Book Description

The Sanskrit word mandala can be translated as "sacred circle." Within the circle sits a microcosm of the universe and/or consciousness, repre-sented by icons. Eastern civilizations developed the spiritual-artistic practice of creating mandalas—with sand, paint, and architecture—to high technical sophistication, making manifest a geometry with layers of esoteric meaning for both the mandala artist and the initiated spectator. James Joyce’s Mandala outlines and explains this iconic sacred geometry, and assesses to what extent Joyce’s works of literature, in particular Finnegans Wake, can be understood as mandalic constructs. Using exam-ples from Dubliners to the Wake, we see how fundamental to Joyce’s fiction is the issue of spiritual paralysis (a problem the mandala attempts to dissolve) and also how fascinated he was by geometric imagery and symmetry, the technical devices employed in mandala construction. This is the first book-length comparison of Joyce’s work with the mythic structure of the mandala. Never discounting the richness of Joyce’s genius, it uses his "collideorscape" to explore the secrets of the mandala principle as much as it uses mandala theory to illuminate his famed book of the night.




Reflecting Mirrors


Book Description

This book is the first comprehensive treatment of the Huayan school of East Asian Buddhism in a Western language. This school, which received its name from the Chinese translation of the important Mahayana scripture, the Buddhavatam sakasutra, flourished in China during the Tang dynasty (618-907) and spread to Korea and Japan as well. The reader gains an insight into the development of Huayan Buddhism: The compilation of its base text, the Buddhavatam sakasutra, the establishment of Huayan tradition as a special form of East Asian Buddhism and its visual representations. The book consists of five chapters: 1. State of Field, 2. The Buddhavatam. sakasutra, 3. Huayan in China, 4. Hwaom/Kegon in Korea and Japan, and 5. Huayan/Hwaom/Kegon Art. The following scholars contributed to this volume: Aramaki Noritoshi, Jana Benicka, Choe Yeonshik, Bernard Faure, Frederic Girard, Imre Hamar, Huang Yi-hsun, Ishii Kosei, Kimura Kiyotaka, Charles Muller, Jan Nattier, Otake Susumu, Joerg Plassen, Wei Daoru, Dorothy Wong, Zhu Qingzhi. Included are bibliographies of secondary sources on Huayan Buddhism in Western languages, Japanese, Chinese and Korean.




Pursuit of Passionate Purpose


Book Description

In Pursuit of Passionate Purpose, self-help guru Theresa Szczurek reveals that the real key to a successful and happy life is in knowing what it is that you truly desire and pursuing it with determination. Based on the everyday wisdom of eighty successful people from all walks of life, along with the practical strategies she used to pursue her own passion, Szczurek presents a proven, step-by-step plan for effectively pursuing whatever your passionate purpose is. By emulating the six strategies/characteristics that almost all truly successful people share, you?ll discover who you really are, what you really want from life, and how to achieve it.




Mountain Mandalas


Book Description

In Mountain Mandalas Allan G. Grapard provides a thought-provoking history of one aspect of the Japanese Shugendo tradition in Kyushu, by focusing on three cultic systems: Mount Hiko, Usa-Hachiman, and the Kunisaki Peninsula. Grapard draws from a rich range of theorists from the disciplines of geography, history, anthropology, sociology, and humanistic geography and situates the historical terrain of his research within a much larger context. This book includes detailed analyses of the geography of sacred sites, translations from many original texts, and discussions on rituals and social practices. Grapard studies Mount Hiko and the Kunisaki Peninsula, which was very influential in Japanese cultural and religious history throughout the ages. We are introduced to important information on archaic social structures and their religious traditions; the development of the cult to the deity Hachiman; a history of the interactions between Buddhism and local cults in Japan; a history of the Shugendo tradition of mountain religious ascetics, and much more. Mountain Mandalas sheds light on important aspects of Japan's religion and culture, and will be of interest to all scholars of Shinto and Japanese religion. Extensive translations of source material can be found on the book's webpage.