Mandala for How the World Works


This blog post is commenting on Cheryl’s post and her dream sketch of 1/22/08 titled “Many dreams of a chicken with a golden egg.”

I read an article by Martha Beck, a life counselor, in current issue of The Oprah Magazine about the power of making a list of what you want. Several stories were recounted—one was about a woman named Helen who had been given a terminal prognosis of cancer by her physician. She pared her life back to the core (sound like anyone you know?) discovering only what was of supreme importance to her. Then her doctor said the diagnosis was in error—and she lives on a new woman.

However, she finds now that whatever she wishes for weirdly and magically appears. It is she who said the pull quote, “[From my Core of Peace] everything I think seems to materialize…I swear, if I held out my hand and said ‘apple,’ one would appear.” The author goes on to say, “She held out her hand in illustration. Another friend pulled an apple from her bag and put it on Helen’s palm. We laughed…nervously” (Beck 68).

Beck said that is because Helen’s desire now comes from her Core of Peace. She no longer concerns herself with living in The Shallows. She has passed through the Ring of Fire where all desire is burned up and come to dwell in her Core of Peace. From that center point “ask and it shall be given to you.”

I see this as a correlative to where we both are in our lives now; we have had experiences that have peeled us back to the Core; however, in part, we still know what it is to want something from “The Shallows.” And we know the heat from the Ring of Fire when we try to drag something from the Shallows through the flames to the Core—it gets burned up!

If your grant is written from your Core of Peace and sent out into the world, the answer will come one way or another. If not the grant, then from some other devious angle. But you cannot win if you do not play!

Your picture is interesting because the goose that is laying the golden egg is on top of the figure’s head where it can’t be seen! The brain is bubbling and the brain bubbles are coming out of the mouth—what is that? Soap for Truth? Rabindranth Tagore talks about laughter being like “foam on the flood” of being. Foam is a transitional substance combining air and water—so something about transition?

If I look at the face in another way, the foam represents hair coming around the shoulder–and is that a yellow ribbon or a pink ribbon and what does it represent to you?

The face looks like a Greek or Trojan mask–perhaps even Aztec?

Works Cited

Beck, Martha. “Go Tell Alice.” The Oprah Magazine. February 2008, 64.

Tagore, Rabindranath. “The Gardener # 84.” The Literature Network. 2000-2008. 2 Februaury 2008. http://www.online-literature.com/tagore-rabindranath/2955/

84
Over the green and yellow rice-fields sweep the shadows of the
autumn clouds followed by the swift chasing sun.

The bees forget to sip their honey; drunken with light they
foolishly hover and hum.

The ducks in the islands of the river clamour in joy for mere
nothing.

Let none go back home, brothers, this morning, let none go to
work.
Let us take the blue sky by storm and plunder space as we run.

Laughter floats in the air like foam on the flood.

Brothers, let us squander our morning in futile songs.

2 thoughts on “Mandala for How the World Works”

  1. Man Dreams of Chicken With a Golden Egg is a Shakespearean actor. He has a white frilly collar. His sharp nose hides his mouth – nothing is coming from his mouth as I see it. I am fascinated that the chicken with the golden egg cannot be seen by him, but by everyone else. He and the chicken are silly. It is a comedy.

  2. Mandala for How the World Works
    If the world actually work from the Core of Peace then I am just arriving there. I believe we received some good training to get by on very little – be resourceful, learn good survival skills. It has not been in my training to ask for a lot consciously. However, at some point, something else took over and I did want something badly enough to insist. Really insist. It more or less had to bypass my brain to do it. So now perhaps we are under a little more conscious control.
    So now I get to start asking, discerning, choosing.

    The Ring of Fire Mandala – excellent use of color – warm and cool. It is rare to see a mandala with organic shapes, gotta try that! The shapes around the hand and the star seem anemone like, and then water and seaweed. Primal.
    By the way, the red ribbon on the Man With the Chicken – he is a bit of a fop- he likes the red ribbon at his neck. Perhaps it is the ribbon of his love and he will draw a sword for that love.

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