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..:: The Mental Field VI ::..

“Mandalas”

By

Alan Schneider

            My goal in writing this series thus far has been to establish the general dynamics of perception occurring in what I have called The Mental Field – our extended human experience of perception, as opposed to our ego-analysis of that perception. For the sake of completeness, ego-analysis was included in The Mental Field series as the common perceptual mode occurring on the Physical Plane of experience – the interactive mode of the physical senses, neural responses, and cultural classification that forms the composite of the ego. This mode of perception was equated with the First Chakra Muladhara – the physical survival center of consciousness on the Physical Plane of experience. The Hindu Chakra System of consciousness classification was chosen as a preferred system, in view of its relative simplicity and comprehensibility, and occasionally augmented by the Cabalistic Tree of Life System, and the Jungian Sphere of Consciousness, as these other two systems served some necessary and specific purpose on given occasions.

            The process of exploration of the many additional levels of perception has been presented, beginning with the Astral State of experience at the level of the Chakra Svadisthana – the pleasure and reproductive center of consciousness – and the first center encountered beyond the physical senses. The method of meditation was advocated as the most all-around desirable approach to the investigation of the planes of consciousness beyond the Physical Plane, due to its relatively voluntary, controllable involvement in the ego-relaxation process.  

            As opposed to classifying the sexual and reproductive symbolism that ties the Astral Plane to Svadisthana Chakra – and such a classification is certainly relevant and appropriate – the perceptual dynamic effecting the transition of consciousness into the Astral Plane was stressed to the reader. The specific mechanism of this transition was presented as the Threshold of Chaos in conscious perception, and was defined as the state beyond which no sense of any kind could be made of perception, and we find ourselves confronting what amounts to background noise at the foundation of the perception. The contention was asserted that this Threshold concealed a complex and extensive array of chaotic strange attractors that contained an orderly program of conscious states beyond ego perception, including the Chakras themselves, and that this psychic material would emerge from the Threshold in due time and appropriate sequence for a patient observer. 

            In the Guardians essay, the concept of psychic “watchdogs” overseeing the process of consciousness exploration was suggested, and the example of the Hindu Shakti image of Kali was used as an example of one such Guardian figure – the one guarding access into the Seventh (and highest) Chakra, Sahasrara – the abode of the Logos and the Jungian Self. This phenomenon was equated with the Sephorah Daath in the Tree of Life System, and was referred to as the Portal of Shiva, with “Shiva” understood as another term for the Logos and the Self. Kali was equated with Daath and The Portal of Shiva as functionally being both constructs as a Guardian Shakti of Shiva. Although I did not go into this in Guardians, The Sephoroth of Kether, Chokma, and Binah, all located immediately beyond Daath in the Supernal Triangle of the Tree of Life, are the equivalent of Brahma, Vishnu, and Shiva of the Hindu Godhead, all residing in the Chakra Sahasrara. Shiva is traditionally considered to be the first element of the Godhead encountered in Ascension into Sahasrara, with the whole process driven by various Shakti expressions, culminating with Kali as the final destroyer of the ego, granting access to Sahasrara thereby.  

            The current essay deals with the “shape” of perception as it seems to occur in human conscious – the circular Mandala form. The image of a circular or spherical motif is almost universal in spiritual and psychological systems. Not only are the Chakras literally translated as “wheels” in Sanskrit, but the Sephirah are conceived of as “glowing spheres” on the Tree of Life, and even the Jungian representation of the Psyche is shown as a spherical field. It would appear that even the cognitive images of perception occurring on the Physical Plane are, when closely examined, taking a more or less circular form of manifestation in The Mental Field. Why is this motif of such common occurrence? What does this imply for human perception?  

            Referring back to the Threshold of Chaos, this phenomenon acquires a very much less intimidating aspect when it is referred to as the Portal of Chaos, because a portal is itself an orderly structure through which information and images emerge, and back through which they can be sent. The theories presented on prayer and meditation given in the article Communion will perhaps come to the reader’s mind here. And the Threshold is in fact just such a circular or ovular Portal in consciousness when subjected to close observation, with or without the ego’s assistance – another Mandala form occurring in consciousness – even though we have reached to absolute limit of meaningful expression.  There must be a universal strange attractor determining this choice of expressive mode for human consciousness – even the mechanical shape of expression is, in all likelihood, transmitted to us from the Intelligences on the “other side” of the ego.  

            The suggestion was made in Communion that the Threshold of Chaos, which hence forth shall be called the Portal of Chaos, effectively comes to be populated with so much psychic material as a consequence of ongoing Astral practice that it becomes an alternative “reality” that can be accessed at will by the adept practitioner, who comes to know which archetypal symbolic entities tend to deliver information from the Portal, including willful behaviors consistent with intelligent purpose, which ones can transmit information back into the Portal, and which ones are simply there to either observe or maintain the spiritual balance of power. 

            The Mandala is a very potent spiritual motif of representation. Simply portraying some visual symbolic material in a circular format will invest it with archetypal presence and spiritual power. Physical objects placed within the confines of a circle will become psychically charged, whether or not any spiritual consecration of any kind whatsoever was performed before hand, although the performance of such a consecration will certainly enhance the potency of the circle and the objects within it. A circle can be visualized as extending from the Portal of Chaos onto the psychic “floor” before it, and “questionable” entities can be held there for examination before being admitted into quasi-physical expression, or sent back into the Portal, perhaps with a prayer, incantation, or other message.  With regard to such questionable psychic manifestations, it must be said that great care should be taken to exclude the Dark Entities present on the Lower Astral Plane from manifestation at the Portal – only negative outcomes can result from such occurrences. Again, as has been stressed so often in these pages, clean and empty is the best way to approach and enter the Portal and the Higher Planes of Manifestation. Any emotional turmoil or turbulence present in the mind will attract the Dark Entities, all of whom are parasitic, and seek to feed on human distress and the human Soul thereby. Be warned!  

            Meditation Yantras are frequently shown in Mandala form as expressions of their spiritual potency, and to enhance that potency as well. Rites and rituals conducted within or near a circular monument – such as the well known Stonehenge site in England – will automatically acquire enhanced spiritual potency and presence. Thus, even in the case of literal manifestations on the Physical Plane, power and potency tend to follow circular or spherical form, as shown by the Sun, the Planets, galaxies, comets, tornados, whirlpools, mechanical elements (wheels, tires, axels, pistons, etc.), and missals and firearms, to name a few examples.  When the circular physical manifestation is set in rotation of some rate and form, the potency is further increased by additional factors of influence, sometimes geometrically so.  

            Even the most essential process at work in the shaping of all human affairs – Karma – is most often characterized as a wheel or circle, and the process of Karmic manifestation, release, and mitigation is represented as cyclical in character, developing in expression as the Karmic Wheel turns through time history. This is perhaps a clue to the origin of the Mandala form in the Psyche – as a reflection of the root form of all consciousness – the Logos itself.  

            At the Core of Awareness exists an infinite field of White Light and Unconditional Love. I have suggested that, as consciousness, we emerge from this field at or near birth, and return to it at or before death. This condition is symbolized by the Chakra Sahasrara, the Thousand Petaled Lotus – a Lotus having a field of White Light at its center. When I entered Sahasrara in Samadhi, and entered the White Light in Heart of The Lotus, I lost the sense of Mandala perception, regaining this only upon returning to my physical sense perception at the conclusion of that experience. I can only surmise, based upon the nature of this phenomenon, that Mandala-structured perception occurs as a consequence of the lingering influence of the body of flesh and its attendant ego. Somehow, when we are given the physical vehicle of perception, the body, we are also given the Mandala as the mental vehicle of perception, and the extra-sensory perception beyond that of the Portal of Chaos and all the extended states of manifestation contained within it.  

            So it would appear that the consciousness of the Psyche manifests as a series of portals or circular gateways that proceed from a central source hidden in chaos, right down to and including the perception of the physical senses on the Physical Plane at the level of Muladhara consciousness, and that the apparently real physical elements present there are Karmic mirrors designed to reflect and reveal the Soul and the Logos to human perception as we evolve in the spirit. I give you this gift... 

                                                                                 - With Love, Alan -

                                                                          (CR2008, Alan Schneider)

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