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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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