“In the world we live in, we sometimes hide our emotions, but they are still there inside us. The mandala is an intuitive and spontaneous way to release these emotions. It also works on the unconscious,” said Irena Belova, my mandala instructor, explaining how the mandala can help people express their inner selves. I certainly find it both spontaneous and relaxing. It also helped to give me relief from the stresses and uncertainty that have recently characterised the political scene in Egypt. My first mandala session was in September. At first, I was concerned that mandalas would require artistic talents that I did not have, but I soon discovered that you do not need to have any particular artistic talent to benefit from this type of self-revealing and self-healing art. A mandala is basically an image enclosed in a circle, whether this circle is visible or invisible. Whatever you put in the circle comes naturally as an expression of your inner self. In my first session, I drew a circle and started dividing it into symmetrical shapes that expressed the inner feelings I had in my mind at the time. I recalled the geometrical shapes that I had learned in school, and I drew them in a certain way that produced my first incomplete mandala. Then I chose the colours that suited my mood. After my first session, I felt more energetic, more satisfied, less stressed, and free from negative feelings. I was looking forward to the following session. The time had passed very quickly although the session had lasted for four hours. The only drawback of this first session was that I had not finished my mandala. I felt relief and wholeness when I had time to finish it two days later. Vladya, whom I met in the mandala sessions, has found in drawing mandalas a creative process which opens up hidden abilities. After drawing a mandala, she says, she feels more inspiration and energy to do the other crafts she enjoys. Vladya also appreciates the kind of emotional wholeness that the types of craft she does can create in her inner self. “We usually draw all day long without realising how the time is passing, and at the end of the day I don't feel tired at all. On the contrary, I feel more energetic,” she added. Vladya, who is in her late 20s, came to know Belova from her other craft classes. “When Belova told me about the mandala, I was very interested and decided to start the mandala classes as well,” she said. The word mandala means centre in Sanskrit, an ancient Indian language. Other meanings include circumference and magic circle. “When you draw a circle, you connect to your inner self. Then you express yourself with symbols and shapes in a mandala. It is a way of expressing the emotions and feeling,” Belova said. Practising mandala means drawing around one centre, and that allows you to connect yourself together in a way that can make you feel wholeness. “It is a sort of reordering of yourself on paper,” she added. The mandala is also intuitive in the sense that you do not have to think a lot when you draw one. Whatever comes to mind should be put down on the paper. Belova, now in her early 30s, said that she had come across mandalas some three years ago and had then decided that she should try to practise this art. She taught it to herself and later decided to teach it to others to help them share the benefits with her. Different forms of art have been used throughout human history to access the subconscious mind, to deal with emotional issues, and to ease the pains of life. Forms of art like singing, dancing, mime and theatre have been used as forms of emotional expression that have helped people to live through difficult events. All these forms, including mandalas, can work on a subconscious level through the energy they transmit. This energy, vibrating on a higher level, has the power to unblock and transform the energies in our bodies, minds and souls. Mandalas can be broadly defined as geometric designs that are intended to symbolise the universe, with reference being made to their use in Hindu and Buddhist practices. In the earliest Indian or Indo-European religions, mandala is the term for a chapter or collection of verse hymns chanted in Vedic ceremonies, perhaps coming from a sense of roundness, as in a round of songs. In these early religions, the universe was believed to originate from such hymns, whose sacred sounds contained the genetic patterns of beings and things, so there was already a clear sense of the mandala as a kind of world-model. The mandala was also a symbol in the Buddhist religion. In the context of the Buddhist path, the purpose of a mandala is to put an end to human suffering, to attain enlightenment, and to attain a correct view of reality. It is also a means to discover the sacred by the realisation that it can reside within. The modern usage of the mandala comes largely from Carl Jung, a Swiss psychiatrist who worked with many patients in the middle decades of the last century. Jung started with his own experience of drawing circles, or circular shapes and designs, and noticed that these somehow affected his inner self, feelings and thoughts. Then he tried to encourage his patients to make their own mandalas and look closely at them. “When you finish your mandala, you can look at it for some time. You can mediate on the mandala and can also get a message from looking at it. When you look at it again at a different time, it can also deliver another message,” Belova said. Jung finally arrived at the conclusion that the self, the wholeness of the personality, is reflected in the mandala or circular drawing. He also thought that the mandala a person spontaneously drew at any given moment was a gentle reminder of, or an urge to live out, that person's true potential. In fact, according to Jung a mandala can prompt an individual towards a faster realisation of his or her potential. “Jung said that the human is whole. But sometimes we lose connection to the parts. A mandala can help a person feel whole again,” Belova said. Such therapeutic effects can come in two different ways, the first through expressing one's inner emotions on paper via shapes and colours. “Not everyone can express their feelings or stresses verbally, but most of us can express them on paper. Mandalas can be one of these means of expression on paper,” Belova explained. The second way that mandalas can act therapeutically is through their capacity to heal. “Mandalas reassure one that if she has the will to heal herself, she can. She can solve her own problems,” Belova added. Mandala drawing has brought me a particular satisfaction in the sense that it, like life, consists of many parts. You may not like a part of it, but you definitely like, or at least accept, the whole. Given that drawing mandalas has opened up the scope for me to rediscover my inner self, vent negative energy, and discover new potential, my next step is to start using mosaic glass rather than colours in making mandala designs. The challenge is to find an instructor to teach me.
