I am overjoyed that I had the opportunity to spend three days at Peace Love Yoga in Glassboro, painting mandalas on the walls as murals. Well, technically “mandala” is Sanskrit for “circle”, and I painted half a mandala on one wall, and just over one quarter of a mandala on another.
The finished mural on the large wall.
Mandalas come from the Tibetan Buddhist tradition, and have been described as follows by the BBC in an article about sacred sand mandalas:
A mandala is a symbolic picture of the universe. It can be a painting on a wall or scroll, created in coloured sands on a table, or a visualisation in the mind of a very skilled adept.
The mandala represents an imaginary palace that is contemplated during meditation. Each object in the palace has significance, representing an aspect of wisdom or reminding the meditator of a guiding principle. The mandala's purpose is to help transform ordinary minds into enlightened ones and to assist with healing.
Below, you can get a look at the project at various points in the process. If you click on an image, it should embiggen for you so you can see it a bit better.
If you are interested in seeing what close to five hours of mural painting looks like, I’ve got you covered:
And, of course, I am on fairly strict rest for the remainder of this week, because my joints were overtaxed (ladders, painting) and now require a bit of TLC. My wrists are both sporting braces, in fact, just to help them rest better and to ensure I don’t overdo things. It’s super hard to do too much when you can’t bend your wrists!
I am in a perfectly good mood, despite the extra aches and twinges. How could I not be, when I spent so much time creating a large, happy mandala—twice? If you get a chance to take a yoga class at Peace Love Yoga, check out my work in Studio 1. And if you are interested in receiving more behind-the-scenes information and in information about positive living, please subscribe to my (mostly) weekly newsletter!