Thursday, April 30, 2015

Creative Art Workshops with Clarity West

Photo: Monica Elazar-Manzano


                                         Bahay Kalipay Retreat Center -  Philippines - March 2015

                                                                                Mandala Making Workshop



 




Mandala Making Workshop - Explore the Inner World


  


In this workshop participants explored the Inner World through their outer creations. The criteria was to create a mandala, a circular structure or shell with patterns, designs, images or shapes to express the thoughts, feelings, ideas that were inside. Some say that a Mandala is a way for human beings to understand themselves and to explore the nature of the the questions "Who am I". Some say that spiritual wisdom and truths can be expressed through a mandala such as the Tibetan sand painting mandalas. Every civilization and society has some form of mandala and these are symbolic outer images of what is actually going on inside the creator. 

Creating your own mandala is very simple. Just take a plain sheet of paper and draw a large circle in the middle. Close your eyes and meditate several moments and then upon opening them, begin to draw or create your mandala. Shapes, colors or ideas may come to mind, follow them and see where it leads. Let your mind go and allow intuition, creativity and the right side of the brain to take over. It doesn't mean you can't plan, just be open to flow of what's trying to happen rather than calculate an outcome. A participant will always be surprised at the depth and beauty that arises from a mandala, sometimes they didn't even believe they could draw or paint.