Day 28~ Another Midnight Mandala

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The most powerful lies are the ones we tell ourselves. They have the power to define our reality and how much we accept the reality defined by others. The reconciliation of our fantasies to the revelations of reality is expressed throughout the symbolism inherent to the cycles of Joan Kellogg's Great Round.

“Mindfulness helps us get better at seeing the difference between what’s happening and the stories we tell ourselves about what’s happening, stories that get in the way of direct experience. Often such stories treat a fleeting state of mind as if it were our entire and permanent self.”
― Sharon Salzberg, Real Happiness: The Power of Meditation

I have, in this brief, soon-to-be 30 day, exploration of the use of mandalas for healing, come to the conclusion that they are a method of developing, revealing, reflecting, documenting, and exposing our journey into "figuring it our for ourselves."

From: The Dance of the Seven Veils; Skinny Legs And All ~ Tom Robbins (1990)
"...there would be willing followers until humanity reached that philisophical plateau where it recognized that its great mission in life had nothing to do with the struggle between classes, races, nations, or ideologies, but was, rather, a personal quest to enlarge the soul, liberate the spirit, and light up the brain." 

"Even though the great emotions, the great truths, were universal; even though the mind of humanity was ultimately one mind, still, each and every single individual had to establish his or her own special, personal, particular, unique, direct, one-on-one, hands on relationship with reality..."

"We're making it up. All of us. It. All of it. The world, the universe, life, reality, especially reality. WE make it up. WE made it up. WE shall make it up. WE have been making it up. He, she, it makes it up."

The key is that we all must figure out how to apply that knowledge/realization to our daily lives. We must figure it our for ourselves.

We, you, me, I define reality. That definition is based on an instinctive, intuitive, inherited knowledge of the cycels of human existence.

"It is good to let ones mind travel from one dimension to another, alwasy to find its way back to the familiar, the land, the woods. For the ultimate secrets of the universe are contained withint the mind of man (humans). We have had the key, and it is within the abilities of each of us to fit it into the lock." ~ The Summer Woodlands, John R. Quinn (1980)

The development of My reality is also influenced by the realities of others which I permit to permeate, bump into, or overlap my own.  The extent of the influence is indicated or pre-determined  by my own confidence, security, and convictions regarding my existing perception of reality.

The power to make up reality is a power that can be used for good or evil. The duality of human nature indicates that it will be used for both.