POD
Garden Mandala: A Journey Shared
I've shared the results of my spiritual journey with a circle of friends over the past few years. Writing is by far the most comfortable way for me to express myself, though, and must be why i feel moved to share my experience in this medium.
Not in the mood to read?: a quick index
- Guided Meditation
- Daily Prayer
- Ideas for your own
- Mandalas and Tibetian Buddhists
- Rosary Links
- How i learned: a prayer
- (Another prayer, in the same mode, by The Rev. Grant M. Gallup)
- Meditation for the Qualifying Exam
- Invocation
- Prayer for Inspiration
- (Another prayer, in the same mode, by The Rev. Grant M. Gallup)
The GardenMandala Project
Some time ago, more than a year but far less than a decade, i was searching for a spiritual discipline. As a rebellious sort, inclined to rebel even against my own desires, discipline is a great challenge. And as a spiritual rebel, i was hard put to identify my options. Raised a Presbyterian, i can hardly think of a spiritual tradition from my youth. Perhaps reading the Bible every day. This would be a discipline of study, which is what i do with the rest of my life at this point, and carried out alone would lead only to more sarcastic margin notes in my study text.I'd decided that now was not the time to become a member of the Society of Friends as i knew i was not a a point where i could immerse myself in the community which is an important aspect of the Friends' testimony as i understand it. Joining a Wiccan coven might have appealed to me, but i'd be hard pressed to find a teacher i respected close to home. My minister, who was stunned to find that not only do i consider her my minister, but also that she is named on my "In Case of Emergency" wallet card as someone to call, recommended a friend to act as a Spiritual Guide. AA is a Quaker turned Episcopal, who responded to my description of the appeal of Wicca by nurturing my love of trees with the book The Attentive Heart: Conversations with Trees, Stephanie Kaza, c 1993. As my spouse mused, though, i'm not an easy person to guide, and i'm not sure what was going on with my lunches with AA. Nevertheless, upon hearing the early stages of this endeavor, she encouraged me to go forward.
It was the challenge of a friend of mine who was immersed in moo-society at the time, that initiated this project. What would i build in the virtual space of the moo? Immediately, the gardens i plan during the half hour walks to work or the eight hour drives to be with my spouse came to mind. The virtual gardens i already appreciated for their lack of weeds and resistance to drought. When i needed a high hillside with southern exposure, there it was. When i needed beach front, there were no zoning restriction and no developers inflicting their environmentally insensitive lawns nearby. Which gardens would i use were i to build a public space? How would they be structured? I think the entire design came as i soaked in the tub, a central formal garden with new gardens at each of the compass points.... And the liberation from Cartesian geometry did my rebel soul good.
Somehow, very quickly, the gardens took on a spiritual meaning that has not let me go. I made a first attempt at cyber representation initially, and i sketched some ground plans (feeling like i ought to know what herbs grew where, yet believing that that may not be the point at all), but slowly the work of tending the garden seemed to be less in inventing and more in experiencing That Which Is through the metaphors. A Buddhist friend plus an exhibit at the Philadelphia Museum of Art plus a beautiful web site gave me the startling insight that what I was doing was not entirely new, but was much like the Tibetian Buddhist use of the mandala. Presently, I am beginning to explore how the rosary might be a similar technique for discipline and meditation after a discussion with a Catholic friend (who i must say has taken to making her own mandala or garden like a fish to water) pointed out that the mysteries were in some ways similar.
Intriguing Rosary sites gleaned from Alta Vista
Late in 1995 i felt stirred to begin thinking about how i could share
what i was doing. I had attempted to discuss it with people, but found
it difficult to separate out the rich detail of the creative experience
from the power of the spiritual experience. A workshop of some sort would be
the only way i could think to share it, yet i hardly felt i had the
authority or experience from which to lead. Indeed, in my joyfully wondering
off to do my own thing i had found myself in a marvelous land with no
language to communicate the experience with others "back home." How could
i lead people off into their own lands?
Nevertheless, my minister provided the opportunity, and i spent the first three Thursdays sharing my experience with the circle of friends i worship and explore. First i shared the Guided Meditation , essentially baring my soul more than i could imagine. I ended that meeting and all the other meetings with my Daily Prayer. The next week we discussed some ideas for your own. And the last week we shared our new homes, and i felt incredibly blessed with the new visions everyone else offered up.
TO COME: "processing" of the workshop experience and the insights i gained.
Last updated 7 Ninth month 1996
All Garden Mandala texts are © 1996 by PhoenixElaine. However, please feel free to share the contents, retaining the attribution. If you would like to include the prayer in a newsletter, just let me know and mail a copy to me at 4807 Cedar Ave. 3F, Philadelphia, PA 19143. If you would like to use the meditation in a group, I'd also be flattered -- and would appreciate any feedback. Please contact me before use in any widely distributed publication.
