Nine Designs for Inner Peace: The Ultimate Guide to Meditating with Color, Shape, and Sound Book

Description

A complete guide to creating planetary yantras to access their healing and centering benefits

• Provides easy-to-follow instructions to create the yantras
• Serves as an introduction to active meditation, which focuses the mind while the body is engaged in a meditative activity

The tantric art of drawing or painting the nine designs known as yantras is an ancient practice of active meditation that releases positive healing and centering effects. Each of the nine designs corresponds to one of the nine qualities of body and mind essential to well-being: radiance, nourishment, passion, intellect, expansion, bliss, organization, uniqueness, and spirituality. From the basic elements of the square, the circle, and the triangle, dynamic visual meditations unfold as the practitioner works clockwise from the outer elements inward toward the central point of stillness, or bindu, the source of happiness within. An accompanying mantra is recited while preparing each yantra to fully engage the senses in the meditative process. Creating the design that “speaks” most to the practitioner enables its unique healing quality to be transmitted. For example, working on the yantra named “Radiance” cultivates optimism and the self-confidence to succeed in one’s endeavors, while “radiating,” or imparting, one’s inner light to others. This workbook provides an important resource for active meditation, a practice revered for its effectiveness in revealing the spiritual underpinnings of everyday life. The active participation of the body in meditation while creating the nine planetary yantras raises to the level of spiritual ritual the practitioner’s intention toward wakefulness and gives access to profound states of healing integration.

Book Excerpt:

Om Sham Shanaye Namaha Organization If you are drawn to the Organization Design, it is time for you to bring some order to the world around you to help you connect with the silence within. Disharmony arises if the work or home space is chaotic or cluttered. By clearing out that which no longer serves you and organizing that which remains, a huge sense of relief and wellness is brought to the body and mind. Purification not only of the space around you but also the physical body could be a good idea for you now. Paying special attention to your diet, keeping it simple and nutritious, and developing an exercise regime that works for you will be most helpful. It has long been known that you can use the physical body as a focal point to develop spiritual awareness. A deep place of silence can be found by meditating on the physical body in all forms of physical exercise including yoga asanas and t’ai chi as well as receiving bodywork and massage. The planet associated with this Yantra is Saturn. Saturn is the slowest moving planet in the solar system and is the farthest away from Earth. Saturn helps with attention to the details in your life. It facilitates methodically working through that which may seem to be taking a long time to come to fruition. Every project has its own timeline, and some take longer than others. For the longer projects this is your Yantra. It invokes patience, endurance, and the stamina not only to continue where others may have given up but also to thrive on the riches that can develop only when much time has been invested in something. With such persistence and faith you will experience a ripening and maturing as you arrive at your grace-filled destination. The blue sapphire is the gemstone for Saturn. This stone emits a starlike blue ray from its center. The star is found at the center of the Organization Design. A high-quality blue sapphire is the color of a peacock’s neck, or a velvety cornflower blue. The blue sapphire is the most powerful gemstone. The colors in the Organization Design are very dark, signifying this intense power in addition to the cold, dark quality of Saturn. Saturn is known as the enemy of light. For those drawn to the Organization Design, the quiet that comes from a dark, cavelike space will be helpful for finding stillness within. This design suggests a need for solitude, some quiet time away from noisy crowds. Enjoying time alone in silence–perhaps taking a walk by yourself–will be a good way to restore your connection to the sacred. Whenever I create the Organization Design I feel drawn inward in response to the dark blue colors. The centering effect the Yantra possesses is highlighted by this inward pull. By spending time in a quiet state, many emotions may surface that in the busyness of your day you generally do not notice. Here the witnessing and naming of the emotions that arise will allow you to let go of them and move into a deep place of inner peace. The qualities of integrity, honesty, faithfulness, loyalty, and trust all stem from the lessons learned on some of the slower journeys we take through life. The wisdom garnered becomes a source of great dignity and light, which can inspire silence in those with whom you come in contact. The sound vibration for Organization is: Om Sham Shanaye Namaha (OM SHAAM SHAN-AY-YAY NAHM-AH-HAH) This means: I honor the silence and order within and around me. By repeating this sound (either externally or internally) while working with the visual Yantra, the qualities of organization and silence will permeate all you do.

Organization Recipe Mantra Om Sham Shanaye Namaha

The Shapes Bhupur Circle Eight petals Six-pointed star Bindu

Assembling the Shapes

• 1. Construct the outline. Make the inner gates.
• 2. Create one circular band to contain the eight petals.
• 3. Construct the eight petals.
• 4. Follow the steps for the six-pointed star.
• 5. Finally place the bindu at the center.
• 6. Erase all guidelines and extra markings.

Design Notes: In the Organization Design the blues are seen upon a contrasting silver and white surface. This deep mix of blues–seemingly blue-black but created with the addition of both reds and yellows–gives a mysterious velvety shimmer that will lure you into the surface of the Yantra. The depth created by these colors is stunning. The effect of gazing at the deep blue hues creates a feeling of light within. Through meditation on this color there is an awakening of the higher spiritual centers in the body.

Color : Colored pencils: A range of dark blues, grays, red, purple, golden yellow, and white. Gouache paints: Gold, silver, golden yellow, prussian blue, ultramarine blue, magenta, and white.

Color Notes: The dark blue background is darker than the brighter blue star; the petals appear smokey with the addition of black and white. The space behind the eight petals is silver. The outer gate is gold, and the inner gate is deep golden yellow. Use the full-page color image to guide you. Paperback, 192 pages. Published December, 2007.

About the Author:

Sarah Tomlinson studied yantra painting in India with tantric master and artist Harish Johari, who revealed to her the healing power of meditation with yantras. She is the founder and co-director of the Ayurveda-Yoga Institute of New York, and she trains teachers and students throughout the U.S. and U.K. She lives in New Jersey.