Quarternity : Mandalas and Waiting for Godot
I had to abandon the idea of the superordinate position of the ego... 1 saw that everything, ail paths I had been following, all steps I had taken, were leading back to a single point - namely, to the mica-point. If became increasingly plain to me that the mandala is the centre- it is the exponent of all paths. If is the path to the centre, to individuation. . Carl Jung. Memories, Dreams, Reflections
Our point of departure for exploring the concept of "paradise" is the very garden which bears It's name. The Paradise Garden was a form of garden derived from the Persian word paradeisoi, meaning a walled garden. The enclosed compound was often a cultivated orchard and was walled to protect ifs contents from the wilds beyond. The formal paradise garden was a quadripartite garden, often divided into It's four parts with channels of water, symbolizing the four Avers of water milk wine and honey. Quarternity : Mandalas and Waiting for Godot seeks to explore the nature of the division of four
This exploration begins with the mandala. Mandala is the Sanskrit word for Circle. The circle with a center is a basic structure of creation that exists on all scales from the micro to the macro. This pattern exists across many cultures and tl me periods. From ancient sand plantings of Tibetan monks, to the Celtic tree of life ,to the Taoist Yin-Yang to the labyrinth, ail of these forms are mandalas. Even Samuel Beckett's play Waiting for Godot is a mandala. The four characters represent the four archetypal personalities or the four aspects of the soul. Vladimir, Estragon, Pozzo, and Lucky spend the two acts revolving about a lone free white mailing for the mysterious Godot who will finally bring meaning to their lives and Save them from their existential angst. Life happens. even white waiting for paradise.
Carl Jung, in his extensive studies of mandalas and the mandala process writes:
The goal of contemplating the processes depicted in the mandala is that the yogi hall become inward/y aware of the deity. Through contemplation, he recognizes himself as God again, and thus returns from the illusion of individual existence into the universal totality of the divine state.
(Competitor's text)
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