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Painting
Working with Emotions
Yantra painting is a sacred art, based on the
tantric concepts of the Vedas, ancient scriptures of knowledge
and wisdom of India.

Debbie Gillingham
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Tantra fosters awareness of the divine and
enhances ones sadhana and spiritual practice to produce more
self knowledge. When ones has self knowledge ones is able to
communicate more effectively, completely and harmoniously through
love, trust, skill and step into the circle of truth by honoring
and understanding ones emotional make up.
A yantra is a powerful meditation tool, especially if constructed
and painted in the traditional method of chanting sacred mantras
while painting, that purify the mind and allow the heart to
be in its fullest, clearest and highest expression.
Yantras are a symbolic representation of the various deities that
govern the health and balance of each chakra. They are used for ritual worship
and to overcome specific emotional patterns and limiting constrictions. Yantras
are visual patterns and are expressions of primal mathematical relationships involved
in the structure, creation and dissolution of the universe. They are gateways
to a mythical world and have a direct and immediate effect on the emotions and
the holographic vibrations that govern our existence, individual perceptions and
worldview.
A deeply meditative experience yantra painting produces
lasting and positive results re-aligning the psychological
profile of the individual personality.
A yantra, geometric mandala, is a holistic symbol
for the universal cosmology according to the ancient Hindu
tradition. The mandalas are attributed to different planets
and deities and used for worship, healing and meditation.
They are present in millions of households and most Hindu
temples, especially in southern India. Painting and constructing
them is based on a tantric concept of uniting the male/female
principle and thereby bringing a more harmonious and androgynous
state of consciousness into being. Each part of the yantra
has profound significance and although pretty to look at,
it is actually not so simple to paint. The geometry has its
relationship in the energetics of the chakras, the subtle
energy centers that govern our evolution and in painting reveal
an insightful energetic process in the painter. There are
astrological and numerical yantras, architectural yantras
and the yantras of the entire celestial pantheon of the Hindu
mythology.
The act of drawing and painting yantras teaches
the mind to concentrate and observe the emotional process
while doing so. Focus and vigilant attention are needed as,
if one makes a mistake, it will show toward the center of
the yantra as all is done with precision and reveals the interconnectedness
of everything. Psychologists have observed that painting mandalas
and geometric forms engages the right hemisphere of the brain
which is visual and nonverbal. Yantra painting creates inner
silence and fosters self awareness as initially most people
deal with some
emotional blocks, impatience or miscalculate the dimensions.
With diligence eventually a beautiful yantra emerges that
will have a significant centering effect on the painter and
may free up some emotional tension.
Mandalas represent the cosmos and, yantras in
specific, since they are focused around a central point have
a clearing effect on the retinal and geniculate cells thereby
creating an inner harmony. Symmetrical geometric patterns
seem to eventually produce a similar effect on both sides
of the brains hemisphere and create a centered state when
a yantra is used with the recitation of a specific mantra
or beeja sound. This is a particularly useful exercise as
it has been observed that westerners are more left hemisphere
oriented and are deficient in right hemisphere education which
has diminished our intuitive capacities, and with it the faith
in higher values. In that sense yantra painting is a sacred
activity.
During the painting process the attitude and
the consciousness of the student become self evident to the
painter as the focus, commitment and the application of the
tools and flow, and later on the right mixing of the paint
to represent and honor the tradition, reveal all aspects of
ones life. The emotional blocks, the nature of the three Gunas
~ rajas, tatvas and sattvas ~ become apparent and often floods
of anger, impatience, frustration or great sadness and hopelessness
are experienced in the mind stream of the student. This is
parallel to how one approaches one's life and reveals the
devotion, or lack thereof, to divine guidance. One's self-judgment,
the tendency to chatter or turn superficial, rather than commit
to the task at hand, also become obvious. One's competitive
nature and the ongoing and often subtle, or not so subtle,
expressions of the ego appear. One looses the thread, the
connection, the alignment. It takes great concentration, spaciousness
and compassionate skill to paint a yantra and imbue it with
sacred mantras to allow it to become a tool of protection
and an outpouring of one's heart energy. Yantra painting cannot
be mastered with the intellect or mechanical "Know How"
~ even if one is an accomplished painter.
Most of it, except for the instructional parts
offered by the facilitator, is done in silence and attention
to the individual, profound self-transformative experience.
Generally, a yantra is composed of a square on the outside,
with four projections forming a T-shaped structure and four
entrance gates into the inner circle of petals, which represent
the heart, and some triangulate forms inside the lotus petals.
Sometimes there are two triangles overlapping forming a six
pointed star.
The main focus is on the inner central
point or dot. It is said in the Upanishads: "GOD, being
the immovable mover, is the still point around which everything
revolves". Completed yantras have an archetypal quality
and every student will get to paint and complete one yantra
during the weekend which will be enjoyable and meaningful
in their own journey as a reference to planetary yoga and
the healing within producing healing without, visualizing
world peace.
Learn
more about Yantra Painting Workshops
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