Offer a Mandala & Prayers | Step 6 of Awakening in 30 Steps

 Step 6 concludes the Six ‘Ordinary Preliminaries,’ a container or crucible for our visualization practice.

Can you integrate your personal spiritual practice - yoga, dance, martial arts, art, writing etc. - into this container?

Conclude your daily practice by offering a mandala.

A mandala is a vision of a transformed or purified world that we offer to the mentors and spirit guides, beseeching them to help us manifest our vision.

Key principle 1 - We have to envision it before we can actually create it.

Key principle 2 - The brain doesn’t know the difference between real-world and virtual or imagined experiences. They both impact our mind, brain, and nervous system.

If we can create illness based on traumatic memories (mental images) we can create optimal health based on sacred outlooks, attitudes and lifestyle.

Four levels of the mandala offering are what we imbue or inject into the vision:

1) sensory delights

2) virtues - good experiences

3) blissful states

4) profound insights

Try memorizing and rehearsing the prior steps before each session.

 For more on lam rim practice check out the Lam Rim Meditation series.