We have an interesting subject today one which combines several different approaches to philosophy here we know the mandala in Indian symbolism is a cosmic diagram it is a symbol of existence in its various departments the two principal diagrams are the celestial and the terrestrial the celestial being the world of causes and the terrestrial the world of effects it is assumed that by the study of these symbols which were first brought to Asia sometime beginning of the Christian era that the study of the esoteric Sciences could be Advanced rapidly and the human being could be gradually transformed into a higher and more perfect being actually the mandala is a symbol and symbolism was the most ancient of all languages heard is the only way that Antiquity found of describing Invisibles if you could not relate something to a form and it remained as an idea and you wish to communicate it it was very often necessary to develop a special means of transmission especially if the subject was sacred and there was no way in which it could be simplified these internal symbolisms were gradually built into formal diagrams I remember once when I was in the city of Baroda in India there was a museum there it was devoted largely to the paintings of tagore but among all the pictures there was a kind of panoramic vertical scroll probably eight or ten feet in length to eat with covered with tiny figures and in the design there are thousands of little lines coming out from practically every pore of the human body every nerve end every vein every artery all the various structures including the larger ones such as the organs the brain all of these different parts of man's Constitution each one of them terminated in the figure of a deity there was a God for each nerve and they had identified them now this is a little difficult to accept probably among Western people but the main point is that the body is definitely a diagram it is a symbol of what is inside of it the physical attributes bear witness to spiritual potentials the search therefore for the meaning of self very often requires a study of this diagram which we may call the personality that part of ourselves which Bears witness the vast invisible potential behind it this personal diagram therefore is made up of several different levels and layers of symbolism in the first place it comes into conflict with a number of Western Scientific points of view one of which of course is the law of heredity the law of heredity would not be accepted to those who study the mandalas the reason being that the law of heredity would assume that the individual is merely the consequence of his forebears and this is entirely contrary to nearly all of the esoteric philosophies that the individuals should be only the continuance of a bloodline that his own personal actions should be dominated by the careers of his forebears that all the different attitudes and abilities and delinquences is inherent in him are of some other origin than his own is a little dangerous to the development of personal integration it is not needed or appropriate or honorable that we should be merely the continuation of a series of previous persons or Generations more or less delinquent we are rather than be unaware that taking a Modern Family where there are several children we will find that heredity does not work very well trying to understand these children they may be born from the same parents who brought up in the same Community live in the same house and attend the same schools but they are not the same heredity does not affect them all in the same manner one of these children is an outright extrovert determined to live its own life in its own way another is entire flying to a serious Neurosis which may continue throughout the entire period of their lives each of these persons is an individual bringing with him into embodiment the total of his previous achievements both to his credit and to his debit each one of us must do something to take care of the symptoms of our own needs our personalities reveal to us reasonably clearly where our achievements have been made and where our failures have been written down for the future we are all combinations of achievement and delinquency this is inevitable because we are imperfect but there is also a possibility of a thoughtful individual making a sincere effort to correct his own mistakes and in order to correct them he must understand them he must know why they are there where they came from and why he should be plagued today with something doesn't he not he does not even remember out of some past time so it is very important to recognize that the personality as a complete integration can be considered a mandala a meditation symbol always of course symbols are used in religion uh to explain or reveal Concepts or convictions that cannot be put into literal terms we cannot find the proper words to describe Divine Mysteries so we use symbolism to give us some concept some way of becoming aware of abstract truths that are beyond the common can of our intellects so this our point today is to see what we can do to study this personality Factor as we have brought it into this life this Factor goes to work probably by the time we are a year old it was there earlier but probably no one was aware of it but by the time a child is a few years old it becomes evident that it is an individual and that this individual because of its temperament because of its internal pressures is going to make a series of occurrences with which to surround itself some of these occurrences are going to be benevolent others going to be very difficult some are going to be dangerous but the individual is the source of them he is constantly revealing the pressures within himself now between the pressure which is of strange dark mystery on the inside and his personality on the outside there are a series of levels or stages of arbitration Bridges between principles and their Productions these have been these Bridges include the mine and the emotions the individual of course as an infant have very little control over either but as it gets older it discovers that one of the reasons for existence in this world is self-discipline failure of discipline is going to hamper the life throughout all the years the undisciplined person is going to gradually become the victim of his own mistakes as we see today the undisciplined younger generation struggling with the problem of Narcotics and alcohol study air stranding with all kinds of restrictions and limitations arising from lack of thoughtfulness lack of interest in self-analysis if these young people even though they get into trouble would learn something from the trouble then the symbol in the mandala would be advanced we would see the reason for something we would see the need for it and finally where we would be impaled to the accomplishment of that which is necessary unfortunately we don't think through things that way here in the West actually in the orient there is greater emphasis upon these matters and while industrialism is undoubtedly affecting adversely because the lives of many culture groups it Still Remains true that for the most part the Oriental is aware of his own heritage he is aware of the heritage of culture from which he came he has been brought up in a strong atmosphere of religious philosophy he has been told that all these sacred pictures and dramas all the plays and statuaries and paintings are part of a great revelation a revelation of The Mystery of Life The Mystery of being now we may say that if this is true why are all these Revelations so definitely different why should the Chinese approach it one way in the Hindus another the answer is very obvious they are both approaching it at this in the same way but with different terminology the symbolism and its obvious physical form is different the symbolism and its principles is the same all of these great systems of Ethics have one solid foundation it can be but one right even as they can be but on the only one light of one sun shining upon the world though that all these different groups are being impaled towards the investigation of themselves they are being impaled to think more clearly about the temperament the personality the integration that is within them John Casper lavata the great physiogenist of the 19th century late 18th also wrote a very comprehensive work on the ability or possibility of determining the nature of every individual by his appearance something about each person tells a story of himself but of course he's inside of himself therefore he cannot look at it from the outside he doesn't see what others see but lavata pointed out that one skillful Observer can determine the life patterns of almost everyone with whom he comes in contact this idea is so fascinated Gator that he spent a number of years studying with lavata to discover the internal potential of the individual by watching him the Hindus have what is called a science or art of gesture they make a science out of observing how people use their hands oh the hands then as in the case of the qingham Buddhism are mandalas and in the sacred books of the synagogue the two hands are depicted as symbols of the celestial and terrestrial worlds lines dots figures and marks upon them indicate the development and integration of the human being and also point the way to his responsibilities in this life but in any event we will say that the hands I watched with great care I have a little book in the library written by some Indian Seer long long ago in which he said that when a physician uh is watching a patient the patient comes in and sits down this position sits and looks at him after a few minutes of course unless the position says something the patient is apt to become fidgety you want to know why he isn't getting any attention and in the course of the fidgets he makes a series of motions he moves his hands he scratches his ear he knocks his fingers together he uh Smooths his arm he shifts from one side to another and by the time he had made about eight or ten of these motions The Physician has a complete diagnosis of his ailment nothing else we are the embodiment of our ailments we bear witness to them every moment and do not know it and all of these different conditions that arise in US gradually affect our daily living little by little we realize that other people who are not skilled in these matters have still have still a psychic awareness of them some people get hunches about other people they're quite sure that an extra sensory perception is at work it is not necessarily the case however the Observer has within itself or itself the power to estimate the things seen uh there is a very good story in that point about the famous bank teller who was very successful in preventing preventing uh miscarriages of economic Justice a person would come to cash a check and the van would look and tell her would look at him and know instantly that the man was not honest that the check was not right and he would go to check it on the records in the signatures and so forth then he was always correct and he was asked how it was that he was able to see a crook for just looking at him through the bar of a teller's cage he said it's very simple the moment he comes near I see certain symptoms one of the most common being perspiration I see a dampness on his features who tells me he is afraid so all these little details put together make a very good art or science of interpretation but while other people are around telling us what they think we are the problem of what the individual thinks about himself is the one that was most concerns us to know how we can estimate our own face in this great game of life in which we are all involved we can begin perhaps by looking at a sort of diary if we want to we can think back in our lives to the things that have happened to us we can know a little bit about our own reaction to all the different occurrences that through which we pass and then we come to a mandala Integrity namely that every reaction is a revelation our instantaneous uneducated or unconditioned reaction to a circumstance tells what we are why we have done this we do not know why did we did not react in some other way we do not know but the way we did it is a statement of what we are so we can look back over a series of years and see how we reacted to the circumstances with which we are surrounded what was our attitude when in school did we enjoy study did we have a pleasant association with our teachers did we develop a group of young friends of our own years who some of whom remains friends or remain friends over a lifetime what was our reaction to study and most of all what subject most interested is were we good in spelling but for an arithmetic were we very interested in reading but did not but never did develop an attractive handwriting we probably covered the latter by the idea that we probably would never use it anyway because we would type all our lives but anyway what were our reactions if we were reading books what kind of books did we like did we like heavy reading or very light reading did we read to being to entertained or instructed there that we like Adventure were we interested in sports were we concerned with the Romantic fiction today what makes us turn televisions on and off all of these things are constantly telling something about ourselves and they tell us something else that we have an almost incurable determination to cater to ourselves whatever we want it becomes important real and proper we do not consider the need to re-educate or to release some part of an over self that we all possess we know that we have faculties by which we can observe we are powers by which we can reflect upon things seen and heard but we do not generally speaking try to put this all together to make a person we do not try to understand the motives behind our own reactions we do not know why we are quite tempered or why we develop streaks of melancholy or why we are jealous of other people or why we are willing to contribute to delinquencies of others or to develop delinquencies of our own all these things tell us something but most people are not listening they do not recognize that all these are the Departments of an imperfect personality that is growing up in the midst of its own mistakes and it continually making them and Mary seldom finding ways of correcting them now to meet this emergency in the orient the mandala symbols are classified made into patterns and the individual is instructed in the selection of symbols suitable to his needs we don't have any such instruction at the present time at least formally speaking but we do have the pains and Sorrows of misuse or misunderstanding we'd soon develop the ability to realize when we are in a dangerous situation due to our own conduct situation we accept gladly that we are responsible we are reluctant to assume so all around us and within us are masses of Unfinished pressures that represent a vast diagram and this diagram is something we have to live with and something we have to work with throughout the years of life the failure to accept the truths the things that we experience inwardly the this failure tends to shorten life increase the probabilities of illness and detract from the probabilities of happiness these things have to be faced but no one seems to really want to face them and the evasion is that it is not ourselves that are that are to blame it is the nagging the unpleasantness the dispositions of those around us we are hurt by others and therefore react hurt whereas in the more they hurt the more we react and pretty soon we hurt worse than they do because we haven't faced anything clearly the one dollar according to Jin gong through Buddhism there is a great pattern of order everything is in proper equilibrium and the vast design of the interaction of Life factors ends in a magnificent symbol a radiant glorious balanced device that is a masterpiece of art as well as a basis of a great philosophical instruction the proper mandala is balanced the proper personal life is balanced and the individual who balances his life has as a result and a strength of Faculty a development of inner resource not possible in any other way in the west most people looking for instruction go to others whereas in the East the tendency of the individual is to seek within himself the causes of his own infirmities there's a reason for everything and that part of our Lives which have been part of our Lives which have been well lived bear witness to an integration we've already attained whereas the problems still challenge us to some other approach to the matter in the European the theater of things during the 17th century especially there was a great literature developed emblemata emblem books emblem books were written originally probably for the edification of children an emblem book was usually a series of pictures accompanied by a verse or brief prose statement in which a model of Truth was emphasized in other words when the child learned to read and reading with an acquirement in those days which was cherished and sought for by many who had great difficulty in securing any type of education but these are emblem books were very interesting because in each case the lesson in Reading was accompanied by a lesson in Morality and ethics he's little story had a very deep and important meaning each picture showed Something Beautiful Something Noble something wise being done each picture also resembled a beautiful landscape reminding us that the world around us is also a mandala the great tree is Amanda flowers blossom in the form of universal patterns everything is part of a one great light picture and this light picture is available to us all and the most important part is that it is not as difficult to find this picture and work with it as many people believe an artist for example will find some interesting thoughts in this field I talked to well-known artists one day and tried to discover how he made some very beautiful natural pictures that were acceptable for drawing rooms and living rooms by people who wanted something artistic and pleasing he told me for instance that he sat down with his sketch block and did a landscape that pleased him he sat quietly looking out over the countryside in the hills and saw a little Farmhouse and so on when he got back to his Studio he began to put this together as a picture and as the picture developed it became a symbol of a truth moving from nature through him onto paper or canvas the scene was censored by his own sight by his own judgment by his own into integration several different artists all painting the same landscape would come without with different results and if you question them intently to find out why each one could prove conclusively that he painted what he saw interpreting it by what he believes and all to all of them would be different this is true also in life from the basic foundations of our own Integrity as we interpret life we interpret the things that happen to us we interpret the Sorrows through which we pass the failures with which we have to abide and the various natural emergencies by which our conduct is constantly um agitated actually we are all living in about the same atmosphere some in the city some in the country but all on the same planet and most of those living on the planet do it differently they also regard usually the planet as an enemy they think of the enemy as something that is hurting them all the time they look at Wars they look at pestilence they look at droughts and crime and see what might be considered to a diseased environment but they are not willing for the most part to come down personally and admit that this is the environment they have earned for themselves that they are getting what they themselves deserve and if this is not quite enough inducement then the challenge is there nature will never permit anything to settle down quietly into the peace and comfort which it visualizes as desirable we will never be allowed to go anywhere on flowery beds of ease we are going to find Rocky Roads wherever we travel the point of the matter is we didn't deserve it or can't figure out why something happens to us then it would be necessary to realize that it may be a challenge something is unfinished business in ourselves that has to be symbolized in order to come to our attention in the old religious world people were tested about their convictions they went through initiation ceremonies they had ritualistic relationships with life they gathered together under instruction of teachers and became sages in due time these individuals were taught how to look at things how to understand them and when an emergency arose how to face it without a compromise of character when we get enough Temptation we get in and that doesn't usually take such an awful lot of Temptation to achieve this end actually we do not realize that everything that comes that needs solution should be solved not avoid avoided or evaded we should take the lesson head into it and do something about it and in doing something about it we have to use a whole group of faculties within ourselves it's very easy enough to do something about an unpleasant situation if we're willing to hurt people if we are willing to do something up unpleasant ourselves to avenge our feelings then it's comparatively simple but this is contrary to ethics and in the end is the self-destructing to work the faculties of life so that in a in a crisis all of the parts of the Mind unite for reconstructive creative proper solution to in a situation that may arise we are not supposed to live simply to cater to our own personal feelings and sacrifice the good of others to our jealousies envious or unpleasant attitudes we are supposed to find Solutions fair to everyone including ourselves we are not supposed to leave ourselves out of the picture but we must solve it in a way that we can be proud of ourselves and justly realize that we have done the right thing so to find all these Solutions we have to look inside of the person to find the faculties Paula describes 43 faculties of the human brain all of which had their ethical meanings in these among these faculties was veneration also combativeness once faculty made a good parent another made and a good public servant another group of faculties emphasized the Arts and another group The Sciences now a person coming into birth was one of these groups prominent or predominant would most likely drift into the field of that specialization up to a certain point this is good but nature is not very fond of specialization nature permits it because Nature has time enough to permit the Specialists to pass through a whole cycle of different specializations but an individual who having a certain group of faculties allows himself to be tyrannized by them finally ends this illusioned or disappointed and if in public life contributes usually to the misery of other persons it is therefore necessary if every specialist to become grounded in a general pattern in other words in the mandalas one of them there are nine divisions of these nine divisions each one can be made as a world pattern in itself these nine divisions are such that they have separated frequently and prevented as separate pictures each one of the nine having a special meaning of its own but altogether they form one kick major picture and this major picture means that it constitutes the kind of balance or normalcy within a person which enables him to live well with a specialization and also to maintain a generalization where the specialist becomes too intense he immediately begins to downgrade the achievements of other people his own particular specialty becomes all important there everything in the world hangs on him and what he is doing gradually this turns him into an arrogant egotist and also shuts off from him the inspirational faculties which he really needs to compute his own project the young devout scientist is in a very bad spot but he doesn't know it but the thing he is searching for will elude him as long as he remains a materialist therefore if he discovers this in himself it is high time for him to think something about it instead of trying to Bluff his way through doing it as he always has done it and suffering is from what he considers to be the persecution of those around him now in personal family life and relationships the mandalas form families the family is a symbol of universal integrity and Universal equilibrium the family represents the major basic elements of human society a family is a unit a family is not only a gathering of three persons to get along together the family is a means by which this Gathering becomes the physical source of the perpetuation of the race and the psychological source of the unfoldment and an evolution of each of the members therefore in the family we have a great pattern a great symbolism represented by the 47th proposition of Euclid this represents the most important unit in society Confucius points this out very clearly here is a pattern a pattern which could be diagrammed and is diagrammed into many different departments all of which arise from the one simple unit with which it all begins now this unit itself is the objectification of something inside of each of us for all three of us have the same basic Triad that constitutes the family we have the mind we have the emotions and we have the actions the mind and the heart and the Hand must work together these three are the units of a balanced individual just as surely it's the parent parents and the child are the equilibrium of the family Confucius pointed out that the family becomes therefore not only a representation of a personal equilibrium it not only represents a series of moral growths but also becomes a proper symbol of the universal government in a family if someone in it is a tyrant the family is basically destroyed the lack of joyous cooperation the lack of the recognition of values the lack of dignities the lack of sincerities and the constant development of individual selfishness willing to sacrifice the unit for its own advancement all of these are parts of a negative mandala and in the Tibetan system this type of mandala is shown with a monster in the center of it the monster of selfishness by means of which all good things are turned into evil a mountain of misdeeds heat up through self-centeredness the self-centered Avenger is that the individual always fails he cannot be selfish and right so the family in which each member decides that it has to live its own life with no consideration for the others is always a disgrace to humanity and Society on the other hand it is quite possible for each member of the family to contribute to the Improvement of the others help them to achieve their ends therefore in a good family selfishness has to be sublimated the selfish family will always be a failure I have people coming to me all the time bringing the stories of selfishness that has destroyed what might otherwise have been a very good and substantial life so there's an another pattern a pattern of the individual who has placed into the center of his mandala a demoniacal force. Now the Tibetans and the Hindus and some of the sects of Japan have these evil monsters, so-called. Fudo Myoo is one of them. He is really a nasty looking character and this character carries in one hand a lasso which looks very much as though it might be a hangman's rope and in the other hand a feigning sword. And it has a very ghastly expression in the complexion that is indigo in color and it is seated not upon a Lotus but upon an ancient heap of rocks now I saw this particular figure in one of the temples and noticed that the little lady that Japanese lady was kneeling in prayer before it and as you know it kind of one made me wonder why that she would want to worship a thing like that and a friend of mine that was with me who spoke Japanese asked her how it happened that she was so worshipful thought this strange looking figure and this little sweet woman turned her face up and said he's beautiful is that beautiful then my little gradually came out he is beautiful because he makes us good we're not going to be able to be bad but him around and it finally turned out that this figure was the comic aspect of the Supreme Being himself the great deity of deities when we go wrong it becomes the symbol of the Punisher for the punishment is ourselves we have done what is wrong and nature to save us has to bring us back into line so that that which appears to be an evil spirit is really a just form of law universal law simply declining to permit us to succeed when we do not deserve to succeed and to remember always that when you do it right we see the benevolent aspect of the same power the so-called malevolent aspects of power in the Mandela symbolism are really Disobedience the individual causing his own difficulty but very few people like to admit it now there are cases where a person has to admit it because the delinquency is so flagrant that there's no possible way of concealing it but there are many many ways in which we can be delinquent and self-righteous at the same time we can decipherently and blame it all on someone else we can point out clearly that these are the persons had been different Our Lives wouldn't have been ruined the Oriental philosophers takes the very firm stand on this he said no one can ruin a light but the individual himself he has to do it by failure to understand himself to read the secrets of his own nature he has to overlook the interaction of the laws by which all life is maintained he has to reject wise guidance he has to overlook good advice in order to really bring himself into serious difficulties it is beginning to come more obvious today that the only answer to some of the most desperate situations that the world faces is the individual solving his own problem finding ways to come to the truth of things which he has nourished in falsehoods for many many ages now the man Downer also becomes a symbol of Soul power what is inside of the person what is the Divinity that is behind this mixed and Confused appearance well first of all in every living thing is something that isn't not to be described the most important incredible unbelievable thing of all and that is life we are alive where this light came from and why we got it isn't very clear to most of us but we have it it is something that is nothing else can approach it is something that is so fantastic that even the most materialistic scientist hesitates to attempt to degrade it it is something that we all have this life which is the power to see to think to hope to believe to love to labor all of these different achievements are locked within this spark of Eternity within ourselves this spark of Eternity is many cold and many manifested but it's there one individual react with art another will build a better mousetrap but it will be there somewhere oh is this Spirit Light is the basis of the infinite and inevitable success of everything that lives this power is something we are not supposed to waste or abuse this is the power of Sacrament it isn't a mysterious way it is the mystery of the atoning blood life within ourselves is pure it is conditioned by the mind and by the emotions by environment by Prejudice and opinion by bigotry but the life itself is clear of all these things therefore each person who is growing really accomplishing something is one who is gradually removing the impediments which prevent the natural expression of life life cannot be defeated but Minds can prevent or slow down the processes of life wrong actions can definitely weaken the progress which we also definitely desire to make so the mandala becomes again another type of symbolism for us it is a picture of the thing that as it ought to be and as the power of life has decreed that it shall be it is a picture of the achievement of which we are all capable but which for the most part we do not appreciate or understand so inside we find a kind of beautiful diagram balanced figure nose bumps or lumps on it no flames of Hell nothing to disfigure it a magnificent unfolding of a vast flower like with blood of the lotus an unfolding that reveals the universe upon the Petals of an eternal flower it is like Dante's famous Vision in The Divine Comedy in which he beholds all the hierarchies of Angels standing together singing upon the Petals of the Divine Rose all of these symbols show that behind and within us all of us lie the solutions to everything that disturbs us we are worried there's an answer we are frightened there's a cure we are sad there is peace we want to do better growth is natural to us anything that fulfills the divine plan is available to us to the degree that we can use it and as we use it wisely we become the rulers our Guardians over more and larger things but actually the entire situation is one in which a gentle understanding leads to a kind of meditation now in the orient the disciples were with the mandalas sit very quietly and look at these pictures and they see in these pictures their own personal lives Plus this little monk who is just a child of 14 has come from a poor home his family have always worked very hard he has a life probably before him of Labor or in many instances monastic orders are only two or three years in the life of the person then he returns to his own world to do the things he has to do it is regarded as more important that unless he has some very strong spiritual gift that he returns after proper initiation to the responsibilities of the Layman and the family and the home and the country he is not supposed simply to sit for the rest of his life praying for his own Spiritual Development is supposed to be out serving the getting self and in the forgetting of self becoming aware of God in this particular case he is seated however studying this pattern the pattern which to him is a dream something that as he looks upon it his own inner life comes out Pythagoras and neoplatanists made a great point of beauty they made a point of the fact that the beauty in the human soul is due to the fact that the soul is a symmetrical geometric solid it is a perfect imagery a magnificent symmetrical crystal-like thing in all things beautiful and looking out from The beauty within the individual gradually becomes aware of this inner beauty through its outer shadows in the world of physical things looking at this picture in meditation the young monk for therefore sees the walls open sees the sky come through and suddenly finds himself quietly sitting in the midst of an infinite peace a piece that is for everything and in everything gentle kind and Sublime he knows of course that he cannot hold this attitude he knows that only to the moment in which he becomes suddenly enlightened like dami the German Mystic was enlightened by looking at a pewter plate that he will see something and then gradually it will close again and the monk will be back in the world where he came from but in this journey he has discovered something he has become aware that infinite beauty is only a condition of an unconditioned reality that it is one of the wonderful things that make up the great Wonder none of the beautiful things that make up the Eternal beauty of life so with this type of thinking we can start to re rise and re-design the pictures of our own existence we can begin to recognize that there is much too much suffering that is never called for the greatest of all suffering is not to see that which is beyond and above suffering it is the individual focusing upon the uncertainties rather than striving to attain to the certainties lotionus the great neoplatanist philosopher said that only on two or three occasions during his life for an instant or two did he Behold The Mystery of Life did he actually see the infinite as a vast explosion of light a tremendous infinite Beauty and this beauty extending from the from the began to the Beyond this which had no boundaries no limitations but in ineffables stupendous reality only for a few instances did he become aware of this great mandala the universe itself as one luminous reality in which all things were fulfilled and perfected by infinite love this discovery to him was only for an instant but it became the basis of his life however like Ellis had a somewhat less intense but mystical experience it only happened once but he was never the same again and the moment the old the eyes within ourselves open even far enough to have a glimpse of the realities when that happens illusion begins to lose power the delusions of material existence retire into what they actually are experiences to be faced and passed the weaknesses to be strengthened ignorance to be Enlightenment fears to be transformed into Eternal hope all these are pictures within us and these pictures are the things that make it possible for us to dream the better dream now in our daily thinking in life and working we all have some textbooks we all have some pictures that are important many of us of us have living pictures around us that become very wonderful and very meaningful so with our studies and with our striving after righteousness so to say there should be this meditation on the mandala they should be constantly in mind the perfect picture we may not be able to attain it immediately but we can improve it to a very large degree with a little thought and kindness but everywhere the Wonders are some people like to go out into the country and to sit under a tree others prefer to take long voyages on the ocean some want the country some prefer the city but everyone is looking for the Fulfillment of some need within himself and most of these needs as in the case of parole regularly lead to the countryside to the nature of things and the final pattern comes up in the concept of the conflict between the artificial and the natural in the world of man most of our policies and patterns are artificial they are things we have created in various ways as patches upon previous mistakes we are constantly surrounded by a finite world of our own making a world in which we are struggling to do something and we do not know how a world in which the best and most ambitious achievements Fall Apart a world that fails because it has not any foundation in love it is founded in skills and in science and profit and in wealth but not in that gentle kindly love in which the individual comes close to the world of Truth there is a fable in China like lazy the famous Sage the Obscure Sage without a king was probably one of the most mysterious books ever written this great Mystic who actually left Confucius in a state of internal confusion a loud see was born as a as a servant and that's a state of a wealthy man he had no education in the ordinary sense of the word but being a thoughtful person in his own right this little child sat on the side of a hill and looked out over the mountains over the five Great peaks of Eternity that bounded China he sat there quietly allowing life and nature to move in upon him and there in the absolute tranquility of a little boy in a big world and finding this big world thus the sweet and close and wonderful is the nearest parent could have been this little boy suddenly discovered that nature was a great mother taking care of all creatures with infinite tenderness only went into life went into a series of experiences which are summarized in the world of dialogue this experience was the cancellation so to say of all of the rationalizations by which we see we strive to explain away our own mistakes that's he said the only way to explain away a mistake is to stop it it's not to do it anymore all of the mind with its problems its worries its burdens should be allowed to rest and it rests best on the side of the Hill the road found the same thing in the pool of Walden it's best to find peace in the source of peace the great mandala of nature here of under a tree and alongside of some Brook in the forest or Wilderness the individual suddenly becomes aware it is part of something that there's something that he's part of is greater than he can ever be but he can know it and experience it and be grateful for it and share in it and he'll do everything possible to help to protect it against the ravages of ignorant Superstition and fear so the piece of the realization of nature was very strong with nearly all the philosophers and nearly all of the great systems and the mountains and the valleys and the hills and the Seas these are also a loud sea pointed out a great diagram a great symbolism a tremendous set of hexagrams that means with every principle in the universe could be reduced to a mathematical equation and yet in mathematics was his gracious loving and kind as was the original in nature they believed definitely that mathematics is not a sterile mental exercise it is merely a way of worshiping through the revelations of Truth reality and accuracy always to do that which is necessary for the greater good and the diagrams the diagrams are very very important to us lazy tells us that life is a river the river Pours Down into the sea the individual returns to the infinite The Sun Shines upon the sea and the water is raised and the water goes up and falls upon the mountains and the mountains drain it down through little streams until it joins the river again and the river again returns to the Sea this is life there is this endless cycling nothing lost nothing added nothing subtracted life pulling fulfilling a great cyclic motion emotion leading from the infinite back again to the infinite and that in this motion as the Chinese artist shows it in this motion man is a little figure on a great landscape he is also a little gentleman sitting in a small boat in the midst of the ocean this is considered to be an appropriate symbol of the Wayfarer the individual is on his way and when not too long ago Chinese Art Expert noticed one of these paintings that showed the little man fishing and to his amazement he discovered that there was a fishing reel on the pole which we thought we had invented much much later there's no picture however in any of the works of one of this man ever catching anything he is fishing but in the substance he has no bait and he has no hook so the man who fishes without a hook became the symbol of the Taoist philosopher who is forever searching for the life that is in the midst of the ocean but has no intempting of not trying to capture it or destroy it or possess it himself all these things are little sidelights upon a very interesting subject but most of all I think that the real answer is that each one of us can take our own lives from childhood up to now and we can examine it in terms of a great symbol one symbolic picture unfolding down through the years of our days before coming down through all of the experiences of life from childhood the school for marriage from Parenthood business a retirement grandchildren all kinds of activities they're all parts of a great picture now if we can follow this picture correctly I think we will find out something that is being considered very seriously now by some of our very best scientific institutions that if we can take this period from birth to retirement and we can do it without breaking rules without destroying our own vitalities without wrecking our own happiness happiness by actual actions that are unnecessary if we can live this span with peace and in peace and can live it in service and love and friendship that we will discover that in this process alone we will have defeated most of the hazards of physical existence we will find that this type of living is a healing of the wounds of the flesh that a great deal of our mental and physical suffering is simply due to the unfinished business we refuse to face that if we can go through the span of life quietly comfortably and peacefully we will also in due time pass into a larger life quietly and peacefully we will not sicken the body before its time a great deal of suffering is due to the fact that one factor of our disposition which is wrong is beating down one organ of the body with which it is associated the rest of the body is violently strongly clean to succeed but one dispositional trait that refuses to be corrected and we do not correct can bring the whole body down in ruin thus it is for the importance peace of mind is help the body peace of mind health and body result in the clarity of the Soul its ability to fulfill its preachment to us through the Eternal ex example of universal friendship affection and understanding I think then therefore that that we are all out looking for panaceas we are all looking desperately for something to cure the ills with which we suffer we are trying to figure out why our lives are plagued with one uncertainty or another it is not quite that bad launches found out long ago that no matter what we do life is eternal we will continue going along doing the best we can until we do better and when we really do what is better a great mass of Sorrow disturbances Fall Away a world today fighting as it is half the rest of itself a world constantly in fear of enemies has never realized that the only reason that it has enemies is that it has forgotten to make friends it has forgotten to do those things which bring people together it has emphasized competition it has made much of the divisions and disturbances but it has not found the healing power of universal Soul growth the power within the individual so in the Qigong symbolism the final achievement is that the individual in a sense gets up and walks into the mandala and disappears in it that may not actually happen he may still be sitting there but some part of him has gone into the painting the Taoist monks due a picture of a door leading from this world to the next he start meditating upon the picture for a number of years then got up opened the door he had painted and went through and disappeared a nice table but there's a principle back of it he we can go through any door that we paint and before we we sit in quiet study long enough but the door we're all trying to go through is the one that leads into a larger life into a greater happiness a greater security a greater peace and understanding we know now as we watch the gradual closing of the 20th century that this is a mandala also this scene the world scene today is a great picture a great painting a great and mysterious mass of interrelated symbols that we must accept and view as we best we can this is a great dramatic text we are looking at the symbol of Unfinished Business we are looking at a condition that is inevitable until it is cured by that which causes it we realize there can be no peace in this world until the human being finds peace in his own heart there is no way in making a better world until we inwardly visualize the reorganization of divided parts and put them together into one Sublime pattern in the meantime we go on our way and we'll have troubles and we get into financial difficulties and we get a little more money than somebody else and waste it more quickly than they do all these things we have a little life which is rounded by a sleep we have a little way of doing things that we consider to be tremendously important we are just little people in a great big mystery and each one of us wants to have a little private world of Our Own in which we can do as we please it can't be done that way because no combination can be brought together on the physical side of itself but it can never Mingle the spirits can Unite we can never get over the divisions of society until our hearts and Minds become undivided in a unity of life and Truth everything you can look at or think of make a symbol out of it make it as might have been in one of the simple writers of the 17th century lcats emblems is a good example here we have all kinds of moral pictures pictures with little verses and poems that added to them but most of all the picture quarrel with an English emblemat writer who has a very delightful little book suitable to Children written back in the 17th century one of his symbols shows a cage a bird cage and in The Birdcage is the soul imprisoned and outside of the birdcage is a lover trying to find a way to open the cage and this is what it amounts to this is the problem we have that we have imprisoned the best and locked it in by refusing to permit ourselves to be turned from our selfishness by any intuition of something better we want to go our own way so we go and suffer but if we go the way of the inner life we will not go on suffering but we'll be better and we do not have to get this key to the inner life from any other source than the inward part of our cells we cannot simply read ourselves into salvation we can learn things and some of them will be very useful but actually the great decisions all have to be made within ourselves and our particular ray of light that which can make things right for us must come from ourselves it was given to us in the beginning it has been with us through an unnumbered embodiments through all kinds of experiences it has continued and will continue until we make use of it in some of the Indian fables that we occasionally see there is great emphasis upon observation the individual in order to learn must know things that happen the moment an unexpected or unusual occurrence comes along it should be thought about if it's good it shouldn't be just accepted with a note of gratitude and people go right on the way they were if it was an unpleasant experience it should not be regarded as Misfortune it should be regarded as challenge as needs something arising that we must think about but all around us every day things happen we don't like some of the things that happen we are the victims of criminal of criminal action we are victims of cupidity selfishness indifference we are often betrayed in our deepest and most sacred emotions and yet we have to go on the answer is that each one of these things has to be remedied all ills that come to us are sort of diseases their psychic ailments uh that sometimes are contagious path from generation to generation in other cases they are plagues that hit us all at once but every one of these occurrences has to be redeemed has to be regenerated the mistake must be solved the pain must be remedied and the individual must rise quietly above disappointments that would otherwise change and bitter him the false interpretation of experience leads to a very embittered life the person goes on through the years more and more suffering more and more hurt more and more anti-social many people in those years of life which are most important when they must live quietly with themselves have so built a psychological structure of embeddedness that they cannot even enjoy the Peace of a pleasant and financially secure retirement they are still suffering from the ills that have been done to them they are still revengeful about about things about the earlier life this is a great mistake if there's one thing that is immediately a reward for putting your life in order it is the fact that you can live with yourself happily after you've retired from business that you can actually be pleasantly interested in life the world may be the faculties get a little tired and there are limitations upon what we can do if we have the right inner life we will always be careful we will always be grateful for the good things that happen we will continue to shed an atmosphere of joy around us wherever we go but most of all we can live with ourselves and as we live going more with ourselves we will discover that a large part of sickness is dispositional that we are in trouble most of the time simply because we do not have the grace to forgive our enemies or recognize our friends so all along the way the inner life can bring with it extensive extension of years it can bring with it a great fulfillment it can allow us to depart from this little cycle of activity with a sincere realization that we have been of service to others that we have helped to build a little bit better world that we have fulfilled our Dreams by making dreams that were worth fulfilling the locked in materialist has most difficulty of all in the Indian systems Avicii is the material world it is the world of physical things and in the platonic dialogues a so-called Hades is the same thing Plato said we do not go to he Hades when we die we come to Hades when we are born this is it so we must realize that we are in a world in which a very large part of the population is paying debts and therefore is very anxious more or less to bring others into the same miseries that it has itself we are in a world of Shadows they have Plato pointed out we are in the world of which we must live the consequences of our own deeds and attitudes this is the secret behind the concepts of heaven and hell heaven is to live with a redeemed self hell is to live with one that isn't doing so well and there are good many of them but the whole problem is very definitely that the evolutionary cycle is one in which cause and effect work together the individual who makes mistakes and doesn't try to correct them is in trouble right here and takes the unfinished business with him it's been my responsibility on a number of occasions to be with people in the hour of transition and it is very interesting to observe that in those hours in those last minutes a great many Tangled situations untangle themselves and the individual who was fighting all the way uh to contain to continuous manager of the banks suddenly loses all interest in it he's going where that doesn't mean anything anymore he's going where he can't take his pocketbook which is a very serious disaster he is going to where he can't continue to take care of his children he suddenly realizes that he's been so busy doing other things that he has lost most of the joy of his own private life he knows also that he is in pain and that this pain is in some is something that more or less is in harmony with the facts that he has never done anything to cause anything but pain he has never done those things which would have brought peace to him in his early days and might well have extended his life one man in his forties passing on wished he could live it over because he says if he could he would be a much better person and we have better values and would not regard material success as worth one moment of compromise or personal integrity so the we don't sometimes go out of this world wiser than when he enter this is fortunate this is a desirable State of Affairs because it's what we go out with May well be what we come back with and the individual who has discovered more of the real values of existence who has realized where the truths and where the great achievements are located and began to cast off those useless things and become aware of Eternal truths we are here and we all come out in the end a little wiser and we might as well realize as we go along that this little wiser can start right now and therefore that people are complete patterns are finished for this life we can have a great span of wonderful living now in which we see ourselves correcting our own faults lay the foundations of the future and realize that in this plan of things it is a blessed truth that we shall all have the opportunity to perfect our own Futures it will come nothing can prevent it from happening in due time everything we should have will be ours and each time we come back we will bring with us a little more insight a little greater patience a little deeper understanding this makes it all very very well worthwhile and it also is the one great justification for behaving ourselves it is the justification of deserving something better and if we deserve something better we'll get it and we can start deserving it right now and it might result in a sorrow that we might have faced will never happen simply because we are no longer the person to whom it was intended to happen uh the Japanese artist Hooksett one of the great engravers of Japan changed his name a great number of times in the course of his career and one of the reasons he changed his name was that he wanted to live longer now this doesn't seem as though it had a pertinent relationship with the subject but it does because every time he changed his name he confused Emma a the lord of the other life uh he went when he was that sumado why the god of the doctor had that name on his book but if the art has changed his name it confused the god of death he didn't have that name on his book therefore he didn't call for him that soon and with these made Meeker changes folks I managed to live to very great age but finally of course they found out his true name and it was all right because the god of the underworld or the afterlife employed him immediately to paint new screens for his Palace and hopes I had a place of Distinction in the Realms of the afterlife and being a Buddhist he undoubtedly believed he'd be back so all these things make little pictures and if you put a whole group of nice gentle present kindly little pictures together we all of a sudden have another life a light that is better than one that is filled with their memory of odd things that were not pleasant so let's build as much as we can upon happy things upon the wonderful Privileges and opportunities that have come to us and not depend too heavily upon regrets let us cease forever believing that we are misjudged and mistreated the only way we could really be too mistreated is when we mistreat ourselves others may try to do it but if we are right they can't do a thing about it it's only when we agree with them that we are being mistreated the trouble starts each person can solve it for himself and all these pictures are have something to do with this idea a wonderful pattern a wonderful picture and finally our own lives and in the end each one of us will have a kind of picture that may remind us a little bit of a great Rose window of a cathedral it will be a beautiful picture of light in which all the dreams that we've ever had will come true well thank you very much [Applause]