Kung Hei Fat Choi!

Here comes a "100 Good Fortune - White Lotuses" Mandala which was created in Nov 2008. A Chinese word "福" (means good fortune) was painted in 100 different styles at the center and surrounded by 8 white lotuses. White Lotus symbolizes the state of total mental purity and spiritual perfection. Eight is a number of stability, harmony, and rebirth. Carl Jung considered eight a symbol of wholeness. A great painting for Chinese New Year.

100 Good Fortune - White Lotuses Mandala, Nov 2008

(click here to purchase)

Press Release: 2009 - The Year of Awakening

Press Release: 2009: The Year of Awakening (click here for pdf version)
26 Jan 2009

For immediate release

ArtWaken Mandala Gallery is launched to promote art in a spiritual way that brings inner peace and transformation.

“Are you ready to fly?” asked by Maria Ng, founder of ArtWaken Mandala Gallery.

Despite the global economic challenges, Maria Ng emphasized that 2009 is a great year welcoming unlimited prosperity.

As a self representing mandala artist, Maria Ng launched an online art gallery – ArtWaken Mandala Gallery which promotes art in a spiritual way through creating mandalas. Maria painted her first mandala painting in 2004 and was spiritually awakened with continuous art creations. Maria said that “Most people are spiritually sleeping. They don’t know what they really want and always complain about their lives. Thus our society is filled with negative emotions. The truth is that the outside world is a reflection of our inner world. Our emotional conflict has created chaos in our lives, not the circumstances. To change the world, we must change our thoughts and seek inner peace.”

Mandala is a word comes from Sanskrit means circle or center. Creating mandalas is an expressive art that allows the artists to be away from analytical thinking and truly connected with their hearts. Maria believed that everyone is an artist and is able to paint mandalas without art training. She recommended that it is best to keep some mandala coloring books together with art materials at home and office so that you can create anytime, anywhere. “Art brings healing at the deepest level. If you allow yourself to do something creative for just 10 minutes a day, your life will be transformed gradually. You attract prosperity and abundance only when you have an open heart and open mind”, Maria explained.

To celebrate the launch of ArtWaken Mandala Gallery, Maria is giving away a free mandala art print through monthly lucky draw as well as free download of mandala coloring images on her website. She concluded, “Mandala is a great meditation tool that relaxes our mind. One of the best ways to do mandala meditation is simply to hang it close to your computer monitor, look at it while you are waiting during the process of downloading, printing or scanning files. You will find yourself more focused and productive.”

Be creative. Prosperity comes to our way for sure.

About ArtWaken Mandala Gallery

ArtWaken Mandala Gallery is founded by Maria Ng, a Hong Kong based artist who is passionate about promoting inner peace and awaken people’s inner creativity through creating personal mandalas.

For more information about ArtWaken Mandala Gallery, please visit http://www.artwakenmandala.com/ or http://artwakenmandala.blogspot.com/

Mandala: dancing around the center

About mandalas

The word mandala comes from Sanskrit means circle, center, circumference, sacred circle or magic circle. In eastern spiritual traditions, a mandala is a form of sacred art that depicts the totality of the self. Swiss-German psychoanalyst Carl Gustav Jung found the mandala – an ancient archetypal manifestation that appears in Eastern and Western religions, mythology and rituals – to be a powerful tool for growth and transformation, a symbol of wholeness. Seeing the mandala as representing both the self and world.

The universe itself is a mandala. The earth, sun and moon are round. Everything alive – plants, animals and human beings – consists of cells. Each cell is a mandala. Even the seasons and the life cycle of human beings is a circle, so it is in everything where power moves.

Circle is the symbol of one, wholeness and centering. It represents infinity and eternity, having no beginning and no end.

Finding your true center

We perceive the conscious experience of our center as indescribable happiness. To help to feel one’s own center is to stay conscious, no matter what might happen, no matter what one does at any time, to watch oneself consciously. When we are truly got in touch with our true center, we are in total peace. Imagine you are sitting in the eye of hurricane, you feel the sense of peace, stillness and calmness. If you begin to move away from the center, everything will be chaotic and distorted. And until you return your true center, you can never gain true perceptions.

Physical movements like dancing are a great to way to find one’s true center, especially the whirling dance of the Islamic dervishes. They spin and whirl in order to find in their center the calmness. If we do not succeed to finding the center, we become dizzy. When we connect our center and dance, we are able to spin around almost without limit and self-forgettingly with music.

Creating mandalas as a self-healing tool

Mandala connects us with our true center and fully in the energy of NOW – the present moment. Creating mandalas is an active meditation for the purpose of personal growth and self healing. When we work with the mandala we may experience moments of clarity and a reality of harmony, peace and inner happiness.

The best place of creating mandalas is a private space where you will not be interrupted for at least one hour. Light a candle and play some meditation music may heighten your ability to concentrate.

To begin drawing a mandala, select any coloring materials that you like, e.g. color pencil, crayon, acrylic paint, water color etc. It can be done on a white drawing paper, canvas or a cloth.

Do a short meditation to relax your mind before you start. You may notice forms, colors, and shapes dancing before your mind’s eye. Using as little thought as possible; select a color, form, or feeling from your heart as the starting point for your mandala. As guided by your inner voice, you may feel that the color chooses you.

Draw a circle and begin to fill it with colors and forms. You may begin in the center or around the edge of the center. There is no right or wrong of creating a mandala. Work until you feel the mandala is completed.

Dating your mandala for future reference. You may end your meditation here, or to feel what you have experienced. Then give your mandala a title and write down the messages it delivers.

Creating a mandala without thought and fully experience the present moment is the key of self awakening. Listen to your heart and guided by your intuition, the mandala reflects your true self. That is a perfect way to reconnect your inner creativity. You will be amazed how effortless you could create a beautiful mandala painting.

ArtWaken Mandala January Lucky Draw

Join our mailing list and enter our monthly lucky draw.

The January lucky draw is for all new subscribers of ArtWaken Mandala e-news. Prize of the month is "Heart-Opening Mandala Art Print" which worth US$40 (with Free Worldwide shipping).

Join our mailing list NOW

The lucky draw will be ending at 00:00am (US Pacific Time) on 1st February 2009. ACT NOW
*Convert to local time

For more information, please click http://ArtWakenMandala.com/home.htm#JanuaryLuckyDraw

Heart-Opening Mandala

Mandala & Circles

Mandala (Sanskrit mandala "essence" + "having" or "containing", also translates as "circle-circumference" or "completion", both derived from the Tibetan term dkyil khor) is a concentric diagram having spiritual and ritual significance in both Buddhism and Hinduism. The psychoanalyst Carl Jung saw the mandala as "a representation of the unconscious self," and believed his paintings of mandalas enabled him to identify emotional disorders and work towards wholeness in personality. (Source: Wikipedia)

According to David Fontana, the most basic of all mandalas is the circle, an intriguing symbol that has no beginning and no end. It is the still centre of the turning world, the magic circle that defines and protects a sacred space within which one finds tranquillity and peace. The circle of mandala is a primal symbol for all that exists. It is the symbol of the sun, the giver of light, and of the full moon, the discloser of dark mysteries, the wheel of life, the symbol of ultimate perfection, the tunnel between this world and the world to come, the symbol of eternity. Although the circle may contain other shape within it, such as the square and the triangle, and sometimes may even be bounded on the outside by one or other of these shapes, the circle remains the primary feature of all mandalas. Without the circle, there is no mandala. But once the circle is drawn, then other symbols can be added to it. (Source: Meditating With Mandalas: 52 New Mandalas to Help You Grow in Peace and Awareness)

(click image to purchase)

The symbolic meaning of circle in a mandala is completion, movement, perfection, with no end and no beginning.

The pattern of a mandala -- a circle with a center -- reaches far beyond a two or three dimensional art form. Examples of mandalas are found in nature. Every cell in our body, for instance, is a living mandala. So is the iris of our eye, a snow crystal, a bird's nest -- even a bicycle wheel. Look around. Can you see more mandala in your surroundings?

Healing with Pearl Mandala

Pearl mandala was created in Dec 2005 during a mandala painting workshop in HK. As suggested by the teacher, I bought a ring with 2 real pearls and sticked one at the center of the painting. Pearls symbolize the best within us. Honesty, purity, wisdom and integrity. Pearls not only provide a mirror in which to see ourselves, but give us insight into how we appear to others.

Pearl can stimulate your femininity and help with self acceptance. They lift your spirit and make you feel calm and beautiful.

The ragged, rough grain of sand, transformed over time slowly growing into a object of great value and beauty. With its humble beginnings, Pearls symbolize innocence and a pure heart, and help us get in touch with the simple honest things of life.

White pearl is a symbol of pure heart and mind, innocence, faith.

Pearl Mandala, Dec 2005

Flower language - Lotus blossom

My second Lotus mandala, which was created in Oct 2005 as a birthday gift to Sindy.

The lotus flower, a type of water lily, is held sacred among many of the world's religions and cultures. The Lotus flower has for thousands of years symbolized spiritual enlightenment. Lotus offers one of the highest vibrations of any flower. Lotus can blossom in the clay. So it is considered as Buddha, light, or the land of happiness. Its many seeds symbols richness and fecundity. Flower language of lotus flower is "Innocence", or "Pure Heart". And it has been known "Buddhas", who saves the public. The eight-petalled lotus that is used in Buddhist mandalas symbolizes cosmic harmony, and the thousand-petalled lotus represents spiritual illumination.

In the iconography of the Greek and Roman Christian Churches, the Archangel Gabriel is portrayed holding a spray of water lilies in every picture of the Annunciation when he appears to the mother of Jesus.

The Hindus of India noted that the ungerminated seeds of the lotus contain perfectly formed leaves, a blueprint for the future plant. Thus to the Hindu, the lotus represents divine ideation passing from abstract into concrete form.

The lotus is featured prominently in Egyptian art and architecture, especially in connection with Egypt's temples. In Egyptian mythology, the lotus was associated with the sun, because it blooms by day and closes by night. The lotus also symbolized rebirth, since one Egyptian creation myth tells of the newborn sun god rising out of a floating lotus. The blue lotus was sacred to the ancient Egyptians, who valued it not only for its rich perfume but also for its narcotic ability to produce heightened awareness and tranquillity.

To Native Americans, who found all parts of the American lotus edible, the flower symbolized the sun's power to transform energy into food. The seeds were once an especially important part of the Native American diet; in fact, the genus name Nelumbo means "sacred bean."

The lotus is also highly esteemed by Taoists. Among the Eight Immortals of Taoism is Ho Hsien Ku, her symbol the open lotus blossom, signifying openness and wisdom.

A feature of the lotus plant that has found its way into Chinese poetry is its stalk, which is easy to bend but difficult to break because of its many strong fibres. Poets liken this quality to the bonds between lovers or family members.

Lotus Mandala, Oct 2005

Healing with Lotus

This is my first Lotus Mandala which was created in Oct 2005 as a gift. Lotus is my favorite flower. Lotus represents life in general. It represents purity of body, speech, and mind, floating above the muddy waters of attachment and desire. It is also a symbol of feminine energy. As Lotus flower grows up from the mud into an object of great beauty, people also grow and change into something more beautiful. The clear crystal at the centre represents clarity of mind.

Opening Lotus Mandala, Oct 2005