These animated Moving Mandalas are very large files. Please click on the pic, and wait for it to load. The Contemplation will be very enabling, carrying your Mind beyond the mundane world
Although it has been well over 40 years since I was your age, I remember enough of the experience to be able to tell you that you do not have to worry about becoming so calm that you have no stress at all. It's not possible, and it's not going to happen. Your physical body & glandural systems are going through huge changes that tend to make people go to extremes in the emotions, even when they know a whole lot better.
I was a competitive swimmer, doing umpteem hours a day in the pool & playing water polo. That helped a lot. I was in training for long distance, and when you are swimming 4 to 5 miles a day, you really can't avoid getting into a meditative state.
Teenagers have been around long enough, so that they ought to have a good general idea of how the world works. Details & fine points are what get filled in throughout the rest of your life. That process, of course, never ends. No one can know everything, because there is an infinite amount to know.
Recently I've read that the real difference between the teenage mind, and the adult mind, lies in one area. Teenagers go to school, but that environment isn't actually much different, than an office setting. Many teens have part-time jobs, and you've certainly seen adults working, so you already have a good idea of what that is all about. The mysteries of love & romance are as mysterious to adults as they are to teens. Prolly nobody has ever figured that stuff out... although you do get a better idea as you go along (hopefully).
Dumb people lack imagination, so they just go along with whatever is popularly considered to be the way things are supposed to be, and they don't get into much trouble. Smart people have a lot of imagination. They see all sorts of possibilities that most would never suspect. As a consequence, smart people are capable of inventing new ways to screw up, that would never occur to anybody else. um... That's a joke. It is also true.
The difference between the teenaged mind, and the adult mind, is in the recognition of consequences. Figuring out what the result of an action is going to be, before you take that action, is the hallmark of the adult mind. Now you probably have noticed that people have not really done very well at that, because if they had, then the world would be a much nicer place, than it happens to be. Nevertheless, figuring out what the results will be from the things you do, in advance of doing them, is HUGE in importance. Good Luck!
Something to consider, when you want perspective upon how much emotional weight something really deserves, (so that you won't go to emotional extremes over petty stuff), is to think about whether it will still be important five or ten years from now. If some specific event is not going to be important to you or anybody else, five or ten years from now, then it's not something to get upset about. Of course, in the moment, you can easily forget that, since as a teenager your hormones are revving up to full capacity, and that simply is going to make your thinking processes a bit wonky at times. Don't beat yourself up over that. Just make some course corrections, and move on.
One last piece of advice, concerns dealing with adults. There are adults who never grew up. We are supposed to keep learning, and growing in Wisdom & Experience throughout all of our lives, right up to (& including) the moment of death. Many adults do not do this. They get to a certain point & figure they really know what Life is all about, and then they stop right there. That is a tragedy. Even people who have attained Spiritual Illumination, continue to evolve. That is the way it is supposed to be. Life & Knowledge are Infinite. Change is the only constant.
Adults who have stopped growing, still know more about Life, than kids generally, but since they have stopped growing, they are shirking their responsibility. They know this subconsciously, but won't face it, and the result is that they will be jealous of people who are still growing. Often they will attempt to thwart people who are continuing to grow, because of a deep-seated jealousy. The best course, is to avoid them. Don't assume that you know better than they do, and don't assume that you don't. Don't assume anything. Focus your attention upon people who will help you develop your talents and skills, instead.
Stay away from dream killers. Pursue your dreams, and remember that not all of your dreams are going to work out. Some of the decisions you are going to make, will probably be bad ones. That is par for the course, and a part of how you figure out what your course ought to be. The big thing, is to always keep moving on. Fix your mistakes as they come up, and then don't dwell upon them. If you find yourself repeating the same mistake over & over, that is a hint that you've gotten your thinking stuck in a rut. You will keep making that mistake, until you figure out what it is, and then change your attitude, so that you won't be doing that over & over. That is the way to end Suffering, and the process never ends...
In Buddhism they teach that there are three things that generate all of the misery in the world. These are Ignorance, Greed, and Anger. My estimate, is that one half of the world's troubles are the result of Ignorance. One third, stem from Greed, and the rest is Anger.
Anger is the easiest to see. Stay away from angry people, and when you see yourself getting angry, then you know that at least in part, you probably are likely to be about to make some mistake. If it is something that won't be important in five or ten years, then drop it. If it is something that will be important in five or ten years, figure that you won't be able to figure out what the best course of action really is, until after you've calmed down, & stopped feeling angry.
Greed ought to be obvious to everybody, but it is also quite subtle. The Key here, is to recognize your own needs, and give them equal weight with everybody else's needs. That isn't easy, but if you are always looking for an "Everybody Wins" senario, then you can escape being greedy.
Ignorance is the really tough one. Never make assumptions. It is very difficult to tell the difference between what you believe, and what you actually know. It may appear that believing something, will solve all your problems, but that can never be true. Believing without knowing, is Ignorance. When one is in a state of Ignorance, one cannot grow out of it. Ignorance stops the process of learning, and leads people to make all kinds of terrible decisions that create misery all over the world. Learn to accept that there is stuff you don't know about, and stuff you haven't figured out yet. When you are patient and observe very carefully, you will be amazed at how much you really can know and figure out. However, when you get caught up in merely believing things, you halt the process, and there can be no more development.
So never assume anything about anything, or about anybody. You may or may not know the whole picture, and how can one make an informed decision about something, if they don't know the whole picture? There is not one single thing going on in this world that is harming the world, that did not stem from some assumption.
However, there is one assumption that you ought to make : Have Faith that you can figure things out. Don't assume that you have figured things out, rather have Faith, that if you do your due diligence, and observe carefully, & think, that you can figure things out. That attitude, is what makes learning & understanding possible. Good Luck!
These animated Moving Mandalas are very large files. Please click on the pic, and wait for it to load. The Contemplation will be very enabling, carrying your Mind beyond the mundane world
In the late 1960s I had a series of geometric visions while tripping. They were elusive, because they were moving, and the colors shifted prismatically. In the early 1970s I began making drawings of what I had seen. These were geometric abstracts in a six color spectrum. Many years later I learned they were called interference patterns in physics
I got a friend to rig up a blue and a red light using a noisy ratchet relay. When the blue light was one, the blue end of the spectrum sort of whited out, while the red end of the spectrum darkened. The opposite happened when the red light was on. This simulated the moving aspect of my visions, but the ratchet relay was just too darned noisy, even with music playing loud. I also tried using individually blinking Christmas Tree lights, which was quiet, but the colors flashing weren't regular or consistent
In 1998 I got an iMac computer, and eventually stumbled across a freeware program called GIF Builder. It is not supported now, and no longer available, but it can do some truly nifty things. Of course, you do have to assemble your animated GIFS one frame at a time, which is rather time consuming. It won't run on any Macintosh Operating system above 9.2, so I make all of my Moving Mandalas on an IMac, and use my new G5 Tower for other stuff
Another program I found for the IMac is PicWave, which also is now unsupported and not available, and won't run on any Macintosh with an OS above 9.2. This program takes a single picture, and animates it into a MOV file (which GIF Builder can accept). PicWave uses Triangle, Sine, Cosine, and EXP functions to modulate lines, checks, Circles, and fancy Circles. You can layer these MOV files. This allows me to set different functions at different rates which dovetail at the end of the sequence. I like to use Classic Pythagorean numbers for this
I use a number of different sources. Some are Fractal designs I've made, others are from photos I've taken. Many are objects I've scanned, like flowers that grew around here, or crystals. A few are from pics I found on the internet, and I don't know who originally took them. I would Credit them with a link, if I could. They were just sooooooo good, I had to find out what they would look like as Moving Mandalas
I haven't found any programs for my G5 Tower which will allow me to make Moving Mandalas, but they may be out there somewhere. I have no idea how you would do this (or anything else) on a PC
Part Two : How the Moving Mandalas Work
Originally, I made the Moving Mandalas as artwork, and only later on discovered that they were useful meditation tools. Simply put : They give the brain something to do, while the Mind is busy meditating
I mentioned that I timed the sequences at different rates rates which dovetail at the end by using Classic Pythagorean numbers. With some of the simple Moving Mandalas you will have one thing which happens once during the whole sequence, while something else happens twice, something else happens three times, and one other thing happens four times. This embeds the number sequence one, two, three, four into the whole sequence
When using the Cosine function as a modulator, I set it at a point five. So I might have one function modulating on a Sine of 3 or 4 times through the whole sequence, while a Cosine function modulates at a 3.5. This appears to add some syncopation to it. Often the Moving Mandala will go to a zero point of its initial condition, but not in the exact half way point. It will occur somewhere else, and then go off in some other directions before dovetailing at the end
Many of the Moving Mandalas are fairly long, being around 600 frames. If I made one with 1000 frames, it would take a full minute before it began repeating again. It's kind of a stretch for the brain to follow a movement that long, which is why the brain is kept busy, and the Mind can meditate at peace. People with ADD always complain that they can't meditate properly, because their brains keep moving around, and distracting them. I've been told that when viewing my Moving Mandalas, that they don't have this problem
There are no subliminal messages in the Moving Mandalas. They are all pure artwork. So if you look at a Moving Mandala of a Flower or a Crystal, or a Fractal, or of a pretty hillside, that is the only Message which will be going into your brain. I think that's pretty safe, and probably better
Enjoy!
PS: I know they take time to fully load, but once they do, the Moving Mandalas will move like liquid
These animated Moving Mandalas are very large files. Please click on the pic, and wait for it to load. The Contemplation will be very enabling, carrying your Mind beyond the mundane world
The I Ching is the Book of Changes. It is an Oracle one may consult, a Calendar of the Seasons, and a book of common sense philosophy. The I Ching is an ancient Chinese text about the 64 different patterns of Change. These processes of change are both internal and external, and the I Ching explains both how to adapt to change, and also how to initiate it.
The original text expressed these concepts in the common sense cultural terms of its time. Those terms simply do not translate literally. So over the years when I understood what a line actually meant, I found words appropriate to our time and culture, and put them as notes in the margins of my copy of the book. That is how this conceptual translation evolved, and I have also tried to keep the original flavor, as well.
Common sense not being all that common a thing in our modern world, people may experience some difficulties in comprehension. A person new to the I Ching, may feel that there is something deep and important present, but they just can't seem to put their finger on it. Often a person consulting the I Ching, won't understand what it was pointing out, until afterwards. Well, that is one way to learn...
Do not be dismayed. Understanding something after the fact, always prepares you for recognizing a similar situation, when it does crop up, and it will. It is like a Stand-Up Comic who dies on stage. They always wake up again in the morning, and so will you. Understanding the I Ching, what it means, and how to apply its advice, is something that will grow on you.
Each of the 64 processes of change explains both changes within yourself, and changes in the world around you. Moreover, the advice given can be applied both to adapting to change, and also towards initiating it. There are always hints along the way, indicating which is most appropriate. In initiating change in the world around you, the I Ching teaches two things. One is recognizing what really needs to be changed, and the other is seeing the proper way of effectively going about it. In initiating change within yourself, the I Ching speaks to the cultivation of character, and compassion. As the Lord Buddha said, "One man on a battlefield conquers 1000 foes, while another man, conquers himself. He is greater."
Ghandi said that we must be the change that we want to see in the world. This is a most sublime, and powerful truth. For it is those who transform their inner character towards the Divine the most, who are the ones who most initiate progressive change in the world at large. And we are all capable of this.
These animated Moving Mandalas are very large files. Please click on the pic, and wait for it to load. The Contemplation will be very enabling, carrying your Mind beyond the mundane world
