The Courage to Create
Manifestation: Intention and Desire Will Become Reality
It began in October of 2010. My Heritage Mandala students and I committed to following the migration journey of our maternal ancestors out of East Africa. Nineteen months later, altered in ways we continue to discover, we completed our ancestral journeys.
Our journey together was launched with blank sheets of
paper. Pristine paper is beautiful. Without a doubt, once we touched it with
our brush, we would scar and deface it. How dare we mar its surface? It takes bravery and daring to
transform a white sheet of paper. Each paper had the same penciled-in structure
for the painting we would create, a structure that would serve as the vehicle
to carry us on our adventure.
Adventurers of ages past set their canoes into uncharted
waterways. Just so, we faced the unknown. None of us had any idea what colors
or forms would fill the structure. We had no idea what inner experiences would
be evoked by this exploration into the origins of our unique existence.
It took 584 days for the un-manifest to become manifest, for
our intentions and desires to blossom into three unique Heritage Mandalas.
Overflowing Gratitude
Each woman’s commitment to uncover her heritage required that she do a DNA test
to discern the migratory path of her maternal ancestors, determined by tracing
our mitochondrial DNA. As our tests arrived and we swabbed our cheeks, we found
ourselves overwhelmed with gratitude: gratitude that women had passed messages
to us down through the centuries, gratitude to scientist Rebecca Cahn for
discovering these messages in mitochondrial DNA, gratitude to the scientists
who continue this research. We waited somewhat impatiently as our tests were
processed so the results could be sent to us.
Embracing Uncertainty
Beginning a mandala inspired by Tibaetan Buddhism is a bit like anticipating
the birth of a child. After months of development, the infant will appear.
Expectant parents have no clue what the infant will be or will become. They
watch as the child unfolds. They have no prior assurance that it will survive
illnesses and challenges to become a contributing part of society. In trust,
they care for the infant, the child, the adolescent, and the young adult until
a unique individual appears.
Likewise, it takes a peculiar sort of detachment to face the
uncertainty of this unique way of painting in which you cannot pre-determine
the outcome but must paint one stroke at a time. It mimics the way our
ancestors migrated from East Africa to every corner of the planet, one step at
a time, or one oar stroke at a time. It requires trust that through meditation
colors and images will emerge.
Practicing Awareness
This Buddhist way of painting demands that the artist practice awareness, focusing
100% attention at the point where the tip of the brush meets the paper. Each
artist has the intention to do beautiful work and the desire to paint with
integrity. Each plants these intentions and desires in every stroke, not
knowing where the entire painting is going but content to let it emerge.
Once our DNA results were in, each woman studied the
information about her ancestral migrations and determined the major
steppingstones along the journey. The number of steppingstones determined the
number of segments there would be in her narrative ring, the second major
concentric circle of the mandala. One woman discerned eight. Another found
twelve. I discovered eleven.
Karma
So, one stroke and one step at a time something began to happen; manifestation
had begun. Each decision that is made affects all that has gone before and
everything that will come later. That is karma – decisions have consequences. For
example, when one meditates and finds a base color for the fire ring, the color
that is applied sets a tone and an energy that will have ramifications not only
for the fire ring, but also for each subsequent concentric circle and for the
center of the mandala.
Painting with Purpose
Each woman sought to use her artistic gifts to benefit her family and society
as a whole. One will share the discovery that her family has Jewish heritage,
something that was rumored and has now been validated. I discovered that my
maternal ancestors spent a fairly long time in the Near East before moving up
into the Caucasus area. The people of Egypt, Syria, and Turkey are my people.
Another learned that she is indigenous on both her maternal
and paternal sides. Both sides made the entire journey out of East Africa, up
into the Near East, up into Central Asia, crossed over the arctic circle and
made their way down the west coast of North and South America, and then back up
into Mexico and the United States. She has a very real and solid foundation
from which to teach the 13 Feminine Truths garnered from her indigenous
heritage.
Acceptance Takes Time
Each woman had repeated incidents of having to accept what was given rather
than reject or fight against it. Personally, I had an ongoing struggle with my
fire ring. Because of my preconceptions about how fire should look, I was
tempted over and over to scrub it all out and begin again. Time and again, I
had to let go of my ideas about what it should be. Another scrubbed out one
area five times before she could let it go and let it be what it was. The third
kept finding that she had to get out of the way and let what came to her be
expressed without judgment.
Together we confirmed that the people of planet earth are
one global family, a rainbow people.
It is what it is. Let it be.
Will you share something about your heritage quest? What
have you done? How has it surprised, baffled, or invigorated you?
