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Nine Designs for Inner Peace: The Ultimate Guide to Meditating with Color, Shape, and Sound
A complete guide to creating planetary yantras to access their healing and centering benefits
• Provides easy-to-follow instructions to create the yantras
• Serves as an introduction to active meditation, which focuses the mind while the body is engaged in a meditative activity
The tantric art of drawing or painting the nine designs known as yantras is an ancient practice of active meditation that releases positive healing and centering effects. Each of the nine designs corresponds to one of the nine qualities of body and mind essential to radiance, nourishment, passion, intellect, expansion, bliss, organization, uniqueness, and spirituality. From the basic elements of the square, the circle, and the triangle, dynamic visual meditations unfold as the practitioner works clockwise from the outer elements inward toward the central point of stillness, or bindu , the source of happiness within. An accompanying mantra is recited while preparing each yantra to fully engage the senses in the meditative process.
Creating the design that “speaks” most to the practitioner enables its unique healing quality to be transmitted. For example, working on the yantra named “Radiance” cultivates optimism and the self-confidence to succeed in one’s endeavors, while “radiating,” or imparting, one’s inner light to others.
This workbook provides an important resource for active meditation, a practice revered for its effectiveness in revealing the spiritual underpinnings of everyday life. The active participation of the body in meditation while creating the nine planetary yantras raises to the level of spiritual ritual the practitioner’s intention toward wakefulness and gives access to profound states of healing integration.
• Provides easy-to-follow instructions to create the yantras
• Serves as an introduction to active meditation, which focuses the mind while the body is engaged in a meditative activity
The tantric art of drawing or painting the nine designs known as yantras is an ancient practice of active meditation that releases positive healing and centering effects. Each of the nine designs corresponds to one of the nine qualities of body and mind essential to radiance, nourishment, passion, intellect, expansion, bliss, organization, uniqueness, and spirituality. From the basic elements of the square, the circle, and the triangle, dynamic visual meditations unfold as the practitioner works clockwise from the outer elements inward toward the central point of stillness, or bindu , the source of happiness within. An accompanying mantra is recited while preparing each yantra to fully engage the senses in the meditative process.
Creating the design that “speaks” most to the practitioner enables its unique healing quality to be transmitted. For example, working on the yantra named “Radiance” cultivates optimism and the self-confidence to succeed in one’s endeavors, while “radiating,” or imparting, one’s inner light to others.
This workbook provides an important resource for active meditation, a practice revered for its effectiveness in revealing the spiritual underpinnings of everyday life. The active participation of the body in meditation while creating the nine planetary yantras raises to the level of spiritual ritual the practitioner’s intention toward wakefulness and gives access to profound states of healing integration.
- GenresSpiritualityNonfiction
192 pages, Paperback
First published December 1, 2007
9 people are currently reading
45 people want to read
About the author
Sarah Tomlinson
31 books15 followersSarah Tomlinson presently teaches Yantra Painting Classes and Workshops throughout the US. Sarah studied Yantra Painting with Sri Harish Johari in India and the US during the last few years of his life.
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Displaying 1 - 7 of 7 reviews
February 26, 2015
Very available cheap, second hand(used). At first this book seemed very simplistic to me, but it has grown on me.
At the first and easiest level of usefulness, you can look at the designs, see which one you like, and stare at it and do the mantra.
At the second level you can copy the outlines and colour them in.
At the third level you can make like a proper geometer and make the designs by hand with a compass and straight edge, and then colour that in, which as the author suggests is a form of meditation and with repetition a spiritual path in its own right.
To do my first one, and I have a bit of experience doing geometric constructions, it took four 3 hour sessions or so to end up with a complete design. This is a lot of time out of anyone's life, but my wife and I did them side by side as a togetherness activity, in addition to whatever other benefits, and it was certainly a better way to spend time than watching the box together.
It was helpful that there was a supply of art stuff around the house-- decent paper, coloured markers, pencils, compasses, ruled transparent straight edges, and paint. Maybe this wouldn't be such a good book for you if you had to buy all that stuff. Certainly try to go the less is more approach and work with what you have or make your purchases minimal. In the end what you make won't look exactly like what is in the book anyway, so roll with it, make do to some extent. You do need a compass though, and if so better a decent size still cheap compass like the "Helix Technical Giant Bow Compass" than the wee ones kids get in school. You could certainly manage with the latter though.
Making art is itself a great spiritual path, as one has to deal with all sorts of surges of both deluded and wise energy passing through. At the end, you've got a thing. Not just a thing, of which we have plenty these days, but a hand made thing. As an aside, I was made keen into the idea of computer controlled laser cutting of geometric designs into panels for a while, but even the coolest designs lack something compared to a hand cut, though imperfect design. Of course it is still just a thing even though it may be a thing that aids on your path of personal development for a while, but giving it away or letting it go some other way such as fire is also informative.
So yeah in the end, GOOD BOOK. Made the whole thing pretty easy as far as these things go. I don't agree completely with the way some technical aspects of the construction went, but hey that's the path of the artist, if I make another one, and I am planning to, I will do it more my way next time. The virtue of this book is that it makes it seem achievable, draws you in subtly, and you can get there. Or just look at the pretty pictures for a while and then pass it on to someone else.
At the first and easiest level of usefulness, you can look at the designs, see which one you like, and stare at it and do the mantra.
At the second level you can copy the outlines and colour them in.
At the third level you can make like a proper geometer and make the designs by hand with a compass and straight edge, and then colour that in, which as the author suggests is a form of meditation and with repetition a spiritual path in its own right.
To do my first one, and I have a bit of experience doing geometric constructions, it took four 3 hour sessions or so to end up with a complete design. This is a lot of time out of anyone's life, but my wife and I did them side by side as a togetherness activity, in addition to whatever other benefits, and it was certainly a better way to spend time than watching the box together.
It was helpful that there was a supply of art stuff around the house-- decent paper, coloured markers, pencils, compasses, ruled transparent straight edges, and paint. Maybe this wouldn't be such a good book for you if you had to buy all that stuff. Certainly try to go the less is more approach and work with what you have or make your purchases minimal. In the end what you make won't look exactly like what is in the book anyway, so roll with it, make do to some extent. You do need a compass though, and if so better a decent size still cheap compass like the "Helix Technical Giant Bow Compass" than the wee ones kids get in school. You could certainly manage with the latter though.
Making art is itself a great spiritual path, as one has to deal with all sorts of surges of both deluded and wise energy passing through. At the end, you've got a thing. Not just a thing, of which we have plenty these days, but a hand made thing. As an aside, I was made keen into the idea of computer controlled laser cutting of geometric designs into panels for a while, but even the coolest designs lack something compared to a hand cut, though imperfect design. Of course it is still just a thing even though it may be a thing that aids on your path of personal development for a while, but giving it away or letting it go some other way such as fire is also informative.
So yeah in the end, GOOD BOOK. Made the whole thing pretty easy as far as these things go. I don't agree completely with the way some technical aspects of the construction went, but hey that's the path of the artist, if I make another one, and I am planning to, I will do it more my way next time. The virtue of this book is that it makes it seem achievable, draws you in subtly, and you can get there. Or just look at the pretty pictures for a while and then pass it on to someone else.
November 12, 2014
An excellent book on the history of Yantra Structures and exceptional detail on how to create them for yourself. This is a resource that I will return to again and again, not only to be able to draw the yantras, but for the wisdom behind yantras and that which is contained in the nine yantras presented. The author gives you a great understanding of this practice and the importance of respecting and honoring the process and the resultant drawing. Each yantra represented in the book has a different use and meaning. Highly recommended for those interested in learning more about yantras, their use, and their benefits. A great method of active meditation.
July 27, 2008
I came across an article about yantras in a yoga magazine. In this book you choose out of 9 yantras (picture representations of attributes/goals like intelligence, passion, wisdom, etc..). You meditate, choose a yantra, then the book shows you how to draw it. You can then use color pencils or paint to make it look pretty. Great for all the crafty people out there looking for a creative project.
July 8, 2008
I love drawing and coloring geometric things - it's the math geek in me. This book is about particular geometric shapes, and that coloring them and meditating on them will improve the corresponding areas of your life. mmmm, well, positive thinking can't hurt, right? Pretty, fun and new ideas for mandala drawing, because it's pretty and fun.
September 18, 2015
the perfect book for giving background info on what a yantra is and then instructions on how to make one.....a great way to meditate!!
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Displaying 1 - 7 of 7 reviews