The Mandala of Wholeness
The archetypal form of Wholeness can be visualized as a mandala, a sacred circle with its essence firmly planted in the center, radiating outward to encompass a variety of manifestations. In Hindu and Buddhist iconography, mandalas are sometimes visualized as royal palaces with a central deity surrounded by four gates. In some North American Indigenous cultures, these four gates are depicted as the four directions of a medicine wheel.
Related Patterns
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The Five Buddha Families
In the center of the mandala of the Five Buddha Families is the Buddha Buddha family, which represents enlightened spaciousness. It is surrounded in the East by Vajra, which represents enlightened clarity; in the South by Ratna, which represents enlightened richness; in the West by Padma, which represents enlightened passion; and in the North by Karma, which represents enlightened activity.
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The Mandala of Life
The Mandala of Life attempts to translate the Mandala of the Five Buddha Families into a practical guide for cultivating wholeness and balance in everyday life. You can use it simply by calling it to mind every so often and asking yourself what you’re doing to nurture yourself in each of these five areas. Then, reflect on how well these elements are currently balanced and where you might need to pay more attention.
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Spiral Dynamics
While there are good reasons why Spiral Dynamics is typically presented as a hierarchy of levels of consciousness, I prefer to imagine it as a round table around which representatives of each of the First-Tier worldviews are seated. This makes it clear that none is meant to be perceived as higher or lower, and it’s only by placing an integral perspective at the center that we’re able to come together as equals and allies.
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The Permaculture Flower
The seven petals of the Permaculture Flower represent different aspects of society that need to be transformed in order to bring about a “permanent culture.” Its pistil contains core Permaculture ethics and design principles, such as “Observe and interact,” “Produce no waste,” “Integrate rather than segregate,” and “Use small and slow solutions” that are meant to guide this transformation.
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The Transition Animal
While a few different versions of the Transition Animal exist, mine is based primarily on the “7 essential Ingredients for doing Transition successfully” outlined in Transition Network’s Essential Guide to Doing Transition. The main point of The Transition Animal is to identify what the essential ingredients of Transition are and show how they all need to work together like parts of a single body.
More About Wholeness
We observe patterns of Wholeness in nature when we look at how a limited number of elements combine to create a world of dazzling diversity or how various organs, parts, and systems cooperate to make a body dance. Often, we seek to avoid this level of complexity by boiling everything down to just one or two factors, but a monoculture with only one or two species cannot be sustained.
Wholeness is partly about becoming a more well-rounded person, developing all of our innate capacities so we can thrive in any situation. However, patterns of Wholeness can also be applied to groups, communities, and movements. Different circumstances call for different energies and approaches, and on the journey of evolutionary change, we’ll need them all.