Book Review - the Mandala of Being

A month or two ago I received an e-mail from Robert Dilts recommending (or was it promoting) the Mandala of Being by Richard Moss. Robert described the book something like the Heineken adverts of my childhood. The Mandala of Being refreshes the parts many NLP techniques cannot reach. Since I like Robert, and respect his opinion I decided to buy it - and read it.

Now I've read it I've decided to review it. After my paraphrasing of Robert's summary I will offer my own.

The book is something like a cross between Eckhart Tolle's Power of Now, combined with techniques that make use of our mental tendencies to organise meaning spatially, and in terms of stories.

Now a slightly more in depth version. There is a lot more in the book than I have described here.

Richard Moss writes that we humans are born into the present, and while we are present we are exquisitely sensitive and connected to life. However being so sensitive we are also susceptible to pain, and since life doles out plenty of that, we learn strategies to flee the pain of the present. Some of these we learn ourselves, and some we learn from the people around us - like our family. Some of these patterns get passed down across generations

These methods of fleeing the present become or form the basis for our personalities or identities. However in fleeing the present we restrict our experience, our depth, and ability to act. Not only that, we also tend to perpetuate the circumstances and the pain we try to avoid by fleeing the present.

Richard writes that we have four basic directions we can go when we leave the present. Into our limited identities, into opinions about others, into the past, and into the future. All of these places are held in the form of stories. We tell ourselves stories about the kind of people we are, or the kind of people other people are. We tell stories about the past that justify the present, and we tell stories about the future that are either elating, or depressing - or alternately both.

In contrast to the limited identities related to our stories, we have 'true identity' in the present. that identity is the timeless space of awareness - which has no limits.

Returning to this timeless awareness is easy - be present with each breath, feel into what is happening now. Track anything that is happening to the awareness that it is happening in, that is always there.

This is easy...except that we are identified with the stories that are designed to protect us from pain, and in fact perpetuate pain. In remaining present the pain we have been covering through our personalities arises. It can seem overwhelming.

So we need to remain aware through the pain - emotional or physical, without falling back into the old stories. We need to stop 'thinking at' the sensation as the author puts it. Instead we need to accept and hold the sensations with the tender acceptance of a loving mother holding a crying child.

Beyond this the book is based on the practise on a mandala - a circle on the floor divided into four directions. At the centre is Now. To the outside are the directions by which we flee the present. To the left is me, to the right you, with the future ahead, and the past behind. Spatial anchoring in NLP terms.

Using the Mandala involves centering in the Now position, then moving out to one or more of the other directions. Once here the idea is to tell the story of the position "I am a....person, and ....' but not just tell it mentally, to feel the emotional consequences of each story in the body. From here the idea is to return to the present, the pure sensation of being, and leave the stories behind.

To facilitate this each direction has a number of questions to help explore the stories, and to help exit the stories. In some ways these are similar to NLP meta-model questions.

What really differs in this book to (most) NLP is the idea that the identity is a source of suffering. This is the view of many mystic traditions, and many of them are referred to throughout the book.

Most mainstream psychological approaches (including NLP) involve replacing negative self concepts with positive ones. In this book the idea here is that even the most optimistic, positive ideas about the self, or others, or the future are limited compared to the presence of Now, and are most likely covering some pain that the identity does not want to face.

The author does concede that it is probably better, or at least more pleasant, to tell positive stories than negative ones. However he believes genuine spirituality comes from giving up all the stories to awareness of the present.

As such it gives a much less saccharine view of the practise of spirituality than the majority of new age material - such as the Secret.

This is a book about awareness and spirit, rather than ways to change what you do not like into what you do like. As such it probably will not appeal to people looking for step by step solutions to specific problems or challenges.

Having said that it is also about recovering the resources to make genuine and positive change in life. I'm glad that I read it, and am happy to recommend it to others as Robert did.