With the sad passing of Nelson Mandela (now no doubt celebrating with MLK) it is not surprising that I have had a PP and M song written by Peter Yarrow in my head
it was of course also recorded by the late Ritchie Havens and here is a splendid duet by Ritchie and Peter
A Mandela ?? I had never understood what one was so I googled for it
Unexpectedly I found that the song is actually about The Great MandAla
Yes Yes but in that case just what is a mandAla anyway??
The inevitable wiki is forthcoming
from:-
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Mandala
"Mandala (Sanskrit: मण्डल Maṇḍala, 'circle') is a spiritual and ritual symbol in Hinduism and Buddhism, representing the Universe. The basic form of most mandalas is a square with four gates containing a circle with a center point. Each gate is in the general shape of a T. Mandalas often exhibit radial balance.
The term is of Hindu origin. It appears in the Rig Veda as the name of the sections of the work, but is also used in other Indian religions, particularly Buddhism.
In various spiritual traditions, mandalas may be employed for focusing attention of aspirants and adepts, as a spiritual teaching tool, for establishing a sacred space, and as an aid to meditation and trance induction.
In common use, mandala has become a generic term for any plan, chart or geometric pattern that represents the cosmos metaphysically or symbolically; a microcosm of the universe."
the wiki is illustrated with a splendid slection of mandala paintings of which I think my faourite is this one
"Chenrezig Sand Mandala created at the House of Commons of the United Kingdom on the occasion of the Dalai Lama's visit in May 2008"
I do hope that you like that image (it took much patience and an inordinate length of time to find that image's URL so that I could display it here)
I won't bore you with the details of my enforced search procedure:
suffice to say I had to utilise three browsers
Internet Exploder F'ing Firefox AND Google's plated variety to track the URL down
In doing so I also stumbled upon an old interview with Peter Yarrow at:-
http://www.pennyblackmusic.co.uk/MagSitePages/Article.aspx?id=5435jic
which includes:-
"That’s what we did. We were never reluctant to sing a song. It was all about a song. We didn’t care that Bobby Dylan was virtually unknown when we sang, ‘Blowing In The Wind.’ We gave Gordon Lightfoot (‘In The Early Morning Rain’) exposure, and John Denver (‘Leaving on a Jet Plane’), too."
if you enjoyed those images on the wiki you might like to try this pinterest page's spread as well
www.pinterest.com/pin/5136987046680322/
it is entitled
Mandalas, or any round shape in Art and Nature
The Great Mande(a)la
