Nine Designs for Inner Peace: The Ultimate Guide to Meditating with Color, Shape, and Sound

(Paperback)

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Description

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 centring effects. Each of the nine designs corresponds to one of the nine qualities of body and mind essential to well-being: radiance, nourishment, passion, intellect, expansion, bliss, organisation, 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 endeavours, 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.

Reviews

Nine Designs for Inner Peace is a practical guide to the ancient tantric art of Yantra painting and Yantra meditation, leaving no detail aside. Shining through in every aspect of the book, one finds the deep inner peace promised as a result of this yoga practice. * Peter Marchand, author of The Yoga of Truth and The Yoga of the Nine Emotions *
This masterful guide is a work of warmth, inspiration, and beauty. A brilliant teaching for the artist, yogi, or seeker, it reveals ancient, mystical elements of sacred geometry as meditative tools and powerful connections to the Divine. * Danny Paradise, international ashtanga yoga instructor *
"Forget Sudoku, Nine Designs for Inner Peace provides templates, instructions, and background information on nine ancient yantras that correspond to the mind-body-spirit states essential to well-being . . . Tomlinson's step-by-step directions make the process simple." * New Age Retailer, Jan 2008 *
"Even if you aren't looking for another method to find inner peace, you'll get addicted to making yantras and decorating your walls with them." * Elizabeth Stannard Gromisch, Feminist Review, Feb 2008 *
" . . . Sarah has produced a superb book which contains easy-to-follow instructions for creating exquisite planetary yantras to access their healing and centering benefits." * Yoga Magazine, Jan 2008 *
"Yantras, geometrical diagrams used in tantric meditation, are a mystery to most Western yoga practitioners--which makes this delightful and unusual book even more intriguing. . . . Beautifully illustrated with an inviting layout, this practical workbook is an inspiration to the creative divine spirit in all of us." * Ruth Jones, Yoga +, May/June 08 *

Author Bio

Sarah Tomlinson studied yantra painting in India with tantric master and artist Harish Johari, who revealed to her the healing power of meditation with yantras. She is the founder and codirector of the Ayurveda-Yoga Institute of New York, and she trains teachers and students throughout the U.S. and U.K. She lives in New Jersey.