The Universe is the indivisible unity of all existence. The Tao is the essential spirit of the universe. The Mandala is a vision of the unity within the spirit, and a sacred diagram of our place in the vast complexity of the cosmos. Each of us is the center of the mandala, and every center is a point of focus, stability and peace. We carry the strength of that position within ourselves, although it seems we are not aware of it. We feel lost, as if there was no right place for us, and we live our lives searching for a way to belong. But the truth is that we do belong, intimately and inextricably, to all the wonder that surrounds us. We are an essential part of the universe in all its chaotic splendor, connected to every point in the totality of the cosmos. Yet we seem blind to this connection, so we spend our lives searching for a way to feel the essence, to reach that indefinable place where we can know that we belong. The truth that is so difficult to see, to understand, to believe, is that we already belong, that we are connected, that we are one with the beautiful spirit of the universe.
     We are surrounded by a cosmos of dizzying complexity and indescribable variety. We see the planets spinning in their courses, uncountable stars that shine out upon the darkness of space, galaxies that spin and drift through the incomprehensible distances of the universe. In our own immediate corner of the cosmos we find a rich, dense collection of elements that embody everything we know and love. We are a planet full of life, of rocks, of water and energy and air. We look around us and see more things than we can easily catalog. The numbers that describe this earthly profusion are vast—to count the different plants and animals, minerals and gases, mountains and rivers and lakes, would be beyond the practical ability of the greatest and smartest of us. And yet this amazing multiplicity evident all around us can only be appreciated at the level of awareness to which our particular consciousness has evolved. We perceive such large-scale molecular arrangements as plants and animals because it was necessary for our survival to identify them and react to their presence. Yet a mass of molecules is precisely what they are, working together in a larger system according to the dictates of physics. Even then, variety is a matter of perception. The apparently separate elements of the universe are actually all the same essential bits of energy arrayed with a dazzling variety of organization and alignment. The Periodic Table of the Elements that describes our current understanding of the structure of matter is nothing more that a chemical rainbow shining over the spectrum of sub-atomic relationships. Whether we are studying hydrogen, argon or uranium, we are simply observing various groupings of protons, neutrons and electrons. We can look deeper to the next level of system organization, and we will be gazing exclusively upon the rich family of quarks, the sub-atomic particles that comprise all matter. We can dig deeper still and find that these quarks are minute concentrations of energy, like dimples in the fabric of the universe, effectively blurring the barrier between matter and energy itself. We arrive eventually at a unified field of energy that pervades everything and from which every form and force emerges.
     The underlying homogeneity of the universe is a key element in Taoist philosophy, which roughly describes the Tao as the all-encompassing course of nature. Within the Tao can be found everything that exists, and we, whether as individuals or as entire societies, can achieve internal harmony only by understanding the interrelationships that make up the world around us. By understanding them we may emulate them, and by emulating them we may rediscover our original state of cooperative existence. Taoism is a philosophy of nature, acceptance and self-discipline. It says that nature, or the universe, knows what it is doing, and that we can only achieve balance by following its example. An important concept in Taoist philosophy is that of wu-wei, which means something like “non-forcing.” This refers to the Taoist’s confidence in the universe’s natural behavior, and warns against trying to force nature against its will. Unfortunately, the majority of all human activity seems to ignore this warning-- whether in dealings with other people or with the environment, it is human nature to try to conquer it, subdue it, or alter it to suit our ephemeral tastes. Taoism tells us that such a struggle is ultimately futile, and can only fill our lives with stress, anxiety and sorrow. While, on the other hand, to follow the example of the universe is to align ourselves with a course of behavior that flows at its own pace and in its own manner. Whether we realize it or not, we are moving along within that flow of matter and energy. We can choose to either ride the current or swim against it. And since we are an integral element in this vast universal current, when we struggle against the flow of nature we are struggling against ourselves.
     This elementary inclusiveness is also the basic philosophy of the mandala. In the layout of any mandala there is apparent variety and underlying unity. There is the circle, which encompasses the totality of the universe, and the square, which overlays the human perception of structure upon that totality. The Tibetan tradition views the mandala as a palace through which one can mentally travel in the course of purifying one’s spiritual essence. This is achieved by a focusing of the center, the core of being, and by discarding extraneous psychological materials that hamper the refinement of the spirit. The mandala has a great deal of impact on the human subconscious, and along these lines the famous psychologist Carl Jung did a great deal of research with his patients. He found that the basic image of the mandala is evident in what he called the "collective unconscious," whereby people from across the globe and throughout human history have intuitively created similar images though they seem to have had no common source from which to draw them. Thus the mandala has been shown to have a powerful inherent link to the human subconscious, across time and space, from a source beyond even our earliest memories.
     That link is the result of a deeply hidden awareness within the human consciousness of the inherent unity of the universe and of our intimate relationship with it. But conscious awareness of this truth is something that we have lost, and this loss is the source of all our deepest anxieties. Connectivity is the essential state of the universe, wherein everything is linked to everything else. But more important than physical or spatial relations, it is the evolution of the universe as a whole that establishes our unity. Everything that exists has developed together with everything else, one polymorphous step at a time, from the ancient past until today and on to the mysterious horizons of our future. We are an integral part of that development, just as much as the chemical elements, the stars and the stones. We are not things in a place, standing alone on a planet, looking outward into dark and empty space. Rather we are elements in a wondrous and self-contained system, intimately woven into the fabric of the universe. Awareness of the great truth of universal oneness is hidden somewhere within us, but all of our conscious thoughts and actions are engineered to divide and categorize what is essentially indivisible. With this effort to divide the undividable we are, as the Taoists would say, trying to force nature against its will. And since the struggle is a futile one, we are doomed to failure and despair if we persist. In actuality, though, these conflicts that we suffer through are all self-imposed, and the keys to peace and harmony can be found within each of us.