The Mandala

A collection of mandalas from different and unacquainted people at a retreat session

Special retreat. Imagine spending an overnight retreat session with a bunch of strangers all because I missed our bus during my supposed retreat schedule with my class and regular classmates. At first I thought that it was a really nasty punishment. I really wanted to scream during the first 3 hours of my stay. Eventually, I realized that it wasn't so bad.

Although it is a really bitter moment for me not to spend my time with my college friends considering that the retreat is the highlight of barkada bonding during your four years stay at college, my experience was really an eye opener and tested my social skills. I learned again how to mingle with new people and mingle with a strange crowd. I have gained new friends and I realized that it is actually a blessing that my bus left me.

The word mandala actually means a circle. The last session that we had during the retreat was to make our own mandala and accumulate them into one big mandala-OUR MANDALA. Our mandala should contain a symbol that represents ourselves and show others how we grew during the sessions. I have created mine with a fermata at the center, intercepted by an integral sign and an infinity sign bounded by musical staffs. 

Why is my mandala like this?

My mandala represents my whole being. In my core, I wanted to experience things and then reflect from them that is why I have the fermata-means terminal/to hold. I want to hold my experiences but eventually let them go. I just wanna learn from them but not to keep them. Then through the sessions, I learned to integrate my own realizations with the realizations that my retreat-mates had shared. The infinity symbolized that everything is in cycle and won't stop. What matters most is going with the flow while establishing my own individual. Lastly, the music staffs reflect my love for music and also the harmonious relationships that me and my retreat-mates had built.

When I pinned my mandala at the center then looked at the finished OUR MANDALA, I realized that although we are different and strangers with one another, we can make something that is colorful, unique and connected. We are like a community that even though we don't know one another, we act and grow together unconsciously. 

Through my retreat experience, I reaffirmed that humans are social beings. We grow together even though we don't intend to. We affect one another unconsciously. We deal with the same matters though we thought that we just doing it alone. My retreat experience turn out to be one of the biggest blessing I have acquired and one of the best experiences for me to reflect on and share to others.

-rodvinfiel