Excerpt from the artist’s book Art, Consciousness,and Maharishi Vedic Science (see ‘Books and Videos’)

Mandalas and Yantras are traditional geometric structures that resonate directly with primary impulses of natural law. I have often been asked if I think of the Absolute Image Series as Mandalas or perhaps Yantras. The answer is no. And I will try to explain why.

In the context of Maharishi Vedic Science, the Absolute Image Series of Paintings is in the spirit of Vedanta. ‘Vedanta’ deals with that which lies beyond the Veda, that is to say, that which lies beyond all the relative, ever-changing aspects of existence. ‘Vedanta’ deals with the Absolute directly: it deals with the infinite bliss of the unified totality. It deals directly with the unified wholeness of pure knowledge, Brahm, and its inherent infinite organizing power.

‘In the sprit of Vedanta’ means Absolute Image is concerned with the totality only. It is not concerned with the various different channels and qualities of organizing power within nature in a practical sense. This is more the role of traditional Yantras and Mandalas, which are primarily used as adjuncts to Vedic Yagya performance.

Traditional Mandalas and Yantras both Eastern and Western, are created according to set formula to produce specific effects. In their purest form, Mandalas and Yantras are a very precise, holistic science for organizing—through two-dimensional graphic elements—specific impulses of natural law to support and accelerate human evolution.

In the Vedic tradition, therefore, Mandalas and Yantras have a very specific function. As has been said, their main role seems to be to support and enhance the traditional Vedic ceremonies of Yagya. In their purest expression these performances help re-align the individual and collective life of society with the evolutionary power of natural law.

On the other hand, the Absolute Image Series of Paintings is set within the Western paradigm of easel painting. In this Western paradigm the overall purpose of easel painting is the cultural or aesthetic enrichment of public or domestic architecture. Absolute Image is presented in the context of that tradition’s established formal values and conventions of visual aesthetics.

In this context, Absolute Image operates more as a passive marker in the environment of the holistic, cosmic level of perfect order. Its role, therefore, is quite separate from the role of Mandalas and Yantras, which are used as an active ingredient in traditional Vedic performances or Yagya.

Absolute Image has a different function. It is designed to adorn the walls of domestic or public architecture. Absolute Image—purely through outer sensory perception—aspires to sound an echo within the viewer of the total cosmic order and, at the same time, radiate that level of order in continuum to the extended environment. This clearly distinguishes the function of Absolute Image from the role of Mandalas and Yantras.

I understand the composition of Mandalas and Yantras to be fundamental structures pre-existing within the deepest fabrics of the Absolute—pre-existing in the transcendental fluctuations of the field of pure consciousness itself, the unified field of natural law. These forms were originally cognized by the ancient Vedic Rishis of India thousands of years ago within their own pure consciousness, within their own simplest, most settled state of awareness at the source of thought deep within.

The geometric structures of the traditional Vedic Mandalas and Yantras are also preserved mathematically in the texts of the Veda. Their forms are related to, and embody in terms of geometry, the specific impulses of natural law, the specific organizing principles in nature (laws of nature or ‘Devata’ in Vedic terms) that consistently maintain the infinite variety of forms and functions in the universe. These are the specific individual aspects of organizing power that collectively reside within the impersonal structure of the totality of pure consciousness, the totality of natural law itself.

Absolute Image on the other hand is more concerned with embodying the total wholeness of natural law itself, pure consciousness, the unified field of modern quantum physics. As has been said, it concerns itself, not with the various facets of consciousness, but instead seeks to make personal the impersonal totality itself.

This cosmic value of wholeness aspired to in Absolute Image can only be fully realized through individual human creativity when in a unified sate of functioning (Unity Consciousness). In fully actualizing Absolute Image, the total potential of the visual image itself would be fully realized in its ultimate irreducible (most compact) two-dimensional visual form.

In Sumary
The motivating purpose behind Absolute Image has been to uncover the basic building blocks of our visual aesthetic reality. These basic building blocks underlie all images, including Mandalas and Yantras. They embody the secret organizing power that, behind the scene, gives life to all forms in the universe.

By applying Maharishi Vedic Science to the discipline of painting, Absolute Image sort to explore the intimate relationship of these eternal building blocks of our visual aesthetic reality with the structure of pure consciousness itself.

Applying the knowledge of Maharishi Vedic Science to any discipline inevitably takes us to the core of that discipline. Because it is a complete value of knowledge, a complete science of consciousness, Maharishi Vedic Science can take us to the core of the visual arts. This means beyond all the discipline’s specific values of expression to the very underlying laws that fundamentally govern that whole area of human artistic expression.

Maharishi Vedic Science takes us behind the scene, as it were, and opens us to the knowledge of the laws of nature that underlie and govern not only those most powerful modes of visual expression—Mandalas and Yantras—but can give us command over every nuance of expression within the infinite range of our visual aesthetic reality.

I see Absolute Image, therefore, as a voyager into the pure knowledge aspect of the visual arts. Metaphorically, Absolute Image may be viewed as a raft to help carry us into the deepest waters of our visual world and to aid us in harnessing those primary forces of nature that order the entire discipline.