The Mandala of Being: Discovering the power of awareness
by Richard Moss, MD. © 2007

Richard Moss' latest work, The Mandala of Being: Discovering the power of awareness, is designed to coalesce his teachings to date in a single book about how to live consciously as a self-determining individual free from the dominion of fear. And it's about how to maintain this aliveness on a day-to-day basis without a special teacher, in special environment, or with group energy to assist. Check it out!

Richard Moss has a long list of books he's written over the years about awareness. Plus he gives workshops across the continent to experience his teachings in person, in a group context. His latest work, The Mandala of Being: Discovering the power of awareness, is designed to coalesce his teachings to date in a single book about how to live consciously as a self-determining individual free from the dominion of fear. And it's about how to maintain this aliveness on a day-to-day basis without a special teacher, in special environment, or with group energy to assist.

The book is slow to build to his main points as he covers a lot of ground about awareness and consciousness. However, he quickly begins to discuss what he says are the four places the mind retreats to when it is no longer living in the present. They are as follows: the future, the past, ME, or YOU. Usually we retreat because we are uncomfortable or feel threatened in some way.

As his discussion unfolds, we learn that depending on the feeling, we will retreat to certain places. For example, when we guilt or nostalgia or regret, we retreat to the past. In fact each of the four retreat places have a specific list of initiating feelings. What's wonderful about this understanding is that when we realize both what places we retreat to and what brought us there, we can also learn what will bring us back. In the case of the past, having retreated based on guilt, nostalgia, or regret, we can get back to Now by practicing forgiveness.

This is an amazing written work and probably one of the best books I've read in some time. Pick it up. Skim what you don't need to read in detail. But at the minimum, check out his four figures that describe his understanding of moving from a lower-functioning self to a higher-functioning self.

Because when we live in the present or our awareness is rooted in the now, we can access our higher potential, experience greater oneness with the vast oneness of the universe, and taste life directly.