So. Here we are in the Territory now. We moved inwardly from the everyday world in our search for the empty source. Are we closer? Is the empty source here yet, can we find it here in the Territory? Well yes we can, if we've already seen it we'd see it right here in the Territory just as we would have in the everyday world if we knew what it looked like (which we don't). So what now? We still don't know what the empty source looks like, we still need to move our consciousness somehow so we can at least catch a glimpse. Where do we go? What can we do? Wherever we want, there are countless ways to play in the Territory and the Territory will always play along with you. There is more to do in the Territory, the intimacy of the empty source is more available and it likes to interact. Perhaps it can be said that moving consciously from the everyday world into the Territory is a way of making yourself available to the empty source. Not that it can't see you in the everyday world square, it's just that there's not enough emptiness available in you until you allow it to emerge. All form and no emptiness makes Jack a dull boy, at least to the empty source.
The Territory square has a circle inscribed inside it. According to the mandala language this would refer to consciousness inside the Territory. So the message here is that, even though we have found our way into the Territory, we must be also be conscious inside this new landscape. Now this is a somewhat different situation than we encountered in the everyday world square. In the everyday world square we had access to the whole square without having to be conscious about it. Perhaps this is because the everyday square is our initial starting place as a human, it is our natural niche in a way and we can move about this landscape without having to be know anything more than we do (or don't) already. But if we do the work to shift our consciousness to the next level (moving into the Territory square) we can't claim this landscape as our natural habitat unless we develop the ability to be conscious within and of the Territory landscape itself.
Now this is a tall order, I mean we've already done a whole lot of work just to discover the Territory in the first place! We shifted our everyday world consciousness to a point where we recognized the access, we left the familiar landscape of the everyday world and traveled inwardly to the (initially) unfamiliar landscape of the Territory. It was unsettling, even uncomfortable from an everyday world point of view. So now it seems that once we get into the Territory we have to be even more uncomfortable? We have to be conscious of the actual landscape itself in order to stay there? This is going to be a hard sell, I mean who'd want to be in the Territory if it means you have to work on the consciousness of the Territory itself just to stay there? You work to attain your goal and then, when you finally do, you still have to keep working to maintain it?
Well it definitely is a hard sell alright. Throughout the last fifteen years the Territory Orphans have mounted expeditions into the Territory many times, and they have all been very successful. Many people have traveled from the everyday world and entered into the Territory with us. And everyone who has agrees they have actually seen it, interacted with it, and that it is an indigenous place to reside. But one by one the travelers drift away, slipping back into the everyday world, unable to stay conscious in the Territory landscape. Territory, nice place to visit, but who could possibly stay there?
The odd thing is, with just a bit more work, with just one final shift of consciousness, the Territory becomes a more easily inhabitable place. Returning to the mandala we can see how this can be. Once we enter the mandala's Territory landscape square we are confronted with an inscribed circle, the ongoing Territory consciousness we've been wrestling with above. This consciousness shift is (seemingly) particularly difficult because there is no inscribed square inside it; that is, there is no new landscape that arises from this Territory consciousness. The next geometric shape is another circle further in, but it does not touch or arise from the Territory consciousness circle or the Territory landscape square itself. In other words there's a gap.
And just how are you supposed to deal with this gap, what do you do if there
is no directly presented access to the next level of the mandala? Well whatever
you like, that's the interesting thing. There's freedom here, real freedom
for the first time actually, something that's not encountered in the everyday
world square. In the everyday world square there is only one consciousness
circle presented and it's inscribed by the square. This means that really,
there is no freedom in the everyday world as to how to shift your consciousness.
There is only one shift that is required if you want to continue further:
you must shift into the Territory landscape square. This might seem somewhat
unsettling. The everyday world continually tells us that we can have as
much freedom as we can grab. It is something you attain, something you pile
up, something you even take for your own. Foolish talk. But if, instead,
you open up and discipline yourself to accept the one real consciousness
shift, you will suddenly find yourself in a place (the Territory) where
freedom is an indigenous part of the landscape.
But this freedom is only available if you shift your consciousness twicely. And nicely enough (particularly so for those of us that get tired of all this proscribed consciousness shifting), although the first consciousness shift is mandatory (you must become conscious of the Territory landscape in an on-going way) the second shift of consciousness is up to you and will arise naturally without any specific necessity attached. As you explore the Territory you'll find that this is true: there are many access routes to choose from and each of these does lead in to the empty source at the centre of the Mandala. One way differs from another as to the texture and vector and possible specialities, but each will lead you further.
Geometrically speaking this might be represented as follows. The Territory consciousness circle is inscribed inside the Territory landscape square, and inside this circle there are a number of other floating circles that are accessible if you explore the Territory landscape. How many there are and what exactly each represents are important questions to investigate elsewhere. But for our purposes here what is important is that you can choose whichever circle you want to access, and the personal choice you finally make will stand out.
And when you make this choice, that particular circle becomes the way into the inner Mandala for you, by your choice you enlarge it and place it at the very centre. The other possible choices do not disappear, they are still indigenous parts of the Territory landscape and can be used and visited as the need to do so arises. But this one chosen access becomes central and gives rise to whatever landscapes it contains and gives rise to. In the case of Garian's Mandala, this central Territory floating circle gives rise to a square which is designated as the Territory Orphanage. It is inside the Territory Orphanage (actually inside the consciousness circle inscribed within the Territory Orphanage square) that Garian resides.
Up to this point the Mandala has been completely universal. Everyone can situate themselves somewhere in the first series of inscribed geometric forms. But now the Mandala becomes specific as to a certain path (Garian). As discussed above, there are many paths just like this (only completely different) throughout the Territory square. Garian's Mandala represents just one and that's why it places this one in the middle. In other words, once you choose to follow Garian's way, it becomes central. It is the way to proceed further. If you chose some other way in the Territory it would be placed in the centre of its mandala. It would be a perfectly useful mandala, but it wouldn't be Garian's Mandala.
We've reached an important place here. The Territory Orphanage square is a real resting place, an indigenous sanctuary within the Territory. Because we have made the on-going effort of being conscious in the Territory (the circle inscribed inside the Territory square), because we have had the freedom to investigate the Territory while staying conscious and have located a particular way to continue inwards (one of the many floating circles within the Territory square), because we have chosen this way and consciously placed it centrally for ourselves (the large floating circle is now at the centre of the Territory square) - we can now actually reside in the Territory. Having arrived here at the Territory Orphanage, we will be less inclined to loose our Territory consciousness, other orphans will help us remember, and even when we forget they will rescue us if we start to slip away back towards the everyday world. Garian is just a little bit further in towards the centre of the Mandala and we can soon move that way, but for the first time we can rest a little and look back at the view. Now that we have a solid residency in the Territory we can consider and even visit the everyday world without losing our Territory consciousness.
