Nine Designs for Inner Peace: The Ultimate Guide to Meditating with Color, Shape, and Sound [Paperback]

Sarah Tomlinson (Author), Dr. Robert E. Svoboda (Foreword)

Editorial Reviews

Review

“Nine Designs for Inner Peace is a practical guide to the ancient tantric art of Yantra painting and Yantra meditation, leaving no detail aside. Shining through in every aspect of the book, one finds the deep inner peace promised as a result of this yoga practice.”
(Peter Marchand, author of The Yoga of Truth and The Yoga of the Nine Emotions )

“This masterful guide is a work of warmth, inspiration, and beauty. A brilliant teaching for the artist, yogi, or seeker, it reveals ancient, mystical elements of sacred geometry as meditative tools and powerful connections to the Divine.”
(Danny Paradise, international ashtanga yoga instructor )

"Forget Sudoku, Nine Designs for Inner Peace provides templates, instructions, and background information on nine ancient yantras that correspond to the mind-body-spirit states essential to well-being . . . Tomlinson's step-by-step directions make the process simple."
(New Age Retailer, Jan 2008 )

"Even if you aren't looking for another method to find inner peace, you'll get addicted to making yantras and decorating your walls with them." (
Elizabeth Stannard Gromisch, Feminist Review, Feb 2008 )

" . . . Sarah has produced a superb book which contains easy-to-follow instructions for creating exquisite planetary yantras to access their healing and centering benefits." (
Yoga Magazine, Jan 2008
)

"Yantras, geometrical diagrams used in tantric meditation, are a mystery to most Western yoga practitioners--which makes this delightful and unusual book even more intriguing. . . . Beautifully illustrated with an inviting layout, this practical workbook is an inspiration to the creative divine spirit in all of us." (
Ruth Jones, Yoga +, May/June 08 )

Product Description

A complete guide to creating planetary yantras to access their healing and centering benefits

• Provides easy-to-follow instructions to create the yantras

• Serves as an introduction to active meditation, which focuses the mind while the body is engaged in a meditative activity

The tantric art of drawing or painting the nine designs known as yantras is an ancient practice of active meditation that releases positive healing and centering effects. Each of the nine designs corresponds to one of the nine qualities of body and mind essential to well-being: radiance, nourishment, passion, intellect, expansion, bliss, organization, uniqueness, and spirituality. From the basic elements of the square, the circle, and the triangle, dynamic visual meditations unfold as the practitioner works clockwise from the outer elements inward toward the central point of stillness, or bindu, the source of happiness within. An accompanying mantra is recited while preparing each yantra to fully engage the senses in the meditative process.

Creating the design that “speaks” most to the practitioner enables its unique healing quality to be transmitted. For example, working on the yantra named “Radiance” cultivates optimism and the self-confidence to succeed in one’s endeavors, while “radiating,” or imparting, one’s inner light to others.

This workbook provides an important resource for active meditation, a practice revered for its effectiveness in revealing the spiritual underpinnings of everyday life. The active participation of the body in meditation while creating the nine planetary yantras raises to the level of spiritual ritual the practitioner’s intention toward wakefulness and gives access to profound states of healing integration.

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Product Details

• Paperback: 192 pages
• Publisher: Destiny Books (December 24, 2007)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 1594771944
• ISBN-13: 978-1594771941
• Product Dimensions: 9.8 x 7.9 x 0.6 inches
• Shipping Weight: 1.3 pounds (View shipping rates and policies)
• Average Customer Review: 4.4 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (7 customer reviews)
• Amazon Bestsellers Rank: #279,189 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)

Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

16 of 17 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Yantras: An Wonderful Experiential Introduction, March 1, 2008

By	William Courson "William Courson" (Berea, Kentucky USA) - See all my reviews (VINE VOICE)    (REAL NAME)

This review is from: Nine Designs for Inner Peace: The Ultimate Guide to Meditating with Color, Shape, and Sound (Paperback)

Yantras: An Wonderful Experiential Introduction

Sarah Tomlinson, the author of "Nine Designs for Inner Peace: The Ultimate Guide to Meditating with Color, Shape and Sound" was born in England in 1968 and began her study of yoga at the age of 17. After completing undergraduate studies in fine art in London she relocated to New York City, where she participated in an MFA program exploring the sculptural effects of light in architecture. Currently Sarah lives in the USA and co-directs the Ayurveda-Yoga Institute of New York and New Jersey with Gandharva Sauls. She studied yantra painting in India with tantric master and artist the late Harish Johari, who revealed to her the healing power of meditation with yantras. Presently she regularly teaches Yantra Painting Workshops and Ayurveda-Yoga Intensive Training programs internationally.

Yantra is a Sanskrit word that is derived from the root meaning "that which restrains or fastens, any prop or support", "any instrument or machine", or "an amulet, specifically a mystical or astronomical diagram used as an amulet." Yantra has also been defined as the visual analogue of a mantra, a sound or set of sounds, in that it is able to create the vibrations and other effects of a mantra by using the sense of sight rather than hearing.

The Yantra provides a focal point for meditative introspection that is a window into the absolute. When the mind is concentrated on this single, simple visual object, the mental chatter ceases. It is said possible to attain union with the Divine by the geometric visualization of a Yantra. The Yantra is also a microcosmic diagram of the macrocosm, a focal point and a doorway. Yantras are often focused on a specific planetary deity and by meditating on the different Yantras one can tap into certain deities or creative forces.

Yantras are usually designed so that the eye is carried into the center, and very often they are symmetrical. They can be drawn on paper, wood, metal, or earth, or they can be three-dimensional. The art of drawing or painting the nine designs known as the planetary yantras is an ancient practice that promotes healing and centering. Each of the nine designs corresponds to one of the nine spiritual, mental and physical attributes of the individual that are essential to well-being: these are radiance, nourishment, passion, intellect, expansion, bliss, organization, uniqueness, and spirituality.

From the constituents of the square, the circle, and the triangle, dynamic visual meditations unfold as the practitioner moves from the outer elements inward toward the central point of stillness, the bindu, the source of completeness within. An accompanying mantra is recited while preparing each yantra to fully engage the senses in the meditative process.

"Nine Designs for Inner Peace" provides an important resource for a practice little known in the West that is revered elsewhere for its effectiveness in revealing the spiritual terrain that lies hidden, just beneath the actions and transactions of everyday life. The active participation of the body, the act of drawing, the process of viewing in meditation while creating the nine planetary yantras raises to the level of ritual the practitioner's intention toward conscious awareness and gives access to profound states of healing integration.

Sarah Tomlinson's wonderful book brings the process of making a yantra to a much higher, all-involving level of pleasant experience. While yantras may seem rather inaccessible to the average individual, this book is beautifully practical: you don't have to be an artist, nor a yogini, nor proficient in Sanskrit. You don't need to think you have any talent or special knowledge whatsoever, but by following the delightfully clear and straightforward protocols in Ms. Tomlinson's book you will lend up creating something that is meaningful, beautiful and profoundly useful. I enthusiastically recommend this delightful book.

11 of 11 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Ancient tools made approachable, February 19, 2008

By	M. Bliss (Portland, OR United States) - See all my reviews (REAL NAME)

Amazon Verified Purchase

This review is from: Nine Designs for Inner Peace: The Ultimate Guide to Meditating with Color, Shape, and Sound (Paperback)

I loved this book! I am familiar with Yantras and even work with some myself, but this took the experience to a whole new level. I am very impressed with the authors background and ability to integrate her experiences and knowledge and make something so usable in todays world. Thank you! I immediately started working on the first Yantra the day I got the book (after reading through - it's a pretty quick read). I had a true healing experience doing the work and I can't stop... I am on the Yantra making bandwagon, these are truely addictive!
Normally Yantras seem a bit out of reach to the average person with their association with particular dieties, etc. But this book is practical - making yantras for qualities like - Intellect, Nourishment and Passion - things you want to integrate more fully into your life. She has also given very modern translations to mantras that really allow them to resonate in todays world.
Thank you!!

10 of 10 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars you don't have to be an artist, February 26, 2008

By	Elizabeth Stewart "e. stewart" - See all my reviews (REAL NAME)

This review is from: Nine Designs for Inner Peace: The Ultimate Guide to Meditating with Color, Shape, and Sound (Paperback)

this book is amazing. it integrates the ancient practice of creating yantras with a modern approach that anyone can use. you don't have to be an artist to make these simple, yet powerful designs. sometimes i would get frustrated when starting one, but by the end, i'm completely transformed and feel like i went through a spiritual retreat! all sorts of problems can be worked out while making a yantra! and all yantras come out beautiful in the end. you can be creative and color with crayons or paint or use the template to paint on a wall or sew one with fabric (i made a quilted piece and sewed it onto a handbag!)
the stories that sarah writes about her background and her time spent with her teacher in india are inspiring. This is a great addition to a yoga/meditation practice.