Last Saturday, Annie gave me a little demonstration on her new skate board going down the hallway, such a gracious performance. Annie’s board looked a bit like the first skate boards we bought John and Derrick, when such boards first appeared in the nineteen seventies (1970-).

Sunday I visited Sarah and BJ for an morning coffee and then went on to meet with my friends at the Palliser to hear Herman speak to the occasion of Buddha’s presumed birthday. Herman related the well known narrative of upbringing and elaborated a bit on the teachings of Buddhism. The eightfold path is basically an expansion of ‘good thoughts, words and deeds’ as was taught by Zoroaster earlier.

Something I always marvel about is the symbolism of the Buddha’s birth. His mother is called Maya, which means ‘enchantment’ and she dies almost in child birth. No one ever elaborates on this symbolism, which makes me a bit suspicious in that people do not want to know about its meaning, namely that the Buddha story is a personification of a human coming to insight. This happens under the ‘tree of Insight’ (bodhi-tree) no less, in a reference to ancient tree worship.

On Sunday afternoon I started on my Mandala colouring project before supper and stopped at around nine pm. I am now halfway finished with the last of the eight major inner rosettes, but about four of the eight still need to have quite a bit of peripheral detail coloured.

However, the whole is starting to look quite impressive and pleasing. It is funny how at times, I colour up next up to colouring I did now almost forty (40) years ago in our first house in Willow Park -Wascana road- Calgary.

I have called my Mandala the Integration Mandala for several reasons. First I am bridging - integrating - two periods in my life that are forty years apart. Secondly this Mandala brings together and combines a large collection of colours into a composite whole and thirdly, I am thinking and writing about the process of global integration as we are experiencing this in our world of this day.

In the past, when I was growing up, this process was watched from afar, but always happening somewhere else. Today we have all become taken up in this process, having to face the music, such as that is playing out.

As I was so choosing my colours yesterday and adding new combinations matching them to what was already there, I said to myself “Integration is not easy, but it converts the energy of conflict into an integral whole and worthwhile result“. This could serve as an illustration of our human integration process, difficult and complex as it is, yet necessary and worthwhile to achieve that greater whole of a global community and civilisation.

Integration is not easy, but it converts the energy of conflict into an integral whole and worthwhile result.

The word ‘integration’ - a verb, something you do - means a ‘bring or come into equal participation in or membership of society’, [Oxford, Enc-Dict, 1994]. This has two constituent aspects, work to be done and equality to be practiced.

As I read and hear what is said by people in ethnic conflict situation, then that reflects a different sentiment and conviction. It reports people engaged in protecting their identity against others and a whish to stick with their own community, keeping the others out.

I hear the Buddhist in Myanmar saying that Buddhism is threatened by Islam and needs protection, that Muslims feel threatened by the inroads of secularism into their communities, while people in ‘The West’ are fearful of Sharia law and its intolerance.

As our planet moves to a globalised community we first tend to retreat to our defensive positions and conserving value sets. This reaction implies opportunity cost, yet identities need to be re-assured before opportunities can be explored.

Therefore, our global integration process requires of us a serious re-examination of the essence of our perceived identity in the light of our common human roots and shared heritage stretching back over the millennia and only recently - ‘post modernly’ - discovered.
<8:47am and 9:30am edited~