The "Mandala of the 8 Paths" also called "Cosmic Mandala", was created in 1944 by J.B. Spars who built it with the idea that all men could unite in a unique way of feeling and conceiving Spirituality.
8 paths linked each to one of the 8 major religions or philosophical ways that have involved the whole of humanity, all united through the center, that Absolute One without a second that everything and everyone unites.
Clockwise starting from the top we find "Christianity", "Philosophical Humanism", "Taoism and Confucianism", "Zoroastrianism or Mazdeism", "Budddhism", "Hinduism Yoga", "Islam" "and" Judaism ".
Father Anthony adopted it as an instrument for practicing "Meditation", so as to make it clear through the "awareness" that there is only one center. Starting from the various outskirts of the Empirical Sciences we can deepen our concepts and our knowledge more and more until we arrive at the Center, a unique landing point for all the paths.
The Original English Version
It is the most complete version, especially for the central part; in fact, in the small circle inside which an equilateral triangle is inscribed, we find the three words "Sat", "Chit" and "Ananda" and at the center of the triangle the sacred syllable "AUM".
Knowing the value of "AUM" as Vācakaḥ (pr. vachaca) of the 4 states of mind we can understand how the mind itself is at the Center of the Universe. Our little mind of beings created as part of the Universal Mind, God, Absolute, AUM, One without second.
To understand something more about this archetypal meaning, I suggest to deepen the subject by reading the "Mandukya Upaniṣad" which deals with precisely the four states of the mind, the three also known by western philosophy and psychology, plus the "Turiya", the superconscious developed by the Yogis and the Saints and Sages of every tradition.
The Italian Translation
With the permanent coming of Fr. Anthony in Italy, in Turin and especially in Assisi, the translation of the components of the Mandala into Italian became necessary. Unfortunately the translation does not exactly reflect the content of the original Mandala, because it overlooks the central part, the most important part, that is unitary above all the others.
Some symbols are modified, such as Buddhist and Hindu, and the outer, more superficial part is developed with the specification of a large number of scientific-philosophical disciplines.
However, the essential concept of aiming at the Center remains intact, leaving all the separative differences out of our research path. Recall that Fr Anthony was a great friend of the Good Pope, John XXIII, who had said "Look for what unites, not what divides", words that are often nowadays forgotten.
Meaning and Use
Regardless of our origins or religious or philosophical beliefs, we can identify with one of the eight sections of the Mandala including so-called atheists who can find accommodation in humanistic philosophy; Father Anthony was also known for his knowledge of Physics and Astronomy, so not just a theologian but a "spiritual scientist". He himself used to repeat that "Yoga is a scientific way".
Taking any of the segments of the Mandala we can penetrate the Center, regardless of the other topics around, simply deepening the thought and concepts related to the various names of characters who have preceded us, as Plato, Aristotle, Lao-Tze, Buddha, Zoroaster, Muhammad, Sivananda, Moses and Jesus the Christ.
As our knowledge grows we will find more and more points of concordance with the adjacent streets until we reach that threshold bounded by the inner circle, beyond which only the Unity, the One exists. It is true that we first find it with a trinitarian aspect that in Sanskrit is identified with the term"Sat-Chit-Ananda" that St. Thomas Aquinas and the Thomists identified with the "Ens-Verum-Bonum", that one Entity that Aristotle had called "πρῶτον κινοῦν ἀκίνητον" in Latin the "Primum Movens", the Immobile Engine.
Then, in the middle, the symbol of "AUM" that in the dot above the identifier of the 4th mental state encloses the entire Manifested Universe, the whole Creation.
Therefore in meditation, bringing our attention to the Center of the Mandala we can identify with that One that all in itself receives ... as Jesus said "I and my Father are One" and we too can enjoy the same dignity as the Sons of God, leaves of the same tree, branches of the same vine.
Fr Anthony used to listen to a meditation, a thought he himself wrote in Turin on December 3, 1981:
God means the Absolute behind the relative, the Being that underlies the world of becoming, the Actus Purus whose reflection is the contingent world, the Primum Movens Immobile of the universe, the only Supreme Reality that manifests itself as a physical world to the senses and the mental world of thought. This all-pervading Reality vibrates in the whole universe, from atoms to galaxies.
You yourself, in your deepest reality, crossing the borders of the senses, body, mind, intellect, ego, you are that Reality, Tatvamasi.
God, invoked also as Allah, Tao, Theos, Jehova, Brahma and with a thousand other names, is the "Our Father in Heaven", the Mother Nature in whose womb the creatures are born and die.
God is the intellectual light, the Logos that enlightens all the men who karmically descend on our planet and is the Being-Consciousness-Bliss, the Sat-Chit-Ananda of the Universe.
Religion is the Path that leads us back to the Eternal Sine, and as such, every religion with self-consciousness, self-catharsis and self-realization of Heart will surely bring us back to the Eternal.
You choose and follow your path and leave it to others to seek, discover and follow one's own that leads us to that kingdom of God which is nothing but the overcoming of the biological heritage of the deadly sins, the purity of the senses, mind and Heart that gives us the vision of the Lord face to face.
Religion, spiritually and esoterically speaking, is nothing but the conquest of unperturbed peace, serenity of mind in every situation of our earthly stay, the tranquility of heart and the beatific vision of God which is the introverted universe, like the universe he is nothing but God extrovert.
You can conquer conscious immortality now, now, here on Earth with that religious philosophy of life that enables you to explode the inflated bubble of the anthropoid egocentrism, empathizing with the Ocean of Being, the Sat-Chit-Ananda.
God is the Intelligence, the Love, and the cosmic Law carved in the bosom of Mother Nature and in the Heart of each one of us. Loving God above all is loving Him in all creatures, here is the quintessence of that religion that gives you the powers pr transcend the life of the senses, names and forms of the phenomenal world and makes you able to immerse yourself, identify yourself with the Absolute transcending the state of waking, dream and sleep, making the Soul vibrate in unison with the AUM.
Then you will become a citizen of Cosmopolis with unique cosmic citizenship and a unique world seraphic Love.
This is the esoteric meaning of the Mandala said of the eight paths devised by J.B. Spars in the year 1944 to guide the aspirants to meditate on the universal spirit, on the Eternal, on the AUM, on Being-Consciousness-Bliss, Sat-Chit-Ananda.
Subsequent Uses and Evolution
In more recent years the Mandala have been used in different graphic forms for many publications, the last of which is an extremely stylized representation created by the Triestine artist Alice Polenghi as a logo of "Sat Cit Ananda Edizioni", publishing house created by Fr Anthony to continue the translation, publication and dissemination of his ecumenical thought for posterity. Unfortunately, the publishing house was forced to close only a few years after the departure of the Father.
With the birth of the "Cosmic Ecumenis Now Project" and the new translations and prints of Fr. Anthony Elenjimittam's books, the new Mandala has been created which faithfully reflects in Italian the content of the original English. The latter version is still used in seminars and for all official activities.
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