Mandalas

I'm not quite sure why mandalas are so intriguing. I know from just poking around for info, that they represent unity and harmony. What I know from my own experience is that they are soothing to play with and look at. The mandala on the left is magazine pieces collaged onto a hard canvas surface. It's not quite finished as the process of gluing sort of got on my nerves, which seemed counterproductive to a meditative experience! But I like to look at it now and then and especially when the photo happened, I saw it more flat somehow, and enjoyed looking at it that way. 
      The Zentangle mandala on the right was a very different experience. There is something very hypnotic about the process of using a little black pen to fill the spaces in a mandala.  Once you make a mark, you make it 8 or 16 times around (depending on how many sections you created). In turning the piece to make each mark, it does something to the brain. (Maybe like rides at an amusement park?) It's sometimes like going backwards and forward at the same time. Delightfully dizzying, yet calming at the same time. And even though the mandala looks very orderly and planned, there is no plan, and one stroke leads to another, for some very surprising shapes and dimensions!