Conference 1 Workshop: Mandala Spiritual Art

Introduction

Mandala is a Sanskrit word that means "circle". It is sacred circle because they represent wisdom from the depth
of the person who created them. They symbolically represent a microcosm of the universe from the human
perspective.

Mandalas have been used by many cultures for centuries as forms of prayer, graphic representations of spirit
contact, and as healing tools. Stained glass rose windows in European cathedrals, Native American prayer wheels,
and daily rice-paintings at the entrances to Indian homes are all mandalas! In all their forms, mandalas stem from
the human desire for contact with the sacred within each of us.

Mandala drawing is a great way to get in touch with what’s going on inside you through symbols, imagery and
circles. The mandalas don’t have to represent only the cosmos ‘out there’, they can also be meaningful images of
your ‘inner cosmos’. In other words – what’s going on inside you. Carl Jung put it a little simpler when he said
mandalas are “a representation of the unconscious self.”

Instructions

1. You are going to draw one mandala in this session. The purpose? To see what kinds of symbols and
patterns emerge, and find out answers to some questions about yourself and your leadership experiences
and influences.

2. You will divide your mandala into four quadrants. The first quadrant is about your strength and
weakness as a leader, second quadrant is about values or beliefs you uphold, third quadrant is about the
hero or heroes in your life and the last quadrant is about your aspirations in life.

3. In drawing symbols or patterns, make sure that you do not leave any blank spaces in your cardboard. At the
end of the activity, the entire circle should be filled with colors, patters, shapes etc.

4. Consider your Mandala as a reflection of yourself. This session requires that you work alone as it needs a
deeper reflection of your personal strengths and weaknesses, values and aspirations.

Sharing Guidelines

Make sure that each member can share his/her work.

While someone is sharing, everyone in the group should LISTEN and RESPECT the things that were shared.
Conference 2 Workshop: Bahay Pangarap

Introduction:

What is Social Analysis? Why do we have to do Social Analysis?

 When we get sick and consult a doctor the doctor may ask us about how we feel to check on the symptoms of our
illness. Then the doctor analyzes the findings and prescribes the necessary medications and treatments.
 When we do Social Analysis we do the same thing the doctor does when examining a patient except that we are
diagnosing “Society”.
 Social Analysis is the process wherein society or a system is broken into its component parts to be able to examine the
nature of each part and get a better and more complex picture of the whole social situation
 Therefore, when we do Social Analysis, we look at the different systems, structures, social relationship and events to
come up with our interpretations.
 In sum, we do Social Analysis to better understand society and its problems.

Workshop Background:

The Activity is called, “Bahay Pangarap”

Context: Each of us have our own dreams and part of which is to be successful for us to live in peace and comfort by having our
own house.

 Mechanics:
o Participants will be divided into 3 groups of approximately equal number of members. Each group will be
provided with their materials/kits
o In 10 minutes, the participants will have to brainstorm and make their group’s “dream house” using the
materials inside their respective kits. The house should at least be presentable, stable and durable.
o After 10 minutes, the student volunteers will check the stability and durability of the houses

 Processing Questions:
o What are your observations and feelings while doing the activity?
o What strategies did you apply in coming up with your group’s “dream house”?
o What have you observed in the rules being implemented in the game? If you are to change the rules, how
would you present the activity?
o Can you see any parallelism between the activity and the present social situation of the country? If yes, in
what area or aspect?

 Processing Points:
o Our social situations affect our motivations just like in the game, poor people don’t seem to want to work on
their dreams, feeling resigned to the idea that they cannot attain their dreams because of the challenges and
struggles they are experiencing in their lives.
o In our society, much of our fate is decided from the time we were born. If the parents are poor, more likely the
children and grand children end up being poor. The cases of poor ending up rich are very rare. Just like in the
game where the group who had the least number of materials ended up having the “crudest house”
o Poor people tend to complain on the difficult conditions they are experiencing. For example, availability of
jobs, increased prices of commodity. In the game, the “poor” people complain of the lack of materials they
build their house
o Meanwhile, the rich complain on trivial things- the lack of fine roads, the color of their new bag, the quality of
their shoes. In the game, the rich tend to complain of the lack of coloring materials, art paper etc.
o Poor people tend to have simple dreams, while rich people dream big-like, big houses. People base their
dreams and ambitions on what they have and their capacity of achieving it.
o Our social conditions also affect our choices. In the game, the rich people may have sophisticated designs of
their homes while poor people have to content themselves with simple usually unpainted, patched up houses.
(note: please provide additional processing points to better emphasize the activity’s parallelism to our social reality)