Bright Word Mandala Practice

Handwriting bright word mandalas is a practice of TaikoPeace, a movement started by renowned taiko drumming pioneer and community builder PJ Hirabayashi. In the brief video below, PJ takes you through her journey of discovering mandalas and describes how her creative experiments turned into a transformative practice for expressing positive, peace-filled energy. 

In the video, PJ guides you through the creation of your own bright word mandala, a practice that offers infinite possibilities to express words of healing, gratitude, and love. The bright words in your mandala can be anything positive, inspirational, and/or personal that resonates for you. You might make this a grateful living practice by including words that name: who or what you are grateful for, how gratefulness moves you to act in the world, etc.

Bright word mandala courtesy of Taiko Peace.

You can find inspiration for your mandalas in poetry, quotes (perhaps our Word for the Day), and your personal values. The mandalas might also reflect current difficulties you’re addressing in your own life or that the world is facing as a whole. Perhaps you wish to pay homage to those who’ve lost their lives to COVID and/or to essential workers and those who came before them. What calls to you as needing or wanting the radiant energy of a mandala?

“I’d never written words in a spiral before. I let myself write one letter at a time, rotating the paper slowly and carefully. It surprised me what words ended up on the page after ‘infinite’.”  ~ PJ Hirabayashi

“I experienced how mandalas can be used as a way for self reflection and connection, nurturing healing for all people, across all abilities.” ~ Mariko

PJ Hirabayashi at Byakko Shinko Kai, Fuji Sanctuary. PJ credits and thanks Byakko Shinko Kai and the Fuji Sanctuary for sparking this creative practice.

The TaikoPeace Mandala Garden offers a space for the TaikoPeace community of “gardeners” to plant mandalas of infinite love, peace, and joy. We encourage you to sit in reflective practice with the mandalas found in the garden: Feel yourself in the web of human belonging as you take in the heart-woven messages of others. What do the mandalas awaken or inspire in you? What do you feel in your body as you explore the bright words of others? How does the energy of the spiral move through you…and move you?

You may submit your mandalas for consideration to be included in the mandala garden (as an anonymous contribution) by sending them to: hello@taikopeace.love.

“I discovered bright word mandalas while on a trip to Byakko Shinko Kai, Fuji Sanctuary in Japan where bright word mandalas are taught as a spiritual practice to energize peace. I was captivated by the power of these spiraling words and began to experiment with creating them.” ~ PJ Hirabayashi

To learn more and support PJ’s creative, joyful, peace-filled movement, visit TaikoPeace.