Sabbatical Leave Request - 1982

The general purpose of my request for a leave of absence is to continue and complete research in the area of Formal Art. My specific intention is to prepare for publication a study that promises to be of considerable interest and methodological consequence for the discipline of art history. Should this prove to be the case, there are direct further implications for the university curriculum, particularly for the fine arts and performing arts.

By the term Formal Art we mean yantras, mandalas, and other works of art organized into coherent systems of physical or psychological symbolism. These may be keyed by color, number, musical tones, the organs of the human body, cycles of nature, and so forth.

Yantras are typically linear drawings of precise configuration, usually geometrical. The term is from Sanskrit, and has the meaning of "tool," or "aid." Within Asian cultural traditions, yantras are aids for meditation or visualization, serving to focus con­sciousness. Frequently they are employed as adjuncts to the healing process.

The term mandala has become familiar to Western readers through the work of C. G. Jung, in conjunction with his theories of archetypes and the collective unconscious. The profound importance of mandalas for understanding the creative process has been well established. In a technical sense, the term mandala properly refers to a work of art that is built up in three dimensions, such as a piece of sculpture or a work of architecture. As Jung correctly understood, the mandala with its symbolic symmetries is both a personal, internal image of the self as ideally healthy and whole, and at the same time functions as a cosmogram, or external image of the unity of nature, and of balance and order in the universe. Thus mandalas have been documented and analyzed in clinical and therapeutic work, in many examples of primitive art, in the devotional images of Buddhist and Hindu traditions, and in the calligraphy or abstract symmetries of Islamic architecture. Indeed, in the history of sacred architecture, we are almost always dealing with the mandala idea--from the scale of decorative detail to the problems of siting and orientation--as recent studies of Chartres Cathedral, Stonehenge, Egyptian architecture, and the Temple of Heaven in Peking make clear.

Ordered sets of symbolic works of art provide even more finely worked examples of Formal Art. In the history of the graphic arts in Europe the tradition of the Tarot is of preeminent importance. All modern decks of playing cards derive from Tarot cards, which can, in turn, be correlated with specific values obtained by casting dice. It is Also known that images associated with the Tarot cards formed the principal subject matter of the incubabula, or the earliest period of printing in the West. Further, the Tarot were intimately connected with seasonal feasts and pageantry, putatively as vestiges of archaic calendrical lore, and thus deeply related to the history and symbolism of the letters of the alphabet as well. Although the tradition of the Tarot seems to have suffered in recent years through association with occult beliefs and practices, its true history and objective interpretation promises a signal contribution to art historical scholarship.

As a consequence of this research project, it may be seen that other ordered sets of works of art or of symbolic elements confirm and support the analysis of the Tarot. In certain Asian traditions of meditation and healing specific colors are associated with organs of the human body, or with psychological notions of body parts and functions. Precise physical exercises, closely related to martial arts disciplines also interrelate with each organ/function and color. It remains for Western scholarship and science to provide an objective measurement (say in terms of Angstrom units) for these colors, and to devise practical experiments whereby their associations might be tested.

Similarly precise and objective measurements and means of analysis provide a solid approach to yantras and mandalas. In the late 1970s I conducted a preliminary research project that confirmed the feasibility of a Fourier Optical Transform Analysis (FOTA) procedure for objectifying the deep structure of any graphic composition in an x/y plane; 35mm slides of the subject may be used. These are illuminated with coherent light (a krypton laser was used), which is then passed through a long focal length lens. A new photographic record is then made, with the film surface precisely in the plane oh the focal point. The resulting image is typically symmetrical about two axes; a Fourier diffraction pattern, or a visual presentation of a Fourier transform is a two-dimensional image. The probabilistic scattering of photons at the focal point in fact records all of the optical information necessary to characterize the original image in terms of light/dark edges (average density and distribution around a center point). In some examples of formal compositions, the FOTA replicatcs aspects of the original composition. Considering the analogs that obtain between FOTA and the most primitive processes of visual perception such as edge discrimination (after Pribram et. al), as the optical information begins to be processed by the brain, we may have here as well valuable clues to the way in which yantras and mandalas really do work.

For the last ten years, alongside my regular academic pursuits, I have also sought to acquaint myself with the practice of various non-Western techniques of exercise, relaxation, concentration and self-observation. The practice of Tai Chi Ch'uan has heightened my awareness of my own body, and in particular of the function of my internal organs. This is to be understood as a complement of theoretical knowledge, namely as the product of direct experience. In addition, I have been fortunate enough to have received direct instruction and initiations from the following lamas, associated with the practicing tradi­tions of Tibetan Vajrayana Buddhism: His Holiness, the late Ranjung Rigpe Droje, the 16th Gyalwa Karmapa; the Venerable Kalu Rinpoche, Chogyam Trungpa Rinpoche, Chime Rinpoche, Tsenjur Rinpoche, and most recently, His Holiness the present Sharmapa, from whom an initiation and empowerment was received to practice the meditations on the colors and bodily organs. Since 1976 I have followed an extensive program of training with Arica Institute, including work with Zhikr, Kinerhythms, Pneumorhythms, Psychoachemy, Protoanalysis and other work up to and including the Diamond, the 24 Lights and the Arica Tarot.

In the proposed research and publication, I hope to provide a well-documented, worked example of correlations between the esoteric and exoteric modes of transmitting information. It is in this functional aspect that such work may prove to have practical implications for scholarship, teaching, and directly in creative artistic activity itself. A balanced approach to knowledge and understanding means at bottom simply that the participatory, experiential function must be conjoined with the virtues of theory, detachment and objectivity. The historical and cultural circumstances of our time seem to provide  unique opportunity for such an approach to this clearly defined area of human wisdom. The initial benefit of this work may be seen in the presentation of the issues, in the collection and ordering of evidence and example, and in the consequent publication

Much of the subject matter referred to in this outline has been introduced in classes at CSUS (Mandala, Art and Mythology, Art 3); the expansion and refinement of the curriculum are projected as obvious benefits. In addition, should any of the substantive ideas prove to be true--as for example the healing effects associated with specific harmonic frequencies, musical tones and colors--the way may be indicated for genuine accomplishments that far transcend this academic proposal.

Kurt von Meier
1982