written by Gian Luigi Ruggeri 
for YourwwwriterS.com, (c) 2000, 2004 of the author - All rights reserved.

It is a story, this of the mandala of ice, that has been told me by an old couple in a summer night; a gift that was done to me I don't know why, by these two persons never seen before, arriving from a far land and with the spark of wisdom in the eyes, and that I probably will never meet again.
And perhaps this gift was done to me exactly to let me write it, and so give it to you as a gift.

It is a tale about ancient facts.

When the land of the ancestors of the couple that told me this story was living an age of joy, abundancy and peace.
The luxuriance of the land brightened in any way the days of all the inhabitants, in many ways.
And the common life reflected obviously all that. And it was lead by mutual honesty and by help, and by sincerity.

The comunity of the people living in that region lived following these values, and believing in high ideals, giving trust to the others, with the conviction that it was well attributed, and that even the receiver of it believed in the same principles, and he would not betray the trust he received, as a gift.
As that is really what it was considered. A gift made to the other.
And obeying to their uses and values, when a gift is received one has to demonstrate that he is worthy of it, and must not be betraid the confidence of whom made the gift, and the spirit of the act, and of the relation that was born as a consequence.
And the greater the gift done is, greater are also the consequences that arise.

These teachings, which ruled the lives of all the people, were codified in an enormous and splendid disc hanged on the wall of the hall of the governor of the land.
It was full of colours, and all those values were reported on it, and many simbols and great meanings.
It was called the mandala of life, joy and abundancy.
And it was considered the greater gift that umanity had ever received.

He was placed in a way that anybody could see it, and know which should be the leads of the life, in order to have it really full of joy and abundancy, and whatever else of good can arrive.
Its beauty was incredible, the great details, and the colours. No painting existing today can absolutely be compared to the mandala of life, joy and abundancy.
All the paintings kept in the bigger and richer museum of the world, together, perhaps could be compared to a fragment of the mandala of life, joy and abundance.

And this to explain it really was of an indescribable beauty.
And so can be defined also the effect that it made arise in who watched at it.

Sensations it gave. Emotions it let feel.
Inexpressible.

If the 10'000 most coloured and beautiful butterflies of the rain forests were alltogether in the field with the 10'000 most beautiful and coloured flowers, they could not sort an effect similar to the one of the mandala of life joy and abundancy, even if the lucky person watching such a great show difficultly in his life would ever face again something so amazing.
The most beautiful poem, with the accompaniment of the sweetest and softest music, could not give the emotions coming from admiring the mandala of life, joy and abundancy, and losing oneself in an estatic contemplation of it.