THE DESIGN OF KUNTUNKANTAN AS AN EXAMPLE OF THE DISTINCTIVE VALUE OF ADINKRA FOR MEDITATION


The design of the Adinkra symbol called Kuntunkantan represents significantly those qualities of Adinkra that make many of its designs uniquely suited for mediation. By meditation I refer to a process whereby the mind focuses on a particular subject to the exclusion of everything else. This subject could be an idea or a form which could appeal to any of the five senses or to more than one at the same time. This form could be a visual image, a smell, a sound, the feel or taste of something or even a feeling. This process of concentration facilitates a range of mental processes. One of them is that is facilitating the coordination of ideas already present in the mind in more effective than if the effort were carried out purely by ratiocinative effort working directly on the ideas themselves. It is a also claimed that the process could lead to an entry into levels of awareness that are not normally accessible to consciousness but which exist as the root of consciousness. These levels are understood to be inaccessible on account of their being blocked by normal activity of consciousness. The meditation exercise stops this activity and enables the untrammelled character of the mind to manifest itself.

The design of this particular Adinkra symbol makes it clear why Adinkra symbols are uniquely suited to meditation. In speaking of being uniquely suited to meditation, I am not describing Adinkra symbols as the best of all possible or extant symbols for meditation. I am arguing that Adinkra symbols demonstrate a unique of design motifs, which, on account of relationships between shapes, colours and the human visual perception and cognition, are particularly helpful as a means of concentrating the mind on a particular form, or even a subject which that from is understood to represent. Adinkra symbols are distinctive developments of particular shapes and colours which are particularly useful for this purpose and the usefulness of which is demonstrated by their recurrence and extensive and elaborate use in various cultures as symbol systems. This use is particularly striking in those cultures which have developed the discipline of meditation to high levels, such as the religious cultures of Hinduism and Buddhism.

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