Carmel Temple A Place of Enlightenment...

Carmel Temple has an outdoor labyrinth, located on the east side of the Annex, across the street from Carmel's Sanctuary. It is based on the famous labyrinth at the Chartres Cathedral in France. Here is a night picture of the well-lit labyrinth, taken from the rear, looking toward the arched front entrance.

Carmel Temple Labyrinth at Night,
looking diagonally from the side rear toward the front
(Scroll down to “walk the labyrinth” online.)

The labyrinth animation displayed below shows the Chartres pattern and how it is to walk the labyrinth, as depicted by the small red heart moving around the labyrinth. You can get a sense of walking the labyrinth by just watching that animation.

A labyrinth provides you with the opportunity to do a “walking meditation.” You simply begin walking, slowly and meditatively, at the entrance to the labyrinth. The course is designed so you can’t get lost. Just keep walking forward and you will eventually reach the middle of the labyrinth, where you may pause to rest and relax or even sit down for awhile. When ready to resume, just start walking again on the exit path from the center and you will eventually exit the labyrinth. Perhaps keeping the body “busy” by giving it something to do (walking), allows the mind an opportunity to relax and be still. Anyway, walking the labyrinth is a pleasant experience that allows you time and space to enter deeper levels of meditation/prayer. If you want to restart the animation from the beginning, just reload this page by right-clicking over an open area of the page and choosing Reload or Refresh from your browser’s pop-up menu. Try it!