The Dalai Lama & Sand Mandalas
The Dalai Lama gets to Seattle today and tomorrow two Tibetan Buddhist Monks will finish their Sand Mandala The Buddha of Compassion Mandala. It seemed like a good time to stop by and see how the Mandala was coming. When I got there they were in the middle of their ritual prayer session in front of a temporary alter. They finished after about 10 minutes, then got up and went straight to work.
I took in what I could then was surprised by my stream of thoughts, took a few pictures and headed to the office.
Here is part of what the promotional flyer said about the Mandala:
“The Mandala, a Tibetan sand painting, is an ancient art form of Tibetan Buddhism. “Mandala” is a sanskrit word meaning cosmogram or “world in harmony.” The sand Mandala is carefully constructed from dyed sand particles as [a] vehicle to generate compassion, to realize the impermanance of reality, and to create a social/cosmic healing of the environment.”
Here is one of my favorite Dalai Lama quotes:
This is my simple religion. There is no need for temples; no need for complicated philosophy. Our own brain, our own heart is our temple; the philosophy is kindness.”
The Sand Mandala gets finished tomorrow with a closing ceremony at 4 p.m. That’s at the Monte Cristo, 1507 Wall Street in downtown Everett.
On Friday, Helen and I stopped by to see how it turned out. What do you think?
WOW
thats truly amazing
i made my own sand mandala but its nothing compared to that beautiful mandala
Comment by bella — April 26, 2008 @ 11:11 pm
This is one of my favorite art forms: magic, beautiful and temporary… years ago saw the monks making a mandala at the Wisdom and Compassion exibit in San Francisco 1990.
Comment by kitty — April 29, 2008 @ 3:47 pm
I don’t know much about them and this was my first experience, but when I said I was surprised at my stream of thoughts, I was. I was even more surprised when I read the text talking about Mandalas and how they effect the environment (including the people) around them. This Mandala was about compassion. One of my first thoughts when I saw the monks praying and chanting in the beginning was how the one guy had such a strong and persistent head tilt (I’m a chiropractor remember - we see people a little differently). Then when I realized how they had to stand and that they were doing that work 7 hours a day Tuesday through Thursday, I wondered if anyone had offered to take care of them while they were in town. Since they were leaving the next day, and for other reasons made up in my head, I didn’t take any steps to offer my services. But I had a bunch of interesting thoughts about it.
Comment by doctordilday — April 29, 2008 @ 4:49 pm