buddist sand mandala

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These Buddist monks arrived in town the other day. They set up shop in the CWA hall and proceeded to entertain us all with by building a Sand mandalla of compassion.
Amazing combination of design, concentration, memory,skill, artistry,dedication and more.
Variouse sized brass cones are filled with coloured sand, the tip of the cone has a tiny hole in it and the body of the cone has indentations in it. The monk rubs an implement along the outside of the cone as it traverses the indentation vibrations are set up which allow the sand to exit the tip.

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This is what it will look like when complete.

http://i8.photobucket.com/albums/a40/dadpad/completedmadalla.jpg

After completion the Madalla is dissolved in a... dissolution ceremony, which appears to consist of chucking it in the water down at the creek. Shocked

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You mean they create that sand art and then dump it in a creek, all in the name of compassion. That is a beautiful thing. Do they dump them all? Are any ever saved?

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Dadpad, those are so beautiful and you are so lucky to have seen them. Here in the American southwest, the Navajo Indians are famous for their sand paintings.

It is interesting that both cultures destroy the paintings. I have read that the Buddhists do it to show the impermanence of all things. The Navajo destroy their paintings because the paintings are used in healing ceremonies and are considered to be tocix after absorbing the illness of the person for whom the painting was done. The painting and chants are all supposed to occur within a twelve hour period.

While the Navajo have sold some of their sand paintings, they always do the paintings differently from the ones to be used in ritual healing, to show respect for the gods.

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To demonstrate the impermanent, transient nature of our existence, the pain-staking effort of the mandala is washed away with brush, and all that is left is the impression in the mind. A ceremony of chanting followed.

Following the chanting, the monks proceeded to the river to cast the sand into the water, allowing it to disperse among the elements, and manifest of something else in the future.

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It IS very beautiful, worthy of sex--what a wonderful dissolution ceremony THAT would be.

More seriously, this (Indian) Avalokitesvara, a student of the Buddha, became with time (the Chinese) Kwan Yin. Interestingly, as I understand it (must check with Asherman), he (Avalokitsvara) started out as a man and ended up as a compassionate woman (Kwan Yin). I see the latter as the moral equivalent of the Catholic's Virgin Mary.
If you ask me why this gender transformation took place (assuming it did), I would speculate that women (in particular our ideal mothers) are conceptualized, and perhaps experienced, as more compassionate than our fathers who, more generally (as a cross-cultural generalization, but not universalization), represent (rightly or wrongly) values such justice and courage.

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You've got it right JL.

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dadpad wrote:

To demonstrate the impermanent, transient nature of our existence, the pain-staking effort of the mandala is washed away with brush, and all that is left is the impression in the mind.

..and your photos. Confused

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They should, instead, create this immense double crust mandala pizza and share it with everyone .

Many Buddhist monks are so busy for apparently little reason. Why is that?

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FM, can you ask them to make me one with everything?

Embarrassed

sorry, oldest Buddhist gag in the book, but it just seemed sooo appropriate.

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Eorl wrote:

dadpad wrote:
To demonstrate the impermanent, transient nature of our existence, the pain-staking effort of the mandala is washed away with brush, and all that is left is the impression in the mind.

..and your photos.

We asked the monks if it was Ok to take photos and they were happy for the that to happen.

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dadpad wrote:

Eorl wrote:
dadpad wrote:
To demonstrate the impermanent, transient nature of our existence, the pain-staking effort of the mandala is washed away with brush, and all that is left is the impression in the mind.

..and your photos.

We asked the monks if it was Ok to take photos and they were happy for the that to happen.

Yeah, I figured. Can't imagine a monk getting all uptight about it. What I'm saying is...sorta defeats the point of the lesson on impermanence, don't it?

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Eorl wrote:

dadpad wrote:
Eorl wrote:
dadpad wrote:
To demonstrate the impermanent, transient nature of our existence, the pain-staking effort of the mandala is washed away with brush, and all that is left is the impression in the mind.

..and your photos.

We asked the monks if it was Ok to take photos and they were happy for the that to happen.

Yeah, I figured. Can't imagine a monk getting all uptight about it. What I'm saying is...sorta defeats the point of the lesson on impermanence, don't it?

Its easy to justify just about anything but your point made me stop and think. So far i have convinced myself that an image (no matter how good the quality is just an impression left by the real thing. The image does not hold the painstaking effort the real mandala did, just an impression of it.

It was kinda incongruous to watch the monks at work one kept stopping to adjust the gold metal watch band he was wearing.

Also interesting is that the whole thing is planned out on the board, drawn in, then committed to memory. The first layer that is put on covers the plan, then the whole damn thing is done from memory.

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Thanks dadpad. I hadn't thought about it that way, either.

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I agree, Dadpad. A photo, compared to the actual picture, is similar to a memory of an experience--even though the buddhists would acknowledge that they are both illusions.

Farmerman asks: "Many Buddhist monks are so busy for apparently little reason. Why is that?"
When a husband found a man in his wife's closet and demanded an explantion for his being there. The man answered: "I've got to be somewhere." Buddhists got to do SOMETHING. On the other hand, what's the old buddhist saying? Don't do something; just sit there.

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buddist sand mandala

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