The Mystical Arts of Tibet: The Symbolism of the Sand Mandala
Speaker:
Head Lama of the Drepung Loseling Monastery
21 Sep 2011
8:15 PM
Sun Room, Memorial Union
Monks from the the Drepung Loseling Monastery will create a mandala sand painting in the lobby of the Memorial Union Monday, September 19 through Thursday, September 22, working 10 a.m. - 5 p.m. daily. The process consists of opening ceremony with chants, music and mantra recitation and ends with the dismantling of the mandala and dispersal of the sand. Millions of grains of sand are poured from traditional metal funnels called chakpur to create a finished mandala approximately five feet by five feet in size. Formed of a traditional prescribed iconography that includes geometric shapes and ancient spiritual symbols, the sand-painted mandala is used as a tool for re-consecrating the earth and its inhabitants.
The evening lecture will be on the topic of the mandala as a sacred cosmogram and how it is used as an object of contemplation. It depicts the pure nature of the world in which we live as well as how we can live most effectively. When Buddhist monks create a sand Mandala, they believe we bring the creative energy of that sacred dimension into our lives and attune ourselves to this natural perfection.