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Sand
Mandala Home |
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The Tantric Buddhist tradition of "painting" with colored sand evolved as a means of consecrating the planet and its inhabitants to bring about purification and healing. The monks begin by drawing the outline of the mandala on a wooden platform. The next step of the process, which will continue over three and a half weeks, is the careful pouring of sand from the traditional copper chak-pur. Holding this narrow copper funnel, the monk (generally four work simultaneously, dividing the piece in quarters) runs a metal rod over it, and the resultant vibration causes the sand to flow like liquid. Working from the inside out, the highly skilled monks meticulously create the mandala's three levels of understanding: the secret (which represents the primordial perfect balance between the body and the mind), the inner (a map to guide the ordinary human mind on its quest for Enlightenment), and the outer (the world in its divine form). The public is welcome to watch the monks at work during museum hours and attend the opening ceremony on Sunday, October 5, at 2 pm, when, through music and mantra recitation, the monks consecrate the site. The mandala will remain on display through the end of the year. The public also is invited to LACMA on Sunday, January 4, at 2 pm, for the dispersion ceremony, which will begin with elaborate religious and musical rituals performed by the monks. To acknowledge that everything is impermanent, The Circle of Bliss Sand mandala will be destroyed, its vivid sands ultimately swept away into the waters of the Pacific—to carry its blessings of planetary healing throughout the world. |
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