Circle of Life

Mandalas are beautiful and colorful works of art created for healing, spiritual attainment and meditation.

Various monks spend weeks creating sand mandalas, which require immense patience, resolve, and cooperation and feature intricate details. While the process is laborious and stunningly powerful, its message goes deeper.

When the mandala is finally finished, however long it takes for the monks to deal with this divine geometry of the heavens, they pray over it, and then they destroy it. They sweep it up, every last grain of sand, and give handfuls of it away to those who participate in the closing ceremony as a final memory of sublime possibility. Then they throw the rest of the sand into the nearest living stream, to be swept into the ocean and bless the whole world. And that's it. It's gone. In an instant, after all that artistry and work, it's over.

This tradition teaches monks ‘Anitya’ -the art of De-attachment, as they believe that the main reason behind all the miseries of human lives is attachment.

Attachment with both tangible and intangible possessions and hence the creator of mandala destroys the masterpiece with own hands which was created with so much efforts. It also teaches them about impermanence of our existence which implies not to become engrossed in too much of self and materialistic gains. It instils a selfless nature within them which in turn provides an urge to serve humanity.

Possibly, in this fast-paced life once in a while we must take some moment for introspection and must realise the impermanent nature of life, find meaning of our own Mandala and align our actions with them. Certainly, this tradition tacitly provides a vivid perspective to understand that life is temporary, transient and ephemeral.