Dalai Lama

the Dalai Lama is in Sydney for a couple of days and i was thinking on Thursday how cool it would be to meet him...he seems like a wonderful person...they were commenting on how he was laughing lots at the airport when he first arrived...what a jolly fella...but the thing i find stupid is China didnt want PM John Howard to meet him...what the hell for??? there is nothing wrong with the Dalai Lama...and hes not even Chinese, he's Tibetan...just because he was exiled from Tibet and China...for Christ's sake he lives in fricking India and has nothing to do with China and because of the Chinese has nothing to do with Tibet...which is really sad. And what really bugs me is that the Chinese have no right to sit there and tell John Howard who he can and can't meet just because they don't like him (Dalai Lama)...we dont tell the leaders over there how to run their Country and who the leaders can and can't meet, so they should keep their big fat mouths shut...for all it matters to them John Howard could be seeking religious enlightenment...but he has agreed to meet with him anyway and good for them...

anyway speaking of monks...2 yrs ago at our local shopping centre a few monks made a Sand Mandala...and when it was finished it was one of the most beautiful thing i had ever seen...i picked uo a pamphlet on what a Sand Mandala is and it is very interesting...I 'll type it out for you...

Mandala is a Sanskrit word meaning circle, community or connection.

In Tibetan Buddhism, a mandala is an imagined place that is contemplated during meditation. It is a symbol of a perfect world and its energy; a representation of an enlightened being's place of residence and everything contained within it.

The monks create the mandala to remind us of the cycle of life and death and to generate positive energy for the benefit of all beings. Tradition dictates the exact design, proportions, shapes and colours of all aspects of the mandala. The design is carefully recreated accordind to ancient texts, which the monks have memorized. There are many different mandalas each with a different lesson to teach.

The mandala is constructed on a hard flat surface using copper funnels filled with various colours of dyed crushed marble. With extraordinary concentration and patience, the monks delicately pour the sand onto the board to create an intricate design. Each object in the mandala has significance, representing some aspect of wisdom, or reminding the meditator of some guiding principle or state of mind that he is trying to accomplish. When finished, the mandala is a work of art, full of colour, texture and amazing detail.

The Completion process of the mandala is the dissolution ceremony. After it is completed, the whole beautiful creation is swept away in a matter of seconds. The dissolution of the mandala symbolises the imperminence of all phenomena. After all the effort, the time and the concentration put into creating the mandala, the dissolution teaches us that all things undergo change, and helps us to let go of our grasping to a sense of permanence.

After the ritual ceremony in the mandala space, the monks usually walk to a nearby river, stream or the ocean and some of the sand is poured into the water. As the sand is poured into the water, it will enter the environment to bring harmony and peace into the world. It is believed that the waters carry the healing energies throughout the world. Upon returning to the mandala space, the monks complete the ceremony and distribute small portions of the remaining sand to the public.

At the shopping centre the monks made a Saraswati mandala. This mandala contains the essence of a powerful female energy for compassion. Compassion is one of the twin pillars of Buddhism (the other being widsom), so the development of this energy is considered to be very important. Through the creation of the compassion mandala, the monks generate a wish to benefit all sentient beings and bring about peace and harmony for all.

i really wish i had taken a photo of the mandala...it was so beautiful...and i almost cried when they did the dissolution ceremony...but i ended up with some of it and it sits on my desk in a little plactic jar...

anyway i have yet another exam to study for...

see ya on the board