A friend once told me when monks had completed a mandala and left, the friend
placed polyurethane over it to keep it. hahahaha. Still has it, the friend
says.
From: authfriend
To: FairfieldLife@yahoogroups.com
Sent: Wed, 2 June, 2010 11:34:49 PM
Subject: [FairfieldLife] Impermanence
CNN has a two-minute time-lapse video of a group
of monks creating a sand mandala symbolically
representing Avalokiteshvara, the Buddha of
Compassion, at Emory University in Atlanta:
http://religion.blogs.cnn.com/2010/06/02/a-mandala-in-minutes
http://tinyurl.com/2ecnmvg
Took the four monks six days of exacting work to
make the mandala. Then, as per the standard
ritual, they swept all the sand up, handing half
of it out to the folks who had assembled to watch
as a blessing for health and healing, then dumping
the rest in a nearby river as a gift to Mother
Earth.
After I read the story and watched the video, I
had the haunting sense that it vaguely reminded me
of something, something that had taken place very
recently.
I finally realized what was resonating. The monks
sweep away this spectacularly glorious work of art
when it's finished, willfully destroying what
they've so painstakingly created, to symbolize the
impermanence of life.
It's a kind of suicide.