SOUTH WATERFRONT
PORTLAND OREGON

“If one meditates on the Medicine Buddha, one will eventually attain enlightenment, but in the meantime one will experience an increase in healing powers both for oneself and others and a decrease in physical and mental illness and suffering.” —Lama Tashi Mamgyal

We were most fortunate this week to have Gaden Shartse monks from South India build a Medicine Buddha Sand Mandala in South Waterfront at the Artist in Residence Studio. It began fairly small, on Monday morning, as the monks took turns carefully releasing the sand into the mandala.

They worked with a vast array of sand in different colors, which was loaded into the cone shaped metal tools and slowly tapped into the emerging images

.

The mandala grew as details

were painstakingly added.

This is how it looked on Tuesday afternoon, almost complete.

That evening it was complete and a Dismantling Ceremony took place where the symbolism of this intricate design of world peace was explained…

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and ritual formulas recited by the monks as they requested the deities to leave the mandala.

Different symbols made of sand represent the mandala’s deities. They were removed in a strict sequence. The sand was then swept into a pile to be distributed in small portions to those who attended the event.

The event was made possible in cooperation with the Wholistic Peace Institute and the sponsored by the Larson family. The monks are on a tour to raise funds for a hospital in India so medical care and medications can be dispensed free of charge to those in their community.

For more information on the Wholistic Peace Institute, call 503-266-8996

For more information on mandala construction and symbolic meaning, see

http://www.graphics.cornell.edu/online/mandala/

 

This entry was posted on Thursday, February 7th, 2008 at 4:39 pm and is filed under Health & Wellness. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. Both comments and pings are currently closed.

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