Sands Of The World Mandala

By Jo Mooy

Of all the many artistic traditions in Tantric Buddhism, painting with colored sand is the most disciplined, unique and exquisite. It's an art form of veneration and honor. The Tibetan monks who practice this art are trained for more than three years on how to create sand mandalas before being allowed to create them in ceremony.

The word Mandala is of Sanskrit origin and means a sacred circle. In this Tibetan art-form it is a precise and elaborate geometric design symbolizing Tibetan deities contained within a circle. Millions of grains of colored sand are painstakingly laid in place starting at the center of the design by a team of monks over a period of days or weeks. Prayers or mantras are intoned by the monks as the design takes shape. After the creation it is ceremonially "deconstructed" in a prescribed order. Senior monks remove the deities and their symbols first in a holy ceremony. The sands are then swept into the center of the outline and placed in a sacred urn, covered with silk altar cloths and blessed with incense. Finally, the sands are released into the nearest waterway carrying the healing prayers and the energy of the blessed chants out to the world.

I recently spent five easy afternoons with Gala Rinpoche of the Drepung Loseling Monastery of India talking about Tibetan Buddhism, about meditation, about mandalas and about the Buddhist concepts of illusion and impermanence as the monks created a White Tara mandala at the Van Wezel center in Sarasota, FL. Rinpoche said the creation of the mandala is a meditative and sacred experience attesting to illusion and impermanence. Each monk is chosen for the role. He then goes through a retreat, an initiation, and learning proper breathing techniques to become a sand artist. The monks are trained in three levels of meaning attributed to each mandala — the outer, the inner and the secret meanings. Yet, they know that no matter how exquisitely beautiful the mandala is, it is an illusion and will be destroyed.

This is the essence of the teachings that he shared. He explained that life or the journey each person is on can be good or bad, beautiful or hideous, uplifting or destructive, it doesn't matter for it's all a personal perception or an illusion and thus impermanent. If we can become mindful and more aware that each situation we find ourselves in is illusive and that it will end, our hearts will grasp the concept and with practice and meditation, enter the middle path of equanimity.

As we talked about the White Tara Mandala being created in the Grand Foyer, he shared that the chants said by the monks, (Om Tare Tu Tara and Om Mani Padme Hum,) were re-consecrating the earth and its inhabitants to the Divine so that the ordinary human mind could be transformed into an enlightened mind. He said the sand mandala was dedicated to White Tara as a tool to effect world healing and harmony. White Tara's promise is that she will shift the tone of the planet from fear to love as long as we call upon her.

It was at this point, in answer to his question about what we were doing here, that I shared with him the planned Sands of the World Mandala. He listened with a big smile as I told him sand or earth or stones from sacred sites and temples were being collected for the past two years by travelers from all over the world. Those sands will be used in the creation of a sacred Mandala and would be dedicated to peace and harmony for all humanity on December 21, 2012.

Rinpoche then offered 22 small bags of colored sand that were used in the creation of the White Tara Mandala. He then asked that I return for the final ceremony at week's end when the mandala was to be deconstructed and he would give me sand from the actual mandala that had been energized and blessed with the monks' prayers all week long. Gala Rinpoche said it was an honor and a magnificent blessing for their monastery to be included in the Sands of the World Mandala.

On that day prophesied by the Ancient Mayans as the beginning of the new cycle, we will consecrate the Sands of the World Mandala. The centerpiece of the mandala will be the colored sand from the monks of Drepung Loseling Monastery and the deconstructed sand from their White Tara Mandala. On that day we will offer prayers, invocations and chants ushering in the new world that will be populated by new human beings of light. On that day, we will once again call on White Tara, the Goddess of Compassion, to hear the voices of humanity. It is the time we've chosen to make a difference on this planet.

If you would like to contribute a small baggie of sand, earth, or stones from your sacred sites or temples, or from where you hold your ceremonies to be included in the Sands of the World Mandala, please send an email to Jo@starsoundings.com and I'll send you an address on where to ship the sand.

More on this topic can be found on www.starsoundings.com or www.starsoundings.blogspot.com.

About Jo Mooy

Jo is a visionary artist, lecturer, writer and a national award-winning photographer whose work has been published in magazines and books. She has a BA in advertising design & studied painting with the Cape Cod School of Art. Her landscape paintings and visionary mandalas are in collections around the world and carried at several galleries on Cape Cod and in Florida.

While spending 30 years in middle management at a Fortune 100 corporation, her spiritual studies & practices continued as she traveled worldwide and lectured across the US. She's studied with many mystery and esoteric schools including Builders of the Adytum — The Rosicrucians — Lucis Trust — The Association for Research and Enlightenment — Yogananda's Self Realization Fellowship. She's studied with Drunvalo Melchizedek, Gregg Braden, Tom Kenyon, Jamyong Singye and is currently an initiate of Shahabuddin David Less of the International Sufi Order.

Jo's devoted more than four decades to meditation, dream journaling, writing and art. Her spiritual mandalas which come while in meditative states of consciousness are used by alternative healers, as well as allopathic dentists and doctors in their practices. Her soul-interpretation mandalas, which are like an intuitive reading, are available by private consultation.

As a visionary and community organizer, she and her life partner lead community ceremonial gatherings, teach spiritual workshops in Sarasota, including the highly acclaimed Purpose Presence & Vision and offer counseling. Jo writes & publishes a weekly online nationally-distributed newsletter called Spiritual Connections. She's a frequent guest on many radio programs and is founder of a very large Women's Meditation Group in south Florida. She's also Director of Spiritual Cinema at Unity. In her spare time she's working on two books: The Messages of the Mandalas and one with her partner called Synchronicities Out Of Time and Space.

Jo@starsoundings.com

Sarasota, FL - 941-866-5752

www.starsoundings.com