Diversity Reigns! In my life and the programs at Goldenstein Gallery. The first weekend in April featured Tibetan Monks from the Gaden Shartse Monastery. Touring the United States to raise money for a hospital in Southern India, they were here to offer the blessing of the Medicine Buddha Sand Mandala to Sedona, the surrounding area and all it’s residents. A personally empowering experience for me with my profound connection to the Buddhist tradition, the ordained and the sacred arts, I found it extremely nourishing.
The opportunity to contemplate impermanence is life changing. After long days are spent carefully creating the mandala with fine grains of colored sand and many prayers, it is swepted away, carried to the creek and spilled forth to bless the water, the land and all the inhabitants of the area. A practice not easily understood by the Western mind. Many wonder, “can’t we keep it?” The monks told stories of people asking to buy it, to pay not to have it destroyed. The practice of the sand mandala gives us the opportunity to contemplate the cycle of life; all that comes into form eventually dissolves, returning to the formless. It is a practice of letting go, seeing and accepting the world as it is.