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Sand Mandala
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The
creation of the sand mandala forms part of the Kalachakra
ritual.
The mandala is a bird’s eye representation of the palace in which
the
Buddha Kalachakra resides with his consort and retinue.
The palace at the heart of the mandala has three floors,
symbolized by the three parts of the mandala.
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Interactive multimedia CD-ROM: Buddhist Basics & Kalachakra Animated
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Center or top: the Mind
Mandala
The domain of mind
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Middle or second floor:
the Speech Mandala
The domain of speech
Ground floor: the Body Mandala
The domain of the body
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During the Kalachakra ritual, this mandala, as part of the preparations
for the initiation, was created on
a base measuring approximately 3x3 meters by up to seven monks using narrow
metal funnels. For this
they used both memory and "pure” instructions in text form. Their
only orientational tools were a
network of lines and the locations of the individual Buddhas of the palace
as indicated by His Holiness
the XIV Dalai Lama. The sand mandala took a number of days to complete.
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During the ritual
itself, this artwork made of sand serves as an orientational
aid to the participants,
as His Holiness Dalai Lama explaines the complex visualizations of the
Kalachakra initiation.
This journey through the temple, as represented here, also enables participants
to recall over and over
again the path to synchronization of their external and internal worlds
by summoning up the mandala or palace.
However, the sand mandala is also a mnemonic aid for the participants.
By the end of the several-day-
long ritual, all the participants have internalized this palace, which
also symbolizes their own being,
thought and body, and committed it to memory. By this stage the sand picture
is no longer needed by the participants and is ritually dissolved. The
colored sand, blessed by the Buddhas residing in the mandala, is poured
into a river in an act of blessing the surroundings. The flow of the water
enables the whole world to benefit from the positive energy.
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In
Graz, the sand mandala for the Kalachakra for World Peace
was created by monks from the monastery of His Holiness
the Dalai Lama (Namgyal monastery, Dharamsala, North
India). Because of the great number of visitors and in
consideration of the monks’ concentration, cameras
were used to broadcast this ritual live on the setup
in the exhibition area.
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