Urban Family

Mandala Practice: Toilsome Take-up for a Relieving Let-go

By Peter Chen, 2019-04-01 02:25:11

Mandala Practice: Toilsome Take-up for a Relieving Let-go

All mundane dharma, as zilch,

As unreal as illusion, as a naught,

And as brief as a dew, as light,

Shall be viewed as such.

Diamond Sutra (Vajracchedika Sutra)

Color sands are prepared and poured into conical metal pipes – a special tool used for drawing the Mandala. Sitting on the ground and facing a wooden pedestal, the monks are now holding thin metal strips sliding up and down the conical pipes. Vibrations cause sands dripping down on the table to form delicate patterns one after another.

In the squeaking sound of metallic sliding, grains of sand start to accumulate in the center where the square (i.e. the earth) and the round (i.e. the heaven) meet, then spread to the peripheries … the Nirvana piled up by colored sand is ‘another kind of’ practice of the monks.

Originated in India, Mandala is one of the objects to be worshiped when practicing Tibetan Tantra. Dul-tson-kyil-khor (Tibetan word for Sand Mandala) is built up with seven-colored sand strictly pro ratio, by structures and on contents. Each step must be done by following reverently the secret rules of Tantra. While free-will making is a sacrilege, days of painstaking work by several monks are required to complete a Sand Mandala.

Before drawing, the monks would do some chanting via Mandal Zhichok (a kind of Buddhism ritual) and measure the right location for Mandala. Starting from the center where the square and the round meet, the drawings are gradually extended outwards. In the course of drawing, full concentrations are needed. With super-fine sands, a slight wobble would affect its whole.

The first grain dripped on the east side of the ‘Mandala of Yamāntaka’. A few minutes later, a blue sand thread covered a drawn line on the pedestal.

Lasting for five days, the Mandala of Yamāntaka finally comes into being. Close your eyes and feel the world around you with this spectacular painting on a round board 1.5 meters in diameter: blue sky, white clouds, green grasses, flowers, mountains, rivers, temples and monks ……

The accomplished Mandala is protected by a glass dome veiled with drapery. After a seven-day religious ceremony, this Mandala will be swept and destroyed.

It is a pity in the eyes of the ordinary people, considering how hard it is to lean down for days on end to load bit by bit those colored sand with their conical pipes and fine metal sticks. But for practitioners, it is completely normal. For them, drawing and worshiping Dul-tson-kyil-khor itself is a practice.