Wednesday, October 19, 2005
Images Of Buddha
I'm obsessively working my way through the 7,592 (at present) images tagged Buddha on Flickr. There's some gorgeous pictures, and I'm especially enjoying the images of monks making a sand mandala, and some pics of the giant Buddha and Monastery on Lantau Island in Hong Kong, which I visited a few years ago.
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4 comments:
First of all, I think that the time has come; I may need to join flickr. Secondly, those sand paintings are amazing and so beautiful!!! What do they do with them when they are done?? I can't imagine having the patience to make something that wonderful!
Duane, once the mandala's (sand paintings) are completed, which is obviously very intricate and can take in some instances many hours or even days to complete, they are then dutifully swept up, placed into a ceremonious container and then later spilt as a kind of blessing, often into water somewhere.
Aside from their inner meaning, yes they are indeed very beautiful, made even more so by all that care to create them only to be then swept away. A powerful lesson in both mindfulness and impermanence
:-)
Duane, the mandala is made as an offering as well, so there is a ritual significance to the making process. They use tiny brass conical funnels that have ridges down them. They fill them with the different coloured sand and then stroke the ridges with a tool so that a tiny flow of sand, almost a few grains at a time, flows out of the end. The detail in the mandalas is incredible, very fine.
Like Bodhi said, at the end they sweep it up and pour it into a river or the ocean. They dedicate the merit of making it, and the care and patience it takes, to benefit all sentient beings (ie you and me and all the bugs, animals and fishes too!) I think it's really beautiful.
Duane, I meant to add that I set up a Flickr account yesterday and it was pretty easy. I started uploading some of my pics, not that many so far, and it's simple.
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