I saw a group of Buddhist monks enter Peking House Restaurant on Grandview Wednesday night. I knew they were in town from William Meyer's photo in the Journal Sentinel a day earlier. Tibetan Buddhist monks were creating a mandala sand painting at WCTC and the public was invited to see the painting or take part in the closing ceremony.
Loaded with blessings and prayer for personal health and healing, the mandala was auspiciously created on 9/11 by ten monks over a total of about 24 hours. WCTC was the right place for this event because it was educational and entertaining. Plus there's a pond on campus. Water is necessary for the last ritual, the dispersal of the sand.
There were many open minds in the Student Lounge during the final blessings and prayers and, though there were periods of singing, drumming and blowing of loud, ten foot horns, there were also solemn moments of chanting. I prayed my cell didn't ring. Actually, I didn't hear any cell ring, which was very good because the chanting obviously requires concentration.
About an hour after the closing ceremony began, one of the monks slowly began taking down the three foot wide round mandala sand painting. After all the colored sand was swept into the middle of the table the monks distributed half to the audience in plastic bags, a prayerful reminder of healing made more meaningful by this week's 9/11 anniversary. The rest of the sand was placed in a container to be poured into the pond.
Several of us processed behind the monks and the ten foot horns, past students eating lunch in the cafeteria, to outside. We stood across the pond from them while they concluded their prayers and watched while they dropped flowers in the water. The sand from the mandala is cast into flowing water to spread healing energy throughout the world, but it was so windy Thursday that I didn't see any of it hit the water. The sand was dispersed to the wind. So I ask; did you feel any different Thursday afternoon?
