You guys have all played sand painting when you were young! But today’s "Mandala Sand Painting" can be said to be in a completely different realm. It is said that mandala sand painting is a unique art in Tibetan Buddhism. It takes several eminent monks to work together for more than ten days to make one, but it is destined to disappear.
The sand paintings appear to be geometric patterns at first glance, but if you look closer, you will find that the paintings are packed with details.
"Mandala" refers to the Buddhas residence and the center of the universe. It can also be said that the mandala is a person, a country, and an idea (ah, so mysterious). So on the sand painting, you will see the Buddha in the center. Then there are scriptures, animals, flowers...
Each mandala sand painting will be swept away into a small sand dune after being viewed by the disciples. Some people say that this is the process of the entire universe coming from nothing and then returning to nothing.
In the past, only disciples who received the Dharma could view the mandala sand paintings. Until now, ordinary people have the opportunity to see them.
It is said that the sand used in sand paintings is made from stones manually ground by lamas. After dyeing, there are six basic colors of white, black, blue, red, yellow and green, which are combined with each other to become fourteen colors. Every step in making sand paintings follows Buddhist tradition, which has remained unchanged over thousands of years until now.
▼This is the process of destroying sand paintings.
After the sand paintings are swept away, some of the sand will be enshrined in temples, and some will be washed into rivers and returned to nature.
What kind of concentration is required to make such a sand painting? And why do you always destroy the completed work? Looking at such sand paintings, I always feel that it is understandable why some people insist on doing it. The matter of "cultivation" has come up...
