Tibetan monks Geshe Thupten Dorjee and Rinzin Dorjee will prepare the mandala of Buddha Akshobhya, between November 6 and November 17 on the 5th floor of Old Main on the University of Arkansas campus.  Dates and times for the opening and closing ceremonies, as well as the precise work schedule will be available shortly.

Buddha Akshobhya is the Buddha generally associated with purification.  His color is blue, and his symbol is the vajra.  The Vajra is a ritual item used in Tibetan tantric practice and represents “method” while the bell that it is always paired with represents “wisdom.” Hence, the combination of vajra and bell is meant to signify wisdom and the way it is manifested (”method”) in the world.  Tibetans believe that even viewing a mandala, with its visual representation of an inner, perfected vision of reality, has profound influences on those who are fortunate enough to view it.  Seldom, they rightly reason, do we see such spiritual energy in a fixed and human form.  But after the mandala is done, and the vision has been manifested, and it has had its influence on all who have wandered within its purview, Geshe and Rinzin will destroy it in a closing ceremony reminding us dramatically of the most profound teaching of all:  that of emptiness and impermanence.  They will then carry the the sand to a stream, probably in Wilson Park, and release it, with blessings, into the water, asking that its fundamental purifications be bestowed on our community and the world at large.

A sand mandala is a two, or sometimes three-dimensional (if the sand is sculpted), geometric pattern that is first laid out with compasses and chalk lines and straight edges, and then filled in with colored sand.  They are by no means unique to Tibetan culture, although the Tibetan monks have taken them to a level, a visionary and aesthetic level, that has rightly distinguished them on the international stage.  Rinzin is among other things, a mandala master, which means he has memorized all of the sacred geometries for the many mandalas the monks construct.  He has also become intimately familiar with all of the color symbolisms and figures that are represented in the finished mandala.

It was not until 1988, when the Dalai Lama first decreed that these mandalas could be constructed in public, that anyone in the West was able to view one as it was being assembled.  The construction of a mandala is essentially a meditation, and a very powerful one at that, and so they  have traditionally been done within sacred environments and only around a very select audience of monks and other clerics.  Because it is essentially a demanding meditation with an exacting physical dimension–a sneeze during construction is disastrous if not controlled–a mandala usually requires 4-8 monks working in shifts for a couple of days.  That Geshe and Rinzin have volunteered to do one themselves is practically unheard of; they will work several hours a day on it and finish it in the allotted time.  Because the entire process of visualization, meditation, and execution of the design is so draining, both physically and spiritually, there is a danger of their falling ill if they don’t pace themselves accordingly.