But you can watch the entire process in about two minutes thanks to the time-lapse video here. http://religion.blogs.cnn.com/2010/06/02/a-mandala-in-minutes/

The sacred art was created March 22-27 as part of Emory’s annual “Tibet Week” celebration. The monks were from Drepung Loseling Monastery Inc., a nonprofit organization in Atlanta dedicated to the study and preservation of Tibetan Buddhist traditions.

Sand mandalas have been in practice for thousands of years, according to Tsepak Rigzin, assistant program director for Drepung Loseling and an adjunct Tibetan language instructor at Emory. Monks use a grated metal rod and a traditional metal funnel called a chak-pur to carefully place millions of grains of colored sand on a table.

“It has to be very exact and very precise,” Rigzin said.

There are hundreds of colorful mandala designs to choose from, Rigzin said, but they all share a basic format of geometric shapes and spiritual symbols.

“Normally the monks who do this, they have to go through a lot of training programs and they have to be authenticated by their masters,” Rigzin said. “They have to memorize the oral texts and learn the ritual.”

The ritual starts with the monks blessing the site of the soon-to-be mandala. They then take several hours to draw an outline of the particular mandala they are about to build – in Emory’s case, the mandala of Avalokiteshvara, or the Buddha of compassion.

Once the outline is in place, the tedious work of laying the sand begins.

“I was really awestruck by their level of concentration,” said Mark Hill, the CNN photographer who captured the time-lapse footage at Emory’s Michael C. Carlos Museum.

“People were in there talking and walking around them, taking pictures. There was a lot going on in the room. But those monks who were building that mandala were absolutely laser-focused on what they were doing.”

Hill set up two cameras in the room. One was an overhead camera that didn’t move during the six days; the other was moved every morning to get a different angle. Both ran continuously, shooting one frame every 30 seconds.

When the last grain of sand was set, the monks didn’t spend time admiring their handiwork. Within about an hour, the elaborate art they had spent days crafting was carefully swept away during a ritualistic ceremony. This is normal practice, Rigzin said; it is done to symbolize the impermanence of life.

The monks passed out half of the sand to the audience as blessings for health and healing. The rest was poured into a nearby river, Rigzin said, as a gift to Mother Earth.

Emory will be having another “Tibet Week” of sorts when the Dalai Lama visits the campus October 17-19. The exiled leader of Tibetan Buddhists has visited the school several times in the past two decades, and he was the commencement speaker there in 1998.

That year, His Holiness also helped form the Emory-Tibet Partnership, which includes various exchange programs between Emory and Tibetan institutions of higher learning.

If you wonder what you were doing in the past, look at your body; to know what will happen to you in the future, look at your mind. – Dalai Lama

Because circumstances are always in motion around the one who is in the middle, he must choose a different course of action as the circumstances change. Even though he may stand firm on unchanging principles, the application of those principles will be different as the group or humanity sways back and forth…..

The Buddha serves as the indicator of refuge. He is not a savior who can bestow salvation through the agency of his person. Salvation or deliverance depends upon us, upon our own vigor and dedication in the practice of the teaching. The Buddha is primarily a teacher, an expounder of the path, who points out the way we ourselves must tread with our own energy and intelligence. The Dhamma is the actual refuge. As the goal of the teaching the Dhamma is the state of security free from danger; as the path it is the means for arriving at the goal; and as the verbal teaching it is the body of instructions describing the way to practice the path. But to make effective use of the means at our disposal we need the help of others who are familiar with the path. Those who know the path make up the Sangha, the helpers in finding refuge, the union of spiritual friends who can lead us to our own attainment of the path………

The 48 Laws Of Power

• Law 1 Never Outshine the Master
• Law 2 Never put too Much Trust in Friends, Learn how to use Enemies
• Law 3 Conceal your Intentions
• Law 4 Always Say Less than Necessary
• Law 5 So Much Depends on Reputation. Guard it with your Life
• Law 6 Court Attention at all Cost
• Law 7 Get others to do the Work for you, but Always Take the Credit
• Law 8 Make other People come to you, use Bait if Necessary
• Law 9 Win through your Actions, Never through Argument
• Law 10 Infection: Avoid the Unhappy and Unlucky
• Law 11 Learn to Keep People Dependent on You
• Law 12 Use Selective Honesty and Generosity to Disarm your Victim
• Law 13 When Asking for Help, Appeal to People’s Self-Interest, Never to their Mercy or Gratitude
• Law 14 Pose as a Friend, Work as a Spy
• Law 15 Crush your Enemy Totally
• Law 16 Use Absence to Increase Respect and Honor
• Law 17 Keep Others in Suspended Terror: Cultivate an Air of Unpredictability
• Law 18 Do Not Build Fortresses to Protect Yourself. Isolation is Dangerous
• Law 19 Know Who You’re Dealing with. Do Not Offend the Wrong Person
• Law 20 Do Not Commit to Anyone
• Law 21 Play a Sucker to Catch a Sucker. Seem Dumber than your Mark
• Law 22 Use the Surrender Tactic: Transform Weakness into Power
• Law 23 Concentrate Your Forces
• Law 24 Play the Perfect Courtier
• Law 25 Re-Create Yourself
• Law 26 Keep Your Hands Clean
• Law 27 Play on People’s Need to Believe to Create a Cultlike Following
• Law 28 Enter Action with Boldness
• Law 29 Plan All the Way to the End
• Law 30 Make your Accomplishments Seem Effortless
• Law 31 Control the Options: Get Others to Play with the Cards you Deal
• Law 32 Play to People’s Fantasies
• Law 33 Discover Each Man’s Thumbscrew
• Law 34 Be Royal in your Own Fashion: Act like a King to be treated like one
• Law 35 Master the Art of Timing
• Law 36 Disdain Things you cannot have: Ignoring them is the best Revenge
• Law 37 Create Compelling Spectacles
• Law 38 Think as you like but Behave like others
• Law 39 Stir up Waters to Catch Fish
• Law 40 Despise the Free Lunch
• Law 41 Avoid Stepping into a Great Man’s Shoes
• Law 42 Strike the Shepherd and the Sheep will Scatter
• Law 43 Work on the Hearts and Minds of Others
• Law 44 Disarm and Infuriate with the Mirror Effect
• Law 45 Preach the Need for Change, but Never Reform too much at Once
• Law 46 Never appear Perfect
• Law 47 Do not go Past the Mark you Aimed for; In Victory, Learn when to Stop
• Law 48 Assume Formlessness

nihil timendum est.

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Tsem Tulku Rinpoche Saves The World…

If you want something out of this life you need to have true compassion in your heart and peaceful intentions in all you do. You need compassion for everything that has a heartbeat and practice it daily.

Only Now Exists…

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“…Om Mani Padme Hum, the six syllable mantra, means that in dependence on the practice of a path which is an indivisible union of method and wisdom, you can transform your impure body, speech, and mind into the pure exalted body, speech, and mind of a Buddha…”

H.H. Tenzin Gyatso, 14th Dalai Lama

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