Two sets of photos of Sand Mandalas by MettaMomma (Louise Ritchie)
Tibetan Monks Creating Peace Mandala in Tallahassee, 2007
Taken during the January, 2007, visit of Tibetan monks in Tallahassee. The monks laboriously created the sand mandala by memory over about 5 days, and then ritually destroyed it. Doing this illustrates everything’s impermanence.
Tibetan Monks Creating Peace Mandala, 2009
Tibetan Buddhist monks visited the Mary Brogan Museum in Tallahassee and over seven days meticulously made a peace sand mandala. The next day, they ritually destroyed it, sweeping it up to signifying everything’s impermanence. This is a way of exposing people to the way of relieving suffering: accepting that everything changes and ends; choosing to let go of attachments.
The monk poured sand into the lower tool, and then gently rubbed the upper tool against it, allowing the sand to slowly flow out.
To illustrate the impermanence of all things, a Tibetan monk begins ritually destroying the sand mandala of peace that a group of monks had meticulously made over seven days.
Once when I was taking a picture, my friend John said, “The artist appears and the butterfly spreads its wings.” While he was talking about the literal butterfly that I was photographing, his words were a metaphor for how I have experienced the world since I fell in love with photography after taking a Miksang workshop in Tallahassee in spring, 2007 with Miriam Hall, who’s herspiral on flickr. Prior to that, I thought that I lacked any type of artistic talent, and I almost didn’t dare to take the Miksang workshop.
However, through the weekend that I spent learning Miksang, a contemplative art, I learned to trust my instincts and to see the world with such fresh eyes that literally I now feel as if the whole world is new and beautiful. It’s as if during the rest of my life, I wasn’t truly seeing. I now feel that I am an artist and the whole world is art.
This perspective has encouraged me to also become deeply involved in the arts. The inside cover of the summer, 2008 “Yes” magazine features a full page color picture from my “Wings of Peace” set. I’m now taking acting classes, have been in two local theatrical shows, and am taking ballroom dancing. I also have been trained as a Miksang photography teacher and plan to offer my first workshop in September, 2008.
If you’d like to find out more about Miksang, check out the Miksang group here as well as this link: miksang.org/m/index.html
Warmest appreciation to everyone who has taken the time to comment on and favorite my pictures. You have done a lot to help me improve my skills. Appreciation, too, to the many flickr members including my contacts whose work has inspired me to try new things and to see even more of the world’s beauty. From you, I’ve learned about the wonder of macros, waterdrops, lighting, and the evocative beauty of rain.
If you like my site, view it as inspiration to open yourself to the possibilities in your own life.
Thanks for taking the time to read this!
P.S. I am an Obama Momma. Yes we can be the change that we dream of!
This article
Two Sand Mandala Pictures Sets was originally posted at
Tibetan Incense Blog.
© Leo Golan for Tibetan Incense Blog, 2009. |
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Post tags: Buddhism, Buddhist Art, Buddhist_Symbols, Pictures, Sand Mandala
Tags: buddhism, buddhist art, Buddhist_Symbols, Pictures, Sand Mandala
