Mandalas and Zentangles

I saw a very interesting time lapse video of a Buddhist monk and mandala master creating a Tibetan Sand Mandala in the Sackler pavilion (Smithsonian in D.C.). Mandalas are simultaneous art and meditation, sand mandalas in particular take a long time of concentrated and patient effort due to their intricate nature. A mandala like this represents a palace of Buddhist deities that exists in the mind of the monk. The one in the video took 8 days to make. After a mandala is completed, it gets swept away to remind us of the impermanence of existence. What a strong and powerful symbol. It reminds me a little bit of a big puzzle that takes so long to finish, just to take it apart and put it back in the box. I have always loved puzzles and their meditative nature. Even though finishing is the goal, it is not what is important about doing a puzzle. The journey is the real goal. Anyway, they don't let me embed this video of mandala master Venerable Ngawang Chojor, so here is the link.

When I checked on youtube, I found this interesting video though:



This reminds me that I have been meaning to do some zentangles. Zentangles is like drawing with patterns instead of colors, it is very meditative and free, a bit like doodling, and you never know what you will get. I used to do a lot of black ink drawings that consisted of nothing but tiniest little dots made with technical pens and I loved sitting at the desk and dotting away. It takes a lot of patience, but it is such a moment of creation, molding and shaping these dimensions on a two dimensional piece of paper.