Moments of Zen: The Mystical Arts of Tibet

Image via Wikipedia

Today through Thursday there are Tibetan monks, sponsored by Richard Gere, in my place of work. I bet you didn't think it would be cool to work in an academic library, like I do. But it turns out there are a lot of cool things that go on here and this is one of them.

So you may be curious about what they are doing and why they are here for several days. They are sand painting. To learn more about this, you can visit their Web site.

But basically, they painstakingly place millions of grains of colored sand onto a table using a metal funnel to create a beautiful pattern called a mandala. The mandala is used as a tool for re-consecrating the earth and its inhabitants.

On Thursday, they will destroy the painting and share the sand with the audience. I really want to get some of that sand. It seems like it would carry some very good karma.

Anyway, I just thought some of you might be interested in this. If there is no mandala sand painting going on near you, check out on YouTube.