Sand Mandala

Since 2001, Geshe Jamyang Sherab and visiting monks have been touring New Zealand to spread positive energy and compassion across the country, through the construction of Chenrezig Sand Mandalas.

A mandala is an expression of the state of complete enlightenment and is used as an aid to meditation.  After years of intensive training, our monks have developed the ability to create a beautiful and complex mandala made of coloured sand.  This mandala first resides solely within the mind.  But over the course of several days, which are filled with intense concentration and painstaking work, the mandala within the mind transforms into a beautiful work of art for all people to see and behold.

 After the mandala has been completed and its purpose fulfilled, it is dissolved into a river or sea as an offering for peace, prosperity and good health.  This act of dissolution reflects a core teaching of Buddhism: whatever comes into existence, through causes and conditions, is impermanent. The dissolution of the beautiful and fragile mandala, which is the result of many hours of careful work, is meant to awaken in the mind the understanding of impermanence and non-attachment.

The exquisite sand mandalas bring not only beauty to those who witness them. They also bring lessons. They show how years of disciplined study may create something beautiful in the mind. They show how beauty within the mind can create beauty in the world. They show how beauty can cause great happiness among people. They show the natural impermanence of beauty. They show the importance of offering this beauty to all people of the Earth.

Just seeing a mandala creates a great store of positive energy and makes one's mind peaceful and clear. Understanding it fully means understanding the whole path to enlightenment. Each part of the mandala is rich in symbolism and reminds the meditator of the insights, states of mind and feelings he or she is trying to accomplish.

Thousands of people, from all faiths and backgrounds, have already been touched by the sand mandalas created by the monks at the Jam Tse Dhargyey Ling Buddhist Centre.  If you may have interest in hosting a sand mandala event for your group or community, please contact Jam Tse Dhargyey Ling for more information.

 
In the Monasteries only the monks who show a special interest and aptitude are chosen by senior monks with expertise in constructing sand mandalas to carry on the tradition.  Since each mandala is extremely complex, monks specialize in the construction of only one or two different kinds.
Our monks have been given two years of intensive training during which they have constructed the mandala again and again until they know the whole design by heart.

The monks of Jam Tse Dhargyey Ling are specialized in the Chenrezig mandala. Chenrezig is the Buddha of Compassion.  If each one of us could become more compassionate there would be greater harmony and less conflict in our world. The kind of compassion embodied by Chenrezig is unbiased and wishes to free all living beings, without exception, from the suffering they experience. To develop compassion, two actors are essential. First we must fully acknowledge our own suffering because only then will we understand that all other ordinary living beings are suffering too. The other factor is the ability to see all living beings as near, dear and lovable.  Compassion will then arise quite spontaneously.

Tibetan people consider His Holiness the Dalai Lama as an emanation of Chenrezig.  Many people who have seen and heard His Holiness the Dalai Lama speak have been moved by the universality and compassionate nature of his words. The Jam Tse Dhargey Ling Centre hopes to further the development of compassion across New Zealand and the world, through the creation of the Chenrezig sand mandala.

 The exact proportions and all the details are laid down in ancient Buddhist texts on the creation of mandalas. The monks carefully follow the canonical iconography because every part of the mandala symbolizes different aspects of the teachings and the realizations of the enlightened being whose mandala it is.

The metal funnel is called a chakpu. When this ridged funnel is rubbed with a piece of horn, the coloured sand inside the funnel trickles out in an even flow. A wooden scraper, or shinga, is used to straighten the edges and tidy up stray grains of sand. The fact that both the funnel and the horn are needed in the process reminds us that nothing has independent existence but that everything arises in dependence on a multitude of factors.

The colours blue, white, yellow, red, green, black, brown, orange, light blue, light yellow, light red and light green are used. In the practice of tantra white, yellow, red and blue-black are associated respectively with peaceful, increasing, powerful and fierce activity. Such activity is not used for personal purposes but exclusively in order to help other living beings

The mandala is made of crushed limestone dyed with pigments. The monks themselves have collected the stones and have crushed them to form sand, which has been sifted with the use of screens in order to obtain three grades: fine, medium and coarse. The monks have carefully washed and dried the sand before coloring it. 

Latest Sand Mandala News 2007 :

The Chenrezig Sand Mandala was constructed at Trashi Ganden Choepel Ling at request of the students of late Geshe Palden Tsering. It has always been a wish of Geshe Palden Tsering to have this sand mandala constructed in his centre. The Opening Ceremony took place on Sunday 21st October 2007 at 10 am. The Closing Ceremony was held at October 1st November at 7.30pm.