Have you had a chance to view the sand mandala in the Sacred Arts of Tibet exhibition at the Art Gallery of Greater Victoria?
During the past month, the monks have been engaged in crafting this beautiful sand painting. From the centre outward, colourful grain by grain, they have created an elaborate picture of the universe. Their prayerful and painstaking work has transformed the exhibition room into a sacred space. It's all the more poignant when you realize that after all that time and effort to place each grain of sand just so, the project will conclude with the peaceful, almost playful scattering of the sand.
The project is a spiritual exercise of letting go which invites all of us to meditate on the meaning and beauty of our own lives and creative work. In this creation and scattering of the mandala, we explore a central paradox of spirituality: within our ever-changing, living and dying world, we create and discover and live within eternal beauty and meaning.
If you missed seeing the creation of this mandala, you can watch step by step photos of this process in a great BBC feature by clicking here. The mandala will be on display in the Art Gallery for the next few weeks; it's a great place to spend some time meditating.
You can learn more about this exhibit in this Times Colonist article. It will be at the art gallery until Dec. 5 when there will bea dismantling ceremony and the sand will be gently deposited into the ocean.
