Navajo Sand Drawings and Tibetan Kalachakra Mandalas
by Bob on March 22, 2007
Life is a fleeting experience.
Capturing life on film or tape recorder, and the like is a very unsure advantage to living life. Surely, memories are useful to keep. Or aides-memoire, perhaps photos, to help us remember might be utilitarian.
One might wonder if we actually remember everything, and just recall things in pieces as our consciousness allows. Perhaps pictures and tapes are not necessary.
The art of storytelling is an amazing ability. It seems to be largely losing out to TV, photo albums, and DVDs, and video tapes.
Some cultures and societies disdain people taking their photo. Or making an image of them.
I think there is a lesson to be learned from both the Tibetan Buddhist monks in Asia and the Navajo indians in the American Southwest.
The Navajos have beautiful drawings, made in sand, danced a ceremony around them or just used them in a sacred ceremony usually under the guiding hand of a medicine man. It was meant to cleanse, heal, and purify. It was destroyed or whisked away after the ceremony quite intentionally. It was over. Everyone took what they needed away.
The Tibetan Buddhist monks made beautiful coloured sand mandalas. There are different types. Sometimes they take a long time to make. Prayers are said over them and deities are invoked. They are beautiful. Then, when complete, it is whisked into a container and then poured into the river ceremonially.
My favourite Tibetan mandala is the Kalachakra mandala. There are 722 deities portrayed. It is dedicated to peace and physical balance both for individuals and the whole world.
A person once automatically recorded all the episodes of his favourite TV show and kept putting them on the shelf to view in the future. Years later when asked if he had seen any episodes, he said, no, but said he had them all in the shelves and could watch them at any time. He never did see any episodes.
There must be a lesson there.
And playing music in one's head is better than any iPOD or Walkman that can be manufactured, one would certainly hope. We can remember a lot by ourselves. Memory is quite powerful. In fact, it might be permanent.
The Kalachakra mandala invites us to balance and peace.