#transcience

Sand mandala is a Tibetan Buddhist tradition involving the creation and destruction of mandalas made from colored sand. Once complete, the sand mandala's ritualistic dismantling is accompanied by ceremonies and viewing to symbolize Buddhist doctrinal belief in the transitory nature of material life.

1. Purification of the Space The space in which a sand mandala is to be created must first be purified. This ceremony includes making offerings to the central deity of the mandala, exorcizing hindering spirits, and blessing the ground by dancing around the mandala surface. Certain phases of the preparatory ritual are accompanied by the chanting of religious mantras and by music.

2. Drawing of the Lines Mandalas are based on a precise grid of lines that are oriented to the cardinal and ordinal directions. The lines cannot be drawn freehand. Monks coat a cord in white chalk and stretch it out from the center across the north/south and east/west axes and the NE/SW and NW/SE axes to create the eight principal lines of the mandala. The nesting squares and circles of the central deity’s celestial palace are then drawn over the directional lines.

3. Invocation of the Deities The sections of the mandala that will house various deities are purified with saffron water. Afterward, a monk, holding a vajra (ritual scepter) and a ghanta (bell), carefully places a grain of barley on the mandala and recites a mantra to attract each deity to its proper location. The monks visualize the completed composition during this invocation and thus empower the mandala before it is created in sand.

4. Coloring of the Mandala Filling in the mandala is the last phase of preparation. Four monks, each seated at a directional quadrant, work in unison to fill in the mandala with red, green, yellow, blue, orange, white, and black sand. They work from the center of the mandala to the periphery while meditating on the various parts of the composition. Each monk holds a chak-pur (tubular funnel) in one hand, while the other hand runs a metal rod over the chak-pur’s grated surface. This produces a vibration that causes the sand to flow like liquid. No glue is used to hold the sand in place.

5. Destruction of the Mandala Sand mandalas are traditionally destroyed shortly after their completion, but this one will remain on view until May 7. The destruction of a sand mandala is a metaphor for the impermanence of life and a means of releasing its healing power. During the closing ceremony, the sand is swept up and placed in an urn. The sand is carried to a nearby body of water, into which it is deposited. The waters then carry the blessing of the central deity to the ocean, and from there it spreads throughout the world.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Sand_mandala

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In memory, erotic scent, which is founded on the specificity of the beloved’s body, at last assumes a life independent of the body. As Casanova observes in his Memoirs, “There is something in the air of the bedroom of the woman one loves, something so intimate, so balsamic, such voluptuous emanations, that if a lover had to choose between Heaven and this place of delight, his hesitation would not last for a moment.” This transcendence reminds us of the transformative aspects of the alchemical process. “The only … alchemist that turns everything into gold is love,” writes Anaïs Nin. “The only magic against death, aging, ordinary life, is love.”