Stillness 12-15: As I get older, I’ve been thinking more and more how non-linear our lives are. We’re much more like mandalas than we are like a path that meanders along in linear fashion.
Sacred sand mandalas are created by Tibetan monks in ceremony and meditation, starting from the center and moving outward. Precisely placing each grain of colored sand in intricate patterns, it may take several weeks to create just one extraordinary work of art. The mandala becomes a representation of our world and the act of creating it is a blessing. Millions of grains of sand later, when it’s completed, it’s prayed over and then it’s swept up and tossed into a stream or river so that it can bless the whole world.
Ah, if we could create our lives as Tibetan monks create their extraordinary mandalas: pouring our devotion, care, and love into color and form, time and space. If we could create each day as a sublime masterpiece, and then with a prayer of gratitude and blessing, let it flow away so we can start fresh. If we could do that each time we meet someone, rather than being triggered by preconceptions, assumptions, and pigeon-holing.
If we could live each day not as though it were our last — but as though it were our first.