Saturday AM - Sunday 5:00 PM...West Hall
Sand Mandala - Construction

Saturday 11:30 AM-12:00 PM...Memorial Room
Shamatha Meditation   (workshop fee $10)

Sunday 1:00-3:00 PM...Memorial Room
Medicine Buddha Healing Ceremony   (workshop fee $10)

Sunday 5:15-5:30 PM...West Hall
Dismantling the Sacred Sand Mandala

Sand Mandala

The Universal Light Expo is proud and pleased to again host monks from the Drepung Loseling Monastery for the weekend. Their presence has focused the Expo since 1995. They return again for a fantastic fifteenth year in a row. We believe that you will find the construction of the Sand Mandala to be one of the most awe inspiring and memorable experiences of your life. Few expressions of artistic talent will have such an impact upon one's life as viewing the Mandala. In Tibetan it is called
dul-tson-kyil-khor (which means mandala of colored powders). Millions of grains of colored sand are painstakingly placed on a flat platform. The Mandala has inner, outer, and secret meanings. On the outer level the Mandala represents the world in its divining form; on the inner, enlightenment; and the secret level depicts the perfect balance of body and mind.

The Mandala teaches simply "being here now". It will help to create a gateway to pure bliss, peace, healing and harmony in the world. The Mandala can help one reach enlightenment, free of all obstacles, and filled with compassion and wisdom. You will feel the peace and healing this powerful work of living art will generate, and will remember it for the rest of your life.

The Mandala is constructed on a Theg-pu (mandala base), with measured lines, compass, ruler, and white ink pen. After the pattern is laid out, colored sand is applied through the end of a metal funnel, called a chakpu, which is rasped against another funnel with various sized openings.

The sand painting's root extends back 15,000-20,000 years, and has similarities in its use with the newer sand paintings of the Hopi and Navajo of our own southwest. Construction of the Mandala begins at the center and works outward, as the Mandala is made in the spirit of impermanence and non-attachment, to be washed away. In this way the Tibetan Buddhist monks build planetary peace a grain of sand at a time.

On Sunday afternoon the Monks will host a special Ceremony. The ceremony will include a special blessing for those present, and should provide a powerful statement for world and individual healing and peace. The ceremony will cost only $10, with all proceeds going directly to the monks.

The Drepung Loseling Monastery was established in 1416 near Lhasa, Tibet by Chojey Tashi Palden. After the Chinese Communist invasion of Tibet in 1959, the slaughter of monks, and destruction of 6,500 monasteries, about 220 monks from Loseling managed to escape the holocaust and rebuild in Karnataka State, South India. They have renewed their traditional training programs, and now almost 2200 monks help preserve the ancient ways. This visit helps to support the entire monastery operations both in the US and in India. Don't miss them or the Sand Mandala in the West Hall, and be sure to visit their Booth 807-808-809.

Their website is: www.MysticalArtsOfTibet.org.