Indulge me for a few moments, while I introduce you to something that today’s graduates learned about in Energy class with Paula Schank: the mandala.
There are many types of mandalas – presented in many ways – stained glass windows like the famed Notre Dame Rose Window, tattoos, coloring pages, and even a child’s kaleidoscope.
Mandalas occur in nature – snowflakes, whirlpools, hurricanes, and even a snail’s shell.
Mandalas are used for and representative of so many things.
Most mandalas are contained within a circle. A circle can symbolize many things. Circles have no beginnings and no ends. They are continual…cyclic. In this they represent life, nature, the earth, and more. So many things we use or see daily are circles…coins, the sun, the moon, wedding bands and other rings, even manhole covers. Circles are smooth. They can be carried in the palm of your hand or be as big as the sun itself.
Mandalas are colorful. The colors are used according to the meditational choice of its creator and may be selected based on what the artist wishes to convey – inner feelings, hopes, dreams, or based on the symbolisms, icons and graphics contained within.
Mandalas can be abstract…or can include any number of pictures, motifs or icons. Some mandalas contain Asian influences – dragons, lotus blossoms, and the yin and yang. Some include sacred symbols representing gods and ancestors. Some include symbols from nature – flowers, animals, butterflies, or the tree of life. A more recent direction that mandalas have traveled is to include Celtic symbolisms in the form of Celtic knots and crosses.
Tibetan monks create sand mandalas over days. Painstakingly using tubes, funnels and scrapers, holding their breath when close to the design, the monks build the layers of sand, creating beautiful and intricate designs. Silently working in a cordoned-off area, under the observation of passersby. People travel miles to see the creation of the masterpiece, in awe of the work being done.
Once complete – the mandala is on display for those who want to see it – as a source of inspiration, meditation, awe and wonder.
When a specified period of time has passed, the monks, in full regalia, begin the destruction ceremony. Using scrapers, paper and their hands, they ritualistically begin to move the sand from the outside of the circle inward. Once the sand has been pulled to the center of the table, it is removed by hand and placed into a jar. It is transported to the nearest moving water – a stream or river – where it is poured into the water – never to be used in the same creation.
The creation and destruction of a sand mandala is truly representational of life – it has a beginning, a birth. It has an end, a death. It reminds us that to everything there is a beginning and end…and that the time in between has the potential to be beautiful.
The students we celebrate this evening are like that mandala. From different backgrounds, geographic locations, ages, genders, and beliefs, they were drawn together into a journey – the journey of becoming massage therapists.
At orientation the beginning was scary. Looking around the circle, they wondered who they might connect with – how they might touch one another’s lives both literally and figuratively. The first layer of sand had been laid.
As the months went by other colors were introduced…deeper parts of themselves – their passions, strengths, weaknesses. Tragedies pulled them together in support – exciting happenings drew them together in celebration. Designs and patterns were introduced…routines were represented – clinic, studying, even 5-toed shoes!
But like the sand mandala – our student mandala, too, has an end. Also like the sand mandala, we have drawn them to the center – the culmination – graduation. After this evening, they will spread out into the stream, scattered in their own directions, beginning a new journey – having always been part of this something beautiful.
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