Yesterday my friend Arlene and I went to the Asian Art Museum in San Francisco to see an exhibit of Tibetan treasures. In a large public area, there were some Buddhist monks creating a large elaborate mandala - of colored sand.

Mandalas are ritual illustrations of various symbols and concepts of Buddhism, and are created as objects of meditation, or healing. The sand mandala is painstakingly created over a period of a number of days - say a week or two - then is ritually deconstructed by sweeping it into a pile and transporting the remnants to a body of water where the merit of its creation will be dispersed to the far reaches of the world to benefit all.



I thought - all my seeking of perfection in this life, in my home and garden and careers, in creating everything that reflects the passing of my time here with such precision and care - all of this too will be ultimately swept away figuratively or literally.

I think if the lesson of the monks and the sand mandela is the impermanence of all things, I got it.

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If you suffer, it is not because things are impermanent. It is because you believe things are permanent.

Thich Nhat Hanh

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