Sand Mandalas Explained, with Losang Samten | Big Think
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- Опубликовано: 5 сен 2024
- Sand Mandalas Explained, with Losang Samten
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Venerable Lama Losang Samten walks us through the symbolism and meaning in The Wheel of Life, an ancient Buddhist sand mandala. Samten is a Tibetan-American scholar, sand mandala artist, former Buddhist monk, and Spiritual Director of the Tibetan Buddhist Center of Philadelphia. He is the author of Ancient Teachings in Modern Times: Buddhism in the 21st Century (goo.gl/Su66fq).
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LOSANG SAMTEN:
The Venerable Losang Samten, a renowned Tibetan scholar and a former Buddhist monk, was born in Chung Ribuce, of central Tibet. In 1959, he and his family fled to Nepal and later moved to Dharamsala, India. His education includes studies at the Tibetan Institute of Performing Arts and the Namgyal Monastery which is the monastery of the 14th Dalai Lama. In 1985, he earned a Master's Degree in Buddhist Philosophy, Sutra, and Tantra, from the Namgyal Monastery, which is equivalent to a Ph.D. In 1994, Losang received an Honorary Doctorate of Divinity from Trinity College in Hartford, Connecticut. He was granted an Honorary Doctorate of Art from the Maine College of Art in 1995. He taught Tibetan Language at the University of Pennsylvania in Philadelphia from 1994 - 1997 and was awarded the National Heritage Fellowship from the National Endowment for the Arts in 2002. In 2004, he was awarded a Pew Fellowship in the Arts.
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TRANSCRIPT:
Losang Samten: My name is Losang Samten. I’m from Tibet, born in Tibet and then fled Tibet in 1959 at the age of 5. I came to Nepal first and then eventually came to India. And so I grew up in India and then eventually came to the United States in 1988. Ever since then I’ve been creating a lot of ancient Tibetan sand mandalas. Of course all the mandalas are tradition but some of the mandalas are such - all are so beautiful but sometimes it’s hard to explain for the general public who do not have that much background of Buddhists and Buddhist philosophy.
What I’m showing to you here this image is called Wheel of Life. In our language it’s called srid pa'i 'khor lo. The wheel of life which in many ways is fascinating and also me as an artist to display this art in the schools, especially the schools and kids can understand a lot better and not only just intellectually understand better but something to relate to in their life. So what is in the Wheel of Life in the mandala or in design, the middle there’s three animals. And the three animals are a snake, a rooster and pig. Three animals are there. They’re also chasing to each other, connecting to each other which means what is their causes of suffering? What makes us so difficult? What makes our wheel so stressful? So each animal means something. Not the animal itself but represents something what we’re going through on a day to day basis.
So the pig represents the ignorance, lots are due to our emotions, special negative emotions and the difficulties and frustrations and even killing each other are due to the ignorance - not seeing the true nature of the reality. And unfortunately sometimes we as a pure teaching either Buddhism or Christianity and Judaism and Islam and all of this, even though due to how to peace - due to how to create human peace and happiness but some individuals due to the ignorance use as a killing tool in the name of the religion. So it’s the pig, the animal, which in the middle symbolizes ignorance.
Two other animals are there too and the snake represents the anger. Hatred is such a big problem in my life or anybody’s life in today and the past due to our relationships, due to anything - anger is really damaging. When Buddha designed this what was original was a pig and a snake. In the rooster case we really don’t know if the original was a rooster or a pigeon. There’s a little different - scholars have a different interpretations. So that’s why when I draw sand mandalas sometimes I draw it as a rooster, sometimes I draw it as a pigeon to both will be happy. No too much conflicts. And so the pigeon represents - either the pigeon or the rooster represents the greed, the greed, the greed. We see that today in the twenty-first century and so much greed and all these problems in the modern society.
Damaging for the environment, damaging for many different things is truly greed. So which I said earlier in the beginning of my conversation these are the three - the ignorance and the greed and the anger are the difficult ones.
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No matter what religion you are, you can never really hate on buddha
If you were a part of any religion that was even close to The Truth, it would be against your beliefs to hate on anyone.
the buddha is a fat golden statue sitting there with his eyes closed while starving poor people surround him and pray that he helps them relinquish the desire to eat.
never could have imagined a more likeable guy : /
***** Clearly you have no idea what you're talking about. The OP was talking about the original Buddha, Siddhartha Gautama. Gautama is the founder of Buddhism, he was very skinny. The fat Buddha that you're talking about was a guy in China named Budai.
***** The Buddah was not a statue. Specifically, if you're speaking of Siddhārtha Gautama, he also cast off all his worldly possessions and lived in extreme poverty, often starving.
I'm not opinionated about it, just noting.
Keegan Cahoon ShonkyLegs
apparently you both fail to grasp the real meaning of my comment. i don't blame you, irrational religious beliefs can do that to people.
I think I could listen to this man talk for hours.
I am so happy to have heard him speak. He's a real blessing. He sent me books and wrote me in prison. An amazing teacher
Woww. So much focus, time, attention, and significance is put into this. And yet they completely erase it in the physical form. Giving it even more significance as a spiritual practice of presence and non-attachment. Incredible. 💖
While I can never subscribe to religion as a concept, I am always very respectful and sincerely impressed when you come across a person who, not just by their astounding skill and talent, but by looking into their eyes as they speak, convey an inner peace that if were felt in equal measure by every man, woman, and child on earth, you can be certain that greed, anger, and ignorance would be distant concepts of a bygone era.
...but I am a hopelessly utopic sob sometimes.
Well put
*****
I have very peaceful friends who are of Islamic faith... and I have had very close friendships with people raised in the Islamic faith that have left it as well who are equally peaceful... so yes- I am an equal opportunity witness.
*****
you are a hateful person aren't you? Go ahead and strawman... if it makes you feel better. Maybe you can even be so extreme as to prove Islam's detractors right the way extremist Christians are doing such a great job of proving their detractor's right about them. Take your magical bullshit and shove it up your ass and we can all get down to being human. You need the fucking label and the mystique, not me.
I'd have to say I'm hopelessly optimistic too!
There are a lot of us out there. Religious or not. It gives the world hope that the future can be a better place!
It is debatable whether Buddhism is actually a religion, or a system of evolving thought aiming at liberation, without any sacred dogmas.
Religion perhaps, but far-far from Abrahamic religions (excluding now their almost totally outcast mystic branches).
When Losang visited the University of Texas at El Paso, I took refuge in the Sanga with him and was named Losang Chodron. Thank you. Many blessings from me!
Well I learn something new every day. This is the best thing I have learned.
Very interesting set of ideas. I've always quite enjoyed Buddhist philosophy, even though I'm an atheist.
I enjoyed this a lot, big thanks to Venerable Lama Losang Samten! you have enlightened my morning with understanding.
Thank you Lama Losang Samten.
If i wasn't a Atheist, I'd be a Buddhist. The only religion other than Confucianism that has my respect.
Daoism? Pantheism?
I'm cool with any peaceful religion.
Nah, Christians, Muslims, and Islam don't know how to act.
When's the last time you heard of a Buddhist blowing up a building over religious views on the news.
Maybe not the 'ideal' measure line, but i mean when you're considering the kind of things the previously mentioned religions have been up to, Buddhism, Daoism, Confucianism, and the like are much more tolerable. At least that's my opinion.
Beautiful Buddhist philosophy! 🙏
Beautiful message. Please give us more. Thank You
I was lucky to see Losang create a sand mandala two years ago. He was so warm and friendly, and happy to explain everything. An unforgettable experience.
Greed, hate and delusion. These are considered the three poisons in buddha dharma. Thanks for sharing this big think!
i’d interpret this teaching with my thought bubble:
i’ve seen most of the time the mandala got disassembled, it was done by the same person/group of monks who participated in the arts’ creation; it was made by themselves, destroyed _by themselves._
per my life experience, i have created lots of things in which i destroyed them myself, and that i let them go as i destroy them. if we’re into the sense of ‘attachment’, destroying the arts resonates with ‘letting go’, right?
now, what if the act of destruction is condoned by someone else _outside_ of the person/group? like, what if the monks, if they have spectators, calls one or more randomly and ask them to destroy the mandala.
it may be subtle, but from what i experience, having something destroyed by yourself vs by someone else would bring different impact in regards of ‘attachment’; if you destroy them yourself, you’re already on your terms to let go of those things since you’re fully aware you’re ending their existence. if it’s done by someone else?
now, what if the mandala got destroyed by an unsuspected party, like a deus-ex-machina occurrence or literally something so random no one expects it? remember, the ‘attachment’ may be more about ‘the terms we’ve set a deal to ourselves’, because letting go of something you end _yourself_ is much easier than something that ends _on hands of someone else._ at least that’s my bit
I like the second one very nice.
Thanks again to the big think..
Im a native from cananda, the medicine wheel is thee same colo(u)rs
Stunning...
Excellent.
Very beautiful and expressive art indeed. The detail are so beautiful.
On the philosophical side, I think that the three sources of pain can be made into two: ignorance and fear. Greed is caused by our fear of losing what we have, and anger/hate is caused by our ignorance and fear (of harm), ignorance about other people and things, and fear of what we are ignorant of lest it may harm us.
They act together, but are independent. Sometimes we know how losing something is gonna change our lives, yet we fear it. Fear is an instinct, it keeps us alive. I think of "ignorance" here not as not knowing, but more like delusion, or wrong knowledge.
Root of the three is just one, ignorance. But ignorance of what? Ignorance of interdependence and subsequently compassion.
love it!
they say in islam there is 4 parts of ourselves;
1 is the pig part which is the greedy, jealous side
2. is the dog side which is the anger side, that wild animal wants to harm and spill blood
3. side is the şeytan(devil) which is the sneaky part of you, lying cheating, fraud, and every other ugly behaviours you can think of
4. is the angel side which has the duty of realising itself and shutting off of the other bad parts so you can tame the animal parts of yourself to become more angelic and at the end more closer to god, because that's the only reason for everything (literally, everything)
that was a very short summary of what I know about the subject. when I heard the first time I was very interested and I find it similar to the information in the video.
Vandami Bhante 🙏Bows🙏
How to Conquer Anger for self???
That snake did bite Me hard though...suggest Anti Venom for the same please!?!
Amazing! :]
wow, just wow.
🙏
wow
super
Buddha
Buddhisem
Madnala
✏
😊
❤
🧘♀️
🇸🇮
If I'm not wrong that kalachkra sand mandala at the end took more or less 18 days to complete!!
This symbolism is not different just for the general public, but also for the majority of the Buddhists because this is part of the tradition of the Tibetan Buddhists which is just a part of all the Buddhists, so it is normal to be ignorant about this even if you are Buddhist of other traditions
It's interesting that the opposite of the snake=hatred, boar=ignorance, and the pidgeon/rooster=greed are, respectively love, knowledge, and abundance. Welcome to the 21st century.
We are all immortal in the background radiation of our universe, all information stored in the apparent horizons of black holes, recycled, refined and redistributed. Infinite simulations in a coded, digital multiverse. Information is never destroyed, and that is all we are.
they usually destroy them after making them too dont they?
Yes they do. In the meaning of not to get emotionally attached to someone or something.
@@jockslap
Since you're not him I'm going to let you know that if you were actually him you would not sell it....
You can't truly create one without understanding its meaning first and if you are more interested in money than the meaning it will show and no one will give you any legitimate credibility how many people will give you poor reviews....
Because it's not meant like that dumbass
@@itzm3dora it also symbolises..that impermanence is only law of nature...the ultimate truth
Could anyone tell me the method of painting he was using?
Sand, not paint.
Not all things are interdependent, I can think of two that while coexisting in balance with one another, certainly do not exist in a harmonious, peaceful or synerginistic balance.
Even balance is dependent. without one is 50 and other is 50 it cannot be on balance..
balance doesn't necessarily imply equality, only perpetuity.
I once dream with Buddha and I was guided by rooster 🐓 and also there was tiger 🐅 . I saw Buddha next to the Christ and with them there was a sage/mage.
Those Asians. That guy is nearly 90 and has less wrinkles than a white 50 year old. He is so talented. Great to see someone who is so old but so well spoken and keeping busy.
oh, I rewatched it. He was 5 in 1959. Oops, no way he is 88. I heard him wrong the 1st time I watched.
I am sorry, but to understand the mandala or the wheel of life we must first look at the whole picture. Several versions are known. The original wheel of life is held by a beast with five skulls on its head, sharp teeth and claws and often references to fire around it. The animal looks very aggressive. The beast comes from the sky to the earth. The wheel is divided into four equal compartments and one larger one. There are circles around it and two central circles with often three symbols in the middle. There are many different explanations for this image. But the real message is that there is a celestial body that comes close to the sun and its planets every few thousand years. That planet circles our sun in an eccentric orbit. Of the seven passages of this planet 9, five cause a severe to disastrous natural disaster that we know as a flood. The five skulls refer to this and the middle head is the largest because it represents the worst disaster we know as "the end of times". These disasters create four civilizations that can only develop for a few thousand years and the fifth civilization lives longer, 10,800 years. This cycle occurs according to a fixed timetable, just as we can calculate the sunrise of any given day. In the center we see symbols that refer to constellations. They tell the orbit of this planet. To learn more about the flood cycle with a timeline and highly developed disappeared civilizations, you can read an e-book: Planet 9 = Nibiru. search: planet 9 roest
Lo Sang Somthin
The top comment says: "No matter what religion you are, you can never really hate on buddha"
Interesting, I distinctly remember a group of jihadi muslim in afghanistan blowing up a historically precious statue of buddha.
But of course - and as always - those weren't TRUE muslims .... yes yes yes, and we are back to square one.
😍😍😍
He needs to teach people to pray to Jesus ! They need to tell the gospel through mandalas .
😑
doesn't seem like he is Losang Samten :)
A white pigeon is called a dove...
I'm a pig zodiac, hypnotise by a rooster lady, and then hated by the snake
me too :o ... i'm a pig zodiac , my girlfriend is a rooster lady and she loves kanye west, kanye west is a snake as zodiak... and I hate kanye west
Cognitive & Sentient
When I first heard his name I thought he said "My name is hooked on something"
I have a 4th evil. Can anyone think of an animal representing dogma?
Probably the Monkey, or a dog which could represent blind faith.
What do you do if you see your god walking down the street?
Kill him!
I'd ask him to beam me up the street.
to me, the pig should represent greed more. ive worked with pigs. they can never have enough food and they will literally run you down to get it
Pig is greed
"MANDALA ARTIST", mandalas are made by the monks.
Let's hope he doesn't sneeze.
to me, the pig symbolize's greed.
That's the reason you are against my GOD. We are not required to come back to this earth, unless we are being punished by GOD. And it makes me sad, that you don't believe in the GOD, I do. You're such good guys!!
Your Santa Claus is a bit different indeed.
Beautiful message. Please give us more. Thank You