Saturday, June 13, 2009

Mandala offering




While attending my regular meditation on thursday night, i saw that there was "mandala offering class" on saturday morning.
what is mandala offering class?

well, physically, you take a bowl and put rice over it, rub it with your hands, and put more rice over it, lid over it, rice over it, lid over it, rice over it, lid over it.... until, you sculpt a thing that looks like a pagoda with rice spilling out. i think it looks pretty.
mentally, you imagine the bowl as the pure universe, where all sort of happy 37 things which included wish granting cow, mountain of jewels, precious wheels, queen, minister, elephant, goddess of beauty flower..etc,in the bowl while performing the rice rubbing, topping things. pretty eccentric and cute, if you asked me.
consciously, you wish the very BEST for all creatures in this universe without wanting anything back. This is only possible when you are free of any attachment. This is where the practice comes into picture.

practing mandala offering will in turn free me of my attachments.

To me, mandala offering was beautiful practice inside and out.

Thursday, June 4, 2009