Fun story about Buddhist monks. So, a pair of Tibetan Buddhist monks are visiting the campus where I work for a while→[More:] and they teach philosophy. One of them has been working on a sand mandala. The progress has been recorded here.

I took my kids to see it last Thursday. The progress was past this point by a bit. In the background there, you can see the older monk and a mandala that the public can contribute to. While we were there, the older man helped my kids add to it (a whole different story, because I'd just run on and on here). I got to do a bit, too.

I can't describe how much calmness these men exude. I've read their stories and it amazes me.

Some background: One of the movies on my children's shelf is Kundun, so they know the story of the Dalai Lama. The older man got to study with him directly. Interesting to have that few degrees of separation, for certain. I'm not a religious person, but I feel we've all been blessed by getting to meet these men.

Tomorrow, the mandala will be consecrated, destroyed, and dispersed. We will be there. The sand that isn't given to people there will be put into a stream that runs in the middle of town to disperse the blessings to the community.

I'll post more to this thread tomorrow. I can't explain how moving all this has been.