In our modern day, coloring a mandala in a sketchbook or in an app can bring about a sense of focus, while finishing it may bring you a sense of joy and pride. However, to understand the benefits of coloring mandalas with a deeper perspective, let's look at the unique mandala art ritual of Tibetan Buddhist Monks.
Sand Mandalas
Sand Mandalas are a Tibetan Buddhist tradition involving the creation and destruction of mandalas made from colored sand. Typically, a great teacher at the monastery would choose the mandala to be created. Then the assigned monks would consecrate the site with sacred chants and music. The monks then use white chalk to outline the design on an area anywhere between two and seven square feet.
The assigned monks may spend up to two weeks taking shifts filling in the design with millions of grains of powdered and colored marble. Powdered sand, flowers, herbs, grains, colored stones, and semiprecious and precious stones are also used. When the mandala is complete, another praying ritual takes places after which the mandala is immediately swept up and all the sand is washed away.
What's the point of destroying it immediately after it's done?
Buddhist monks can be very rigorous and strict about the philosophies they learn and live by. Putting them into clear and, somewhat harsh, practices.
One of these philosophies is impermanence, or the idea that everything that comes to us in life, goes away eventually. Nothing lasts forever, whether good or bad. And so it is important that we understand how to let go and be at peace with what is.
And sand mandalas are one way they put these ideas into practice. Spending days creating a beautiful thing and learning to be at peace with letting it go right after it is complete, barely having any time to enjoy its presence. In a way they also practice appreciating the process over the outcome.
What can we take from all this?
It's not about throwing away your mandala as soon as you're done coloring it. That would be a word for word imitation of the ideas. If you want to try that, sure! Just know that it will not feel good.
However, a more nuanced take from this would be to see the potentially profound benefits one could get from coloring mandalas.
Whether it's the ability to slow down, to focus, to be present, to enjoy the journey or to dive deep into one's own sense of wholeness. What you take from the process of coloring a mandala can be totally up to you.
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