Tibetan Monks to Visit Westminster College Oct. 13-16
Posted on Monday, September 29, 2008
A group of Tibetan monks from the Gaden Shartse Monastery will visit Westminster College Monday-Thursday, Oct. 13-16, in the Witherspoon Lakeview Room of the McKelvey Campus Center.
Sponsored by the Heinz Lectures in Religion and the Religions, all events are free and open to the public. A sand mandala will be constructed on the lower level of the Campus Center over the four days, and will be swept up in a ceremonial dissolution at 6:30 p.m. Thursday.
Monday, Oct. 13, and Wednesday, Oct. 15, at 6:30 p.m. the monks will speak on "Serene Mind, Compassionate Heart," about the Buddhadharma or teachings of Siddhartha Gautama, the Buddha. The monks are open to questions from the audience, since a principle tenet of Buddhist thought is that no one should accept what the Buddha said blindly, but should subject all teachings to intense scrutiny.
The monks will demonstrate the ancient healing arts of Tibet Tuesday, Oct. 14, at 6:30 p.m. Audience members, especially those suffering from ailments, are invited to participate in the ceremony.
Ceremonial dissolution of the sand mandala is scheduled for Thursday, Oct. 16, at 6:30 p.m. Despite the hours of painstaking effort and intense concentration required to construct the beautiful and meaningful artifact, the final product is not meant to be preserved but to be dismantled and ceremonially "dissolved." This exemplifies the Buddhist doctrine of anitya or anicca (impermanence). It is designed to be an exercise in, and a reminder of, non-attachment, that is, the idea that we should not become attached to things, especially to the objects of our own production, no matter how beautiful or meaningful, but must let go of all such attachments.
Contact Dr. Bryan Rennie, Westminster's Vira I. Heinz professor in religion, at (724) 946-7151 or e-mail brennie@westminster.edu for more information.
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