I have not been physically close to another human in about 5 days. I live alone and sometimes have a roommate, but not at this time. So this Stay Safe Stay Home Order has me getting in a lot of “me time”. I’ve had a few moments of loneliness but I am doing alright. My dog Bodhi is nearby all the time and I’ve been connecting with friends and family on the daily.
It’s got me thinking about how individualized our culture is, and how I’ve made many choices in my life to be independent. Living alone seems fine when I go to work and see friends regularly. But in this more isolating circumstance, my independence-based choices have consequences. I have been pondering this quandary for a while now. A lot of us have prioritized individuality and independence over community and the whole. One could trace this back to the industrial revolution and the nuclear family, capitalism, and the American Dream. David Brooks actually wrote an excellent piece on it called The Nuclear Family was a Mistake.
No matter how we got here, we are definitely in the midst of a conflict between individualism/freedom and the good of the collective. I myself believe we have moved too far in the direction of the individual. The Coronavirus is forcing us to look at this and asking us to work together (separately) to protect each other. The Art of Belonging is also about creating together and re-imagining our collective force. So here’s an experiment to try. I used to do this lesson with the families I worked with in residential treatment.
A Mandala is a sacred circle, a depiction of the universe, a community. In Tibetan Buddhism it’s used in the form of a ritual to spread blessings. Tibetan monks spend days laying out circular and geometric shapes and funneling granules of colored sand into the intricate design while chanting and imbuing the mandala with blessings of all kinds. Many of you have seen these rituals, as Tibetans have been forced out of their corner of the world and shared this beautiful ritual with us.
The experiment: Let’s make mandalas. This mandala can be made out of anything you have on hand. I made mine out of sticks from my backyard (I’ve been doing a lot of yard work-:)). You can make your mandala out of potato chips, chalk on sidewalk, you can draw your mandala, you can find multiple objects in your home and build it out of that. Your mandala can be large or small, symmetrical or asymmetrical. When you build this mandala, you can take a cue from the monks and think about the collective and send us all good wishes. The mandala is our community. In the making of this piece, you are connecting with all of us.
At the end of the sand mandala ritual monks destroy their creation and bring it to a moving body of water. The idea in this, is that the blessings flow to where they are needed. While making my stick mandala, I thought about the people who were really suffering and sent my attention there. This is what I can do right now. My hope is that we can find some solace in creating and building something together, even though we are apart.
If you decide to do this, please post your images in the comments and on Instagram at #mandala_experiments - Let’s see what we can build together.