Patience is a Virtue

            The phrase “patience is a virtue ,” has never in my eyes been better personified than by Buddhist monk, Losang Samten who over the last month has been constructing a sand mandala, by only one grain of sand at a time. One could not enter the Chico State BMU, without seeing Losang Samten, patiently and meticulously constructing this colorful image of the world.  He has spent many days and many hours constructing this mandala, all to wash it away in Big Chico Creek. It’s hard to believe that something so intricate, so complex and so beautiful was painstakingly created only to be destroyed.  But no sooner than one finishes this thought, than an epiphany is reached and the purpose of this mandala is very clear. The mandala is a representation of the spiritual journey of life.           

The feeling of serenity could not be escaped at the dismantling ceremony. The dismantling process was initiated by slowly gathering all 722 deities represented by the mandala and inserting them into a glass jar. Members of the audience sponge brushed the colored sand into multicolored pile in the center of the board. The intricate designs of the mandala were destroyed, and only a colorful pile was left behind. The colorful pile was then poured into the Big Chico Creek.  Through it all the Honorable Losang Samten, never lost his cheer, and positive outlook. He remained friendly and did not display the least bit of bitterness. He was at peace with the fact that his mandala had been destroyed. In fact, he wanted it that way.

The world we live in and the life it holds is amazing. It is intricate, and complex, and beautiful. But no matter what you believe, or don’t believe, at some point and time it is coming to an end. But what will you be when you are poured into the Big Earth Creek to be dispersed and washed away into the abyss? Where will your spiritual journey have taken you? What did you contribute? What will be created in your place? The mandala acts a symbol that ties all these questions together.  The mandala symbolized the world and its intricacies and its beauty, and the destroying of the mandala represents the journey of life, and the creation in destruction.  Patience is truly a virtue.  And thanks to the patience of the Honorable Losang Samten many students here at Chico State, who witnessed the creation and destruction of the mandala, learned to not take for granted the beauty of their own lives.