Impermanence of Life

Six days to create an intricate and beautiful mandala and within an hour it's gone. (thx for the tip CH)

From CNN...

It took six days for a group of Buddhist monks to create an extravagant sand mandala at Emory University in Atlanta, Georgia. But you can watch the entire process in about two minutes thanks to the time-lapse video above.

Sand mandalas have been in practice for thousands of years. Monks use a grated metal rod and a traditional metal funnel called a chak-pur to carefully place millions of grains of colored sand on a table. Normally the monks who do this, they have to go through a lot of training programs and they have to be authenticated by their masters,” Rigzin said. “They have to memorize the oral texts and learn the ritual.” Once the outline is in place, the tedious work of laying the sand begins.

When the last grain of sand was set, the monks didn’t spend time admiring their handiwork. Within about an hour, the elaborate art they had spent days crafting was carefully swept away during a ritualistic ceremony. This is normal practice, Rigzin said; it is done to symbolize the impermanence of life.

Discovering this video this morning couldn't have come at a better time. This is just what I needed.