I need a Light box

A simple fun photo to begin the week. Doesn't exactly feel like holiday season yet though. I have been eyeing this red and blue for a while and today morning I just clicked it. A simple, single shot! The photo must have been created in my subconscious.

Long time ago when I had seen Buddhist Monks painting a Sand Mandala, I had read about them. Meaningful at multiple levels, the mandalas are also an aid for one to connect to the deeper levels of consciousness. But what fascinates me about the Sand Mandalas is the fact that once completed, they are ritualistically destroyed. All the fruits of labour and reflection for weeks at a time are washed away in an instant. The idea is to teach Buddhist monks through experience about the transitory nature of a worldly existence.

It had occurred to me recently that this is not some obscure idea of renunciation for monks, spiritualists, ascetics and the like. The larger idea is very applicable for each one of us, in whatever we do each day. So that every moment becomes a new moment, every experience a new one.

Excessive attachment towards anything doesn't translate into enjoying it more. Again, using detachment (often because of being afraid to care enough) as a shield against the inevitability of loss is almost contradictory to 'being alive'. It's the balance between the two that sand mandalas, ice-sculptures and even little sand-castles talk about.