Perhaps you caught the Tibetan monks on a recent episode of the Netflix series “House of Cards.”
Maybe you’d stop, as Claire Underwood did, and watch the silent monks painstakingly vibrate millions of grains of colorful sand through metal funnels to create a mandala, an intricate design of symbols.
Or maybe you’d quickly walk by, day after day, as Francis Underwood did, and then, after it was swept up, wonder where it went and regret not taking the time to see the beauty and the message behind it.
The same monks are coming to Moraine Valley Community College in Palos Hills May 6 to 9 to create a mandala over four days and give free lectures to spread inner and global peace.
The Mystical Arts of Tibet Tour also will feature the ticketed performance “Sacred Music/Sacred Dance for World Healing” on May 9. The multi-phonic singers endorsed by His Holiness the Dalai Lama have shared stages with Sheryl Crow, Michael Stipe and Philip Glass, appeared at Ravinia Festival and Carnegie Hall and performed on the soundtrack for “Seven Years in Tibet” starring Brad Pitt.
At Moraine Valley, Mystical Arts of Tibet will begin May 6 with an opening ceremony at noon for the creation of a mandala in the library of Building L.
Monks, who do not speak, will begin by drawing an outline of ancient symbols and other designs on a wooden platform. They then apply colored sand by vibration by running a metal rod on the grated surface of metal funnels called chak-pur.
Mandala creation will be open for viewing at 10 a.m. May 7 to 9.
The lecture “Symbolism of the Mandala” will be at 11 a.m. Thursday, May 7, in the library.
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During the closing ceremony at 1:30 p.m. May 9, the mandala will be swept up. Some will be poured into urns, some shared with attendees and some carried to a nearby body of water to symbolize impermanence and planetary healing.
“The mandala is not only art. It is a very deep profound educational tool,” Gala Rinpoche said by phone from the Drepung Loseling Monastery in Atlanta, Ga., where he serves as assistant director of programs and a resident teacher. “We use art to teach about day-to-day life, how we can be mindful of life changing and how we can cope with emotional changes.”
Most of the monks do not speak, but a group leader will answer visitors’ questions.
“We encourage people to ask us ‘What is this?’ and ‘What are they doing?’,” he said.
Destroying art, rather than hanging it on the fridge, represents the Buddhist belief that any attachments — to art, other objects or people we value or love — causes suffering.
“Destroying this beautiful picture is a reminder of the impermanence of life including our own death,” he said.
The lecture “Death & Dying – The Tibetan Tradition” will be at 1 p.m. Monday, May 6, in Building B.
“Buddhists see death as just a physical expiration. There’s no death for the soul,” he said. “Spirit and consciousness never die, you just change physical form. It’s like changing the clothes. It should be exciting, but you don’t know how to change the clothes and where get the new clothes and it’s scary because we don’t know.
“We are so attached with our present form it’s difficult,” he said. “If you know how to die properly, it’s exciting because it’s a transition. We try to teach the positive side and the knowledge to use at the time of death.
“If you realize and accept (this) it’s very easy for us to accept and let go and move on.”
Other lectures are “Tibet Today – The History of a Diaspora” at 6 p.m. Thursday, May 7, in the Fine and Performing Arts Center and “Meditation – Tools for Conscious Living” at 3:30 p.m. Friday, May 8, in Building D.
Lectures and mandala viewing are free.
The performance “Sacred Music/Sacred Dance for World Healing” at 7:30 p.m. May 9 in the Fine and Performing Arts Center will feature multiphonic singing, masked dances and the playing of 10-foot dung-chen horns, drums, cymbals and gyaling trumpets. Rich brocade costumes and add to the show’s exotic splendor. Tickets are $25 or $20 for seniors and students.
Money raised from the tour goes toward healthcare, housing, food and education for 3,600 monks at the monastery in South India.
“We don’t have an income for preservation of culture or survival. Ninety percent of the monks are coming from Tibet come with nothing to get a better education in India,” he said. “The monastery has to literally look out for everything. And traveling for the monks is very expensive.”
Born in Tibet in 1975, Rinpoche escaped to India through Nepal at age 10 and completed his high school education. At age 16, he was recognized by His Holiness the Dalai Lama as the seventh reincarnation of Gala Tulku, a reincarnated lama from Batha Monastery in Kham Dege, Eastern Tibet, and formally enthroned at Drepung Loseling Monastery.
After decades of study and receiving his novice vow from His Holiness the Dalai Lama at Drepung Monastery in 1992, Rinpoche for a time traveled to Asian and western countries with the Mystical Arts of Tibet tours as a group leader and translator, including some five years ago at Moraine Valley.
The Drepung Monastery was established in Tibet in 1416, housed the second Dalai Lama in 1494 and was among 6,500 monasteries closed or destroyed following the Chinese Communist invasion of Tibet in 1959. Hundreds of monks from Loseling escaped to rebuild in South India, where the monastery now houses 3,600 monks, many of whom fled Chinese-occupied Tibet.
The Mystical Arts of Tibet Tours led to the creation of the Drepung Loseling Monastery in 1991 in Atlanta, Ga. There, an affiliation with Emory University began in 1998.
Vickie Jurkowski is a freelance reporter for the Daily Southtown.
Mystical Arts of Tibet
Where: Moraine Valley Community College, 9000 W. College Pkwy., Palos Hills
“Sacred Music/Sacred Dance for World Healing”: 7:30 p.m. Saturday, May 9, in the Fine and Performing Arts Center’s Dorothy Menker Theater; $25, $20 for seniors and students.
Mandala: Opening ceremony at noon Wednesday, May 6; Construction, open for viewing, continuing from 1 to 6 p.m., Wednesday, May 6, 10 a.m. to 6 p.m. Thursday, May 7, 10 a.m. to 5 p.m. May 8 and 10 a.m. to 1 p.m. May 9; free admission; in the library of Building L.
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Free Lectures: “Death & Dying -The Tibetan Tradition” at 1 p.m. Wednesday, May 6, in Building B, Room B109; “Symbolism of the Mandala” at 11 a.m. Thursday, May 7, in the library, Building L; “Tibet Today – The History of a Diaspora” at 6 p.m. Thursday, May 7, in the John and Angeline Oremus Theater in the Fine and Performing Arts Center; and “Meditation – Tools for Conscious Living” at 3:30 p.m. Friday, May 8, in Building D, Room D116.
Information: 708-974-5500; morainevalley.edu/fpac; mysticalartsoftibet.org.