Sand Mandala Opening Ceremony and Reception March 3, 2007

Sand Mandala general public viewing hours:

Saturday, Mar 3: 3PM- 6PM

Sunday, Mar 4: 11AM- 5PM

Mon-Fri, Mar 5-9: 11AM- 2PM and 4PM- 7PM

Saturday, Mar 10: 11AM-2PM (Dissolution Ceremony at 2PM)

The purpose of this project is to increase social and cultural awareness in the participating communities by exploring the various dimensions of aesthetic and contemplative traditions. Art, music, and storytelling will be among the diverse disciplines we explore. Through these community building exercises, we will help students share and develop a more positive attitude by acquiring basic tools for conflict resolution and peace building.

Mandala @ MIT is a visionary and reflective exercise that hopes to encourage young minds to visualize and meditate about the positive qualities that they would like to see manifested in the world. It motivates them to express their ideas through art by symbols and patterns. The representation of positive qualities in an ideal world in the form of an artistic pattern has often been referred as mandala by several cultures.

Sand Mandalas at MIT in Review:
MIT has hosted two traditional Sand Mandalas, in 2004 and 2005, which were constructed by members of monasteries in India, the Buddhist community at MIT and Ven. Tenzin LS Priyadarshi. The project in 2005 attracted 3,800 people to Simmons Hall to observe the construction of the Mandala and an additional 2,300 people were able to experience the Mandala over a live web cast. The Mandala Project in 2006 was an outreach program that involved various schools and colleges in the United States. Students explored the topics of diversity, impermanence, acceptance, and the value of peace through various workshops.

This year's project:
The Sand Mandala of Wheel of Life will be hosted at the Multi-purpose Hall, Simmons Hall at MIT. We are planning on constructing a 5-foot Mandala which will take 5-6 days to complete. It will be open for viewing at all times to the MIT Community and at scheduled times to the public. We are expecting a public of around 5,000 viewers. Additionally, there will be a web cast, so that others may view the Mandala remotely.

Sand Mandala construction will be led by the Venerable Losang Samten, a renowned Tibetan scholar and a former Buddhist monk, was born in Chung Ribuce, of central Tibet. In 1959, he and his family fled to Nepal and later moved to Dharamsala, India. His education includes studies at the Tibetan Institute of Performing Arts and the Namgyal Monastery which is the monastery of the 14th Dalai Lama. In 1985, he earned a Master's Degree in Buddhist Philosophy, Sutra, and Tantra, from the Namgyal Monastery, which is equivalent to a Ph.D Degree. In 1994, Losang received an Honorary Doctorate of Divinity from Trinity College in Hartford, Connecticut. He was granted an Honorary Doctorate of Art from the Maine College of Art in 1995.

He will be assisted by the Venerable Tenzin Priyadarshi of MIT.

Official Website: http://web.mit.edu/metta/mandala/