2001-10-03 - 1:23 a.m.
There are monks visiting our school from India. I visited their exhibit today and watched them do a Mandala, which is a very intricate sand drawing. They use these little scoops to place a tiny ammount of sand at a time. It takes 4 of them 4 days to complete it, then when they're done, they destroy it. It symbolises the impermanence of the physical world. They were also selling neat stuff to finance thier journey around the world. It bothered me how all the clueless, middle-aged, upper-middle class women of Lafayette thought they were so quaint. To most of the people there, they were so alien. I've read lots about budhism and the history of budhism, so it was neat actually seeing a monk and seeing Mandala in person. I got a Free Tibet shirt and sticker...it's really fucked up what happened to them. It wouldn't be so bad if China were more tollerant of religion, but they see it as a threat to the state.
The monks are giving a concert tomorrow night. It's kind of expensive to see them, but my mom gave me money so I could go. It's gonna be neat.
