Completed sand painting of Amitahba Buddha mandala PHOTO: Gene Savoy Jr.
The completion of the sand painting of the Mandala of Buddha Amitahba at the Buddhist Center in Reno was celebrated on October 24, 2014.
Reno Buddhist Center hosted the Venerable Lama Losang Samten to create the Mandala of Buddha Amitahba from October 6-24, 2013. The Tibetan art form of sand painting practiced by Losang Samten is intended to uplift and benefit every person who sees it and to bless the environment in which it is made.
Monk Losang worked his calm and deliberate art over three weeks to complete the painting of the Pure Land of the Light or Solar Buddha Amitahba. It will be dissolved on December 8, 2014, Bodhi Day, the day of Buddha’s enlightenment. The ceremony on October 24th was a celebration of the painting’s completion.
Bishop Gene Savoy Jr. was asked to attend the ceremony and to speak on “Light.” During his talk, Rev. Savoy made comparisons between the Buddha and Christ Jesus, emphasizing that they were both able to access the source of life by the same means, that is, through the gateway of the sun, and thereby both become living Light Beings or “Lights” on Earth. He explained that their mission was to exemplify the Light and teach men and women how they too could commune with the Sun and themselves become living Lights and, in this way, all become Amita Buddhas or Christ Beings. Bishop Savoy encouraged those in attendance to chant their Buddhist mantras at sunrise.
During the three weeks of its creation, several members of the Second Advent congregation attended the making of the sand painting at various times.
Ven. Losang has been sharing teachings of loving-kindness, joy, and compassion, as well as the path to enlightenment for almost 30 years. Losang lived and studied over 20 years in the Namgyal Monastery, the monastery of the Dalai Lama, earning the highest degree attainable at the monastery. He also became a master of ritual dance and sand mandalas and was the personal attendant to the XIV Dalai Lama prior to moving to the United States in 1988. Ven. Losang is one of the mandala masters who created the first public sand mandalas in the West in 1988. He is the director of several Buddhist centers in North America. His home base is in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania.
Venerable Lama Losang Samten overlooking the mandala of Buddha Amitahba PHOTO: Gene Savoy Jr.
