The Preciousness of What Begins and Ends
Lo Precioso de Lo Que Comienza y Termina
A reflection on why identification with a limited, separate self is not a mistake but something deeply beautiful, akin to the Buddhist sand mandala created only to be released.
The Preciousness of What Begins and Ends
A reflection on why identification with a limited, separate self is not a mistake but something deeply beautiful, akin to the Buddhist sand mandala created only to be released.
I get it. It's very beautiful. I believe there is a divine reason why identification is possible. It sounds so stale and intellectual when I call it that, but in my experience it is not stale at all. It is simply the most precise way to refer to it. What I really mean is being: the experience of being something limited, something that starts and ends, that was born and will die and disappear. In a sense, this is even more precious than the reality of being, or God. It is even more wonderful, because it is the way we can experience and know a very deep sense of love.
The sand mandala
The image of Buddhist monks making sand mandalas comes to mind. It is commonly known as a practice of non-attachment, but first there has to be this deep attachment. And the mandala is not just an art piece. It is our being, the separate self. To create that, and then to forget that it is a creation, and to believe it, to fuse it with the sense of "I" that is beginning and ending: this is so beautiful.