Vesak 2018 @ Waterloo Street: Amitabha Buddha Sand Mandala Ritual, 19 to 30 May 2018

Maha Tare Buddhist Centre will be celebrating Vesak Day at Waterloo Street. This year, revered Tantric monks from the Gyudmed Tantric Monastery will be constructing the Amitabha Buddha sand mandala beginning 19 May 2018 to 27 May 2017. The completed mandala will be displayed for 2 days (28 May and 29 May) for Vesak prayers before being deconstructed on 30 May 2017. 

Event details

Dates:

  • Mandala Creation – 19 May to 27 May 2018 (9 Days)
  • Vesak Day Prayers & Offerings – 28 May & 29 May 2018 (2 Days)
  • Mandala Dissolution – 30 May 2017 (Morning)

Time: 8am to 6pm daily

Venue: Open area in front of Sri Krishnan Temple at Waterloo Street

Event sponsorship and volunteers

If you wish to support us by being a sponsor or be a volunteer for this event, contact us at:

  • Kelvin @ 9681 1326 (Dzambhala @ My Place #02-07 Fortune Centre, Singapore 188979)
  • Katherine @ 9766 9088 (Maha Tare Buddhist Centre @ 512A Sims Avenue, Singapore 387572)

Sand Mandala

Mandala, literally meaning “circular realm”, is a two-dimensional model that seeks to represent the pure land or celestial abode of any one or more deities. In higher Tantra, mandala serves as an important tool for guiding practitioner through multi-level stages of offering rituals, initiations, and meditations, where colors and shapes of Tantric motifs and images bear power Tantric signification. When decoded, the diagram provides a very complex yet systematic process that guides a devout aspirant in step-by-step phases towards transforming compassion of a more contrived nature into its highest and purest form.

Tantric monks from Gyudmed Tantric University completing the construction of the Amitabha Buddha Sand Mandala 2018

A mandala is a representational blueprint of the celestial abode of an enlightened Buddha. In higher Tantric practices, it serves as a power meditative tool for cultivation of compassion, whereby one genuinely aspires to achieve enlightenment to save all sentient beings from their pain, suffering and dissatisfactions. Monks trained in Tantra will painstakingly create a sand mandala for purpose of invocation, visualisation and offering ritual in the beginning. At the end of the ritual ceremony, the mandala is dismantled through proper rites and rituals signifying impermanence in life.

Amitabha Buddha, Mandala, and Mantra

There are many ancient mandalas and images of enlightened Buddhas, but among all of the images of the Buddhas, that of Amitabha Buddha is the most important for transcending your consciousness into The Pure Land (Sukhavati in Sanskrit). The mandala of Amitabha represents the home of Amitabha Buddha and has the power to guide people to the Pure Land. Amitabha means Infinite Light, and he is one of the five Dhyani Buddhas. The Dhyani Buddhas also include Akshobhya, Ratnasambhava, Amoghasiddi, and Vairochana. The five Dhyani Buddhas are the antidote to the five negative emotions: attachment, anger, negative pride, ignorance, and jealousy. Within the Amitabha Mandala, the five Dhyani Buddhas are also a reflection of Amitabha himself and in each direction of the mandala these facets of the Amitaba Dhyani Buddhas can be found. In the center of the mandala is Amitabha, who is red in color, represents the fire element and cures attachment. Amitabha Akshobhya is found in the east, is blue in color, represents the space element and cures anger. Amitabha Ratnasambhava is found in the south, is yellow in color, represents the earth element, and cures negative pride. Amitabha Vairochana is in the west, is white in color, represents the water element, and cures ignorance. Amitabha Amoghasiddhi is to the north, is green in color, represents the air element, and cures jealousy. Creating or viewing the Amitaba mandala and reciting the mantra is said to offer great benefits in this lifetime, as well as future lives.

Amitabha’s Mantra is Om Ami Deva Hri, which is a request to Amitabha to bring an end to rebirth in Samsara (cyclic existence) and transcend into the Pure Land.

There are many levels of meaning, but this mantra is most commonly understood as:
Om = Enlightened Body, Speech, and Mind
Ami = Amitabha Buddha
Deva = the Deva Realms, six Desire Realms, and Brahma Realms
Hri = the seed syllable of compassion

Amitabha was believed to be a real person and a king, who existed many aeons ago. He renounced his throne and became a monk at which time, he received the name Dharmakara (Treasury of Dharma) and studied the teachings of the Buddha of that time, Lokesvaraja Buddha. Dharmakara made forty-eight great vows for saving sentient beings, of which the Eighteenth Vow is the basis of the Pure Land for which he is best known. In the Eighteenth Vow he states, “If upon the attainment of Buddhahood all sentient beings in the ten quarters who aspire in sincerity and faith to be reborn in my land, recite my name up to ten times and fail to be born there, then may I not attain the Perfect Enlightenment.” After five aeons of self-cultivation, Dharmakara attained Enlightenment and became the Buddha Amitabha, and the paradise known as Pure Land or Sukhavati came into existence.

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