Buddhist Monks Leaving Lynn
By ESTEFANIA PEREZ
Staff Writer
This week, Lynn had the honor of hosting a group of six Buddhist monks on campus who came all the way from India to share their culture and tradition.
Originally from Tibet, the monks exiled and moved their monastery all the way to India. Since then, they have traveled around the world to share their religion with other cultures.
Throughout the week, they worked on their sacred painting, which is a mandala made out of grains of sand. The mandala, the Akshobhya, represents peace and conflict resolution.
“The mandala represents the universe and the heart of the mandala is the temple of Buddha, where he habits,” said Geshe Loden, monk. “It is a sign of compassion and love.”
The mandala is a blessing that the monks wanted to give to Lynn as a sign of gratitude for inviting them and having them on campus to spread the word of their religion.
The monks lived on campus for the entire week and participated in different activities around campus, including a bonfire with students and playing basketball. Terence McCorry, the Director of Spiritual and Religious Life at Lynn sponsored their visit.
At the end of the week, there was a closing ceremony with music and a procession from the library to the lake, where the mandala was destroyed. Some lucky students even received a glass vile with some of the sand from the actual mandala. The rest of the sand was thrown into the lake. “The mandala sand painting is a symbol that nothing in our lives is permanent, not our relationships, not our work… it all goes away at some point,” said McCorry.
The group of monks thoroughly enjoyed their time at Lynn and were very grateful to have visited.
“We’ve been to different colleges before, but what we liked about Lynn is that the students are very nice and people are open minded,” said Geshe Loden, monk.
