Friday, July 30, 2010

Wheel of Time II















The Kalachakra sand mandala is an elaborate representation of the Circle or Wheel of Time, and after many hours of meticulous work in its creation and being put on display for pilgrims to walk by and see (a great scene, the variety of responses range from awe to bewilderment), it is ritually destroyed and thrown into a river: at least that's how it was filmed in Werner Herzog's Wheel of Time. The sands of time. Sort of like the ones I see dropping, grain by grain, from a gym sauna's hourglass.  



Brief clip from Herzog's interview with Jetsun Jamphel Ngawang Lobsang Yeshe Tenzin Gyatso, the 14th Dalai Lama.

Is Mount Kailash the center of the universe? "That, I don't know," the Dalai Lama quips. More or less, he also says: [In] each country they believe they are the center of the whole universe. We ourselves, I think, one individual, that is the center of the universe. So for me, this place is the center of the universe because the conception of the universe comes from here (points to himself) so therefore I am the center of the universe and in your case, you are the center of the whole universe.

Herzog: That makes me feel very good. I shouldn't tell my wife.

Herzog asks what the Dalai Lama's dream is for the world. More prosperity, less gap between rich and poor, clean pure environment, that people would live more as brothers and sisters.

Sounds basic, but somehow when the Dalai Lama says it, I believe it.

Today's Rune:  Protection.   

4 comments:

Charles Gramlich said...

These days at least we can take pics or videos of these things and maintain them that way.

Lana Gramlich said...

If only everyone felt that way...How easy it COULD be.

the walking man said...

To dream is to dream to live a dream is much harder.

jodi said...

Erik, the Dalai is so very sweet and wise. Such a pure thinker!