Bodhi Mandala is coming to life!

I believe in the adage that quality counts more than quantity. That is why Buddha started off with 5 disciples. That is why in the "sinsapa leaves" analogy, He said that despite the vast number of leaves on the ground, what matters are those held folded in His palms - "teachings that liberates one from dukkha".

Day 26 and still only 112 grains adopted. But already people are moving within the mandala, giving help to one another.

Case #1

After reading about Dhamma Moli, a Korean monk from Seoul, South Korea got some of his supporters to donate 3 industrial sewing machines for the nuns there. Why did he do this? In his own words, he said....

"while going through damma moli project,
which is to me a tearful reminder of
the post-war korean tragedy around 1950
which i have personally witnessed
as a small kid as those girls shown therein,
i think i ought to do something
to share their agony and relieve hardship ...

by assisting them to stand on their feet"

We are now awaiting the green light from Dhamma Moli before sending the sewing machines to Nepal.

Case 2

How Chee Aun is a college student who is getting by without a scholarship. He depends on his parents for his financial needs. Every month, he is given RM 500 (US$ 142) for subsistence. A few days ago, he bought 4 grains and spent US$80, or 56% of his total monthly allowance for February. He spent his money to promote not his own website, but that of another. Why did he do this? In his email to Bodhi Mandala, he said:

"What is a few days with smaller amount of food intake (I can get by with bread, plain water and Maggi mee * ? What is a little hunger and discomfort compared to the African ladies exposed to inhumane customs (Campaign against female genital mutilation)? Or helping others to keep little girls away from the clutches of pimps and slave traders? I hope my little contribution will make a difference."

* Editor's note: a local brand of instant noodle

I would like to thank both the Korean Venerable and How Chee Aun for their immense selflessness. It moves me writing this blog, because the grains adopted by these people have sincere meaning behind them. Who says a virtual abode cannot be pure? It depends who populates it.

And so even with 112 grains, Bodhi Mandala is already leaving behind some moving stories. The leaves in Buddha's hand is certainly more than enough to heal the world!

BodhiMandala actually has a meaning!

It is day 26 since Bodhi Mandala was launched and still only 112 grains have been adopted. There are 8,352 more to go. Any more new takers out there?

It didn't occur to me that there's actually a meaning to "Bodhimandala". Here's what you can find in Wikipedia (what can you not find there):

"The term bodhimandala or "bodhimanda" (Sanskrit for "buddha position" or "buddhahood"), in its original meaning, is the achievement of enlightenment, or the meditative posture adopted by a Buddhist to that end.

By metonymy, the term bodhimandala is also (perhaps more frequently) used to describe a place, often a city, monastery, or temple, where a particular bodhisattva is believed to have achieved buddhahood, taught Dharma, or performed some other significant function. Ningbo, for example, is regarded by many Pure Land Buddhists as the bodhimandala of Avalokiteshvara.

The term "bodhimandala" is used in a looser sense to describe a Buddhist temple of any variety, whether or not it hosted a bodhisattva. In this respect, the term is similar to the Catholic style "Our Lady of...", which properly prefixes a site visited by the Virgin Mary (as in Our Lady of Lourdes, but has gradually become a generic church appellation.

Bodhimandalas are regularly visited by Buddhist pilgrims, and some, like Ningbo, have gone on to become popular secular tourist destinations as well. In many forms of Buddhism, it is believed that bodhimandalas are spiritually pure places, or otherwise conducive to meditation and enlightenment.

It should be noted that different Buddhist sects often disagree on the location and significance of different bodhimandalas. As one would expect, the southern Theravada tradition tends to emphasize the bodhimandalas of the Indian subcontinent, while the northern Mahayana schools (such as Zen and Ch'an) tend to venerate sites in China, Japan, and Tibet."

So now that we have created a virtual "Bodhimandala", how can it live up to the definition above? Can it be simulated the first place? Whether real or virtual, it is still a "space". What we fill it up with and how we do it will decide whether the space becomes a pure abode or just a dumping ground for junk.

Whatever it is, such a space has to be populated. In our Bodhimandala project, we try to do this by getting people to adopt some grains and tagging it with a message that contains a "positive aspiration". It is through these words of aspirations that we hope to create a vibrant mandala which emanates positive emotions with every "mouse over", bringing up messages of love, peace and hope. A living, breathing mandala of spirituality in the most beautiful sense is what we intend to achieve.

But I wonder, after 26 days, how many more people would be willing to be a part of this "noble abode" building process?

Welcome to Bodhi Mandala

Hello,

This is the maiden message on the Bodhi Mandala blog. If you have stumbled upon this page, I thank you very much.

If you have seen the Bodhi Mandala homepage, it is basically a community participation website where you are invited to adopt "mandala grains" to support the Buddhist Channel as well as 11 other Buddhist charity groups.

By the time you read this, only 112 grains have been adopted (out of 8,400).

It has been 3 weeks since Bodhi Mandala was launched (January 18, 2007 to be exact). So it does look like response to the project has not really been on fire. People who have written in to support it all says that its "neat" and "cool". And so what could be keeping people from buying the grains?

We will know in due course I guess. But whatever it is, we strongly, strongly feel that this is really a worthwhile project deserving of your support. Even if adopting the grains are not your cup of tea, please do read up about the 11 groups that we will making donations to. Better still, please forward the Bodhi Mandala website (www.bodhimandala.net) to as many people as you can.

This is something you can do - quite easily. We are grateful for whatever support that you can give. Thank you and please do keep coming back to read the latest development of the project via this blog.