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CNG Boro Politics

A monk the best at what he does

By Shavana Abruzzo
Community Newspaper Group
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Photo by Paul Martinka
Lama Tenzin Yignyen kept a crowd of Berkeley Carroll School students rapt with his sand masterpiece.

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Budding Buddhas from the Berkeley Carroll School took a spiritual journey to the Himalayas without leaving Park Slope, thanks to a Tibetan monk who led a week-long seminar on compassion — capped by the construction of an exquisite sand Mandala — at the Child Development Support Corporation.

The Venerable Lama Tenzin Yignyen held his tender audience spellbound as he painstakingly assembled, grain by grain, the once-secret concentric diagram with spiritual and ritual significance in Buddhism and Hinduism.

Rapt youngsters and their parents watched as the exotic figure in flowing orange and maroon robes interspersed his work with a talk on the message of the Mandala.

Creators credit the colorful graph with all the important elements to achieve lasting personal happiness, and its construction is considered a blessing for the area in which it was created.

Until 1989, the Mandala’s assembly was classified information in keeping with Tantric teachings, and was delegated to only advanced practitioners by a highly qualified Lama. Prior to that, it was executed by monks and nuns in monasteries and nunneries for ritualism and initiation ceremonies.

Cobble Hill Fitness Collective

©2010 Community Newspaper Group

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