Monks Share Religious Rituals With Students

Deep bass tones and overtone chanting reverberated in Raffini Commons in late November as several visiting Tibetan monks living in exile in the south of India asked the White Tara deity, a female form of the Buddha, permission to begin work on an intricate sand mandala in her honor. SPS students exchanged glances as the monks began their harmonic prayer. As the ceremony progressed, some familiar with meditation began to close their eyes as the sounds filled the space. One of those students was Daniel Cho, a Fifth Former from South Korea and head of the Meditation Society. Taking full advantage of the monks’ presence, Cho sat in deep conversation one afternoon with Ven. Tenzin Khyenrap in the Friedman Community Center.

“I wanted to understand his belief,” says Cho. “In my religion, I can never be God, but I strive to be like God. In the Buddhist religion, when you become transcendental, when you transcend your human nature, then you become God.” Following their conversation, Cho gave polyphonic chanting a try. Both the visiting monks and Cho were left smiling at his attempt. Cho explains that the ritual allows participants to make a deep sound to create a presence for meditation. Members of the School community filtered through Raffini Commons throughout the week to glimpse progress made on the mandala. This intricate and colorful symbol in Buddhism represents life’s continuous motion. Following hours of work, the monks ceremonially emptied the completed work into the stream behind the Friedman Community Center. In addition to building the White Tara mandala, the group visited Brahma to Buddha classes, an elective that fulfills the School’s religion requirement.  

“What is so valuable for our students is the opportunity to see the philosophy and practices we have been reading about in action,” says Dr. Libby Barlow, who hosted the monks in her section of the class. “A textbook often conveys an unequivocal message about the characteristics of a given religion. Experiencing practitioners in action makes it three-dimensional. Students hear explanations from the monks that aren’t in the textbook, they have the opportunity to ask questions, and they observe things they hadn’t thought about, so they get a much more robust picture of what it means to be a Buddhist.” The monks’ time at the School is part of the Dickey Speakers Series that brings artists and authors to the School to share their work and process with the community. The monks led a Dharma talk on Buddhist philosophy, and held workshops on the use of mala beads, mani stones, and the use of sand painting in the practice of the religion.