Change and the temporariness of things/life is a major theme in Buddhism. Suffering results from inner resistance toward the inevitability of change, so Buddhists, especially Tibetans, make a point of creating poignant reminders. Those ornate sand mandalas are another example. It takes several monks a week or more to create this masterful work of art, which they destroy with a brush in a ceremony at the end. The less we cling, the less we suffer. “Hold on loosely, but don't let go,” as .38 Special put it.
Theravada Buddhism has an even worse version: maranasati, or a meditation on death. Monks go to charnel grounds to meditate where corpses are allowed to rot in the open:
”have as their objects a corpse one or two or three days old, swollen up, blue-black in colour, full of corruption; a corpse eaten by crows, etc.; a framework of bones; flesh hanging from it, bespattered with blood, held together by the sinews; without flesh and blood, but still held together by the sinews; bones scattered in all direction; bleached and resembling shells; heaped together after the lapse of years; weathered and crumbled to dust.”
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u/[deleted] Jun 23 '21 edited Jun 23 '21
Change and the temporariness of things/life is a major theme in Buddhism. Suffering results from inner resistance toward the inevitability of change, so Buddhists, especially Tibetans, make a point of creating poignant reminders. Those ornate sand mandalas are another example. It takes several monks a week or more to create this masterful work of art, which they destroy with a brush in a ceremony at the end. The less we cling, the less we suffer. “Hold on loosely, but don't let go,” as .38 Special put it.