The Art of Patience

Patience is a virtue but how does one learn to be patient? The 8th grade Yoga/Movement class may have found one way through the ancient practice of creating mandalas. Many cultures have created mandalas including visionaries in India who painted mandalas in the form of concentric circles to convey their understanding that creation and destruction are always occurring in the cosmos. In Tibet, the practice of creating mandalas of colored sand is symbolic of an ideal universe. To create this art form, the mandala is carefully planned out and then is traced or drawn onto a surface that is traditionally painted blue. Carefully, after the color scheme is chosen, small amounts of colored sand are applied with small conical implements with different apertures.

The students in the 8th grade Yoga/ Movement class followed these steps and even fashioned their own conical implements from paper. Making the sand mandalas seemed to be a bit beyond the scope of what one student, Amelia, thought would be possible. " I never thought we could create this beautiful object. I thought it would be too hard to make it come out right." Another student, Caitlin, who painstakingly helped to complete one of the two mandalas made in class, exclaimed that "...this project should be done every year. This is a great way to learn about patience!" Making the lines of the mandala neat, being careful and focused, and working closely with a partner builds patience. And making mandalas is a fun way to feel patience at work.