During Zen week, practitioners create a mandala in a focused and silent way as part of their spiritual work.

While the mandala form has not traditionally been associated with Zen Buddhism, the circle is familiar in Zen art as a representation of emptiness. This mandala is made from simple everyday materials - 'the ten thousand things'. Unlike traditional mandalas, there is no set design and no predetermined outcome. Its creation and destruction, like our own lives, is an organic process.

The Sydney Zen Centre is affiliated with the Diamond Sangha, a world-wide network founded by Robert Aitken Roshi, a pioneering Western Zen teacher.

PROGRAMME

Wednesday 21 November
11.45am Discussion of the Zen Mandala process with Mandala artist Glenys Jackson
12.45pm Building a home for Zen Buddhism in Australia - talk by Tony Coote on the Kodoji, Ancient Ground Zendo

Thursday 22 November
11.45am Discussion of the Zen Mandala process with Mandala artist Glenys Jackson
12.45pm From China to Australia, with storyteller Caroline Josephs

Friday 23 November
11.45am Discussion of the Zen Mandala process with Mandala artist Glenys Jackson
12.45pm Haiku and contemporary poetry - readings by 3 Australian poets, performed by Nicola Bowry, Harry Laing and Diana Levy

Saturday 24 November
11.45am Discussion of the Zen Mandala process with Mandala artist Glenys Jackson
12.45pm 'Blowing Zen' - shakuhachi recital, performed by Jim Franklin

Sunday 25 November
11.45am Discussion of the Zen Mandala process with Mandala artist Glenys Jackson
12.45pm 'Blowing Zen' - shakuhachi recital, performed by Jim Franklin
3.00pm Ceremonial destruction of the mandala with chanting. Led by Subhana Barzaghi, teacher of the Sydney Zen Centre

About the Wisdom Room:
Wednesdays through Sundays
11.45am & 12.45pm plus other times as listed
Free with exhibition entry.
Buddhist monks, nuns and practitioners from a variety of countries and traditions provide a daily programme of meditation, chanting, ceremony and art workshops in the specially designed room within the exhibition Buddha: Radiant Awawkening.