2018 - 2016

Each year, from 2008 and 2016, Bondi Pavilion hosted two-week meditation retreats run by Tibetan Gyuto Buddhist monks. Compassion, understanding, humbleness and awareness were the focus of as the monks shared their ancient practices.

Like many Tibetans fleeing Chinese persecution, the monks have lived in exile in northern India since 1959, establishing their monastery in Dharamshala, where His Holiness the Dalai Lama has lived for more than 50 years.

The monks tour Australia regularly. Part of their calling is to keep ancient traditions and rituals alive: their welcome sign at the Pavilion said: ‘No need to book in advance for most events just drop in to participate.’

During their time at Bondi, the monks hosted workshops for adults and children from 9:30am to 6pm daily, welcoming crowds to join their chanting and meditation sessions, join public talks and watch their creation of intricate and colourful sand mandalas. Long tubes like chopsticks filled with sand were used to apply the grains in delicate piles around a mandala design outlined on a board. Once completed, and coinciding with the end of the meditation program, the mandalas would be swept up in a special ceremony, then poured into the ocean.

The art of Tibetan mandalas lies not only in their beautiful imagery but, most importantly, in the meditation their construction implies: the awareness of being in the moment. The destruction of the mandala is a reminder of non-attachment and acceptance of the impermanence of everything in life. The creation process is accompanied by low throat chants – like the sounds of a didgeridoo – that are 600-year-old tantric prayers meditating on the sound they believe embodies emptiness.

During the Bondi retreat, the monks also ran handcraft and meditation workshops for children. The monks described the Bondi Pavilion as their spiritual home in Sydney. They rejoiced in the ocean’s proximity and surfing’s longstanding association with spirituality, catching waves as another form of meditation.

Images courtesy Tobi Wilkinson.