The Story of the Mandala

A work from November 2025. Around then there were many moments that made me think about life: meeting a friend on the day her grandchild was born, my daughter’s birthday a few days before, friends’ posts on Instagram… and trying a coffin-lying experience at an event…

I realised that every day we are in fact faced with what life is. Every meal we eat — not only meat but rice and vegetables too — means receiving a life…

We are within a chain of lives, passing it on to the next…

Life came down to me only because my parents, grandparents and ancestors truly lived and passed it on…

Thinking so, I feel anew that simply waking each morning and seeing the morning sun, as if it were nothing, is in fact a miracle — and how grateful I am…

It is true that I have inherited negative karma from my parents too. But whether I blame them when things go wrong and never move, or move because I want to change who I have been — that is up to me.

My own powerlessness and my own wonder; the trembling of the heart on touching what lies beyond human understanding; things I thought I knew, and am made to notice again…

Through such things, gratitude wells up…

Perhaps gratitude comes when we let go of control and return to a clean, empty heart…