At Saturday’s symposium, there were several interesting speakers with various topics, but my favorite was Zeff Bjerken and his lecture on “The Mandala and the creation of New Buddhist Sacred Space in Tibet.”  This was especially pertinent since we had Buddhist monks creating one especially for us in the New Library which allowed us to view a Mandala first hand.  Bjerken’s lecture really shed light on what was happening in our library and why.  It was informative to hear about the components of the Mandala such as the shape of concentric circles and its relation to the chortens in Tibet with specific components in mind such as the individual, the building, the country and the cosmos.   Also important to the design of the Mandala is the five deities or the Buddha family, which are arranged with a Buddha in the center and one at each of the cardinal points.  Bjerken also described the impact of creation upon the Mandala in Buddhism.  He pointed out how everything sacred is created by humans for that purpose such as the Mandala is created to bless a place or a temple or monastery is created by people to be sacred, these places don’t just appear.  I found that to be a very interesting idea in the context of this course as we frequently grapple with the idea of what is sacred and how is something designated as sacred.  This presentation was very interesting since it shed light on the building of the Mandala on campus.  It was also very thought provoking and made me think about sacred space and how it is created.