Journey through the wonders of Laos
Laberintos Mentales
Many years ago, I decided to embark on a journey in search of inspiration and mental liberation. My journey took me to a Buddhist monastery in Luang Prabang, Laos, where I started painting a temple.
Before long, the local child monks came over to me, curious about what I was doing. Even though we couldn’t communicate verbally because of the language barrier, they showed me their notebooks full of beautiful, colourful mandalas and introduced me to one in particular called the ‘labyrinth mandala’. Then an adult monk who spoke English came over to explain that my paintings were also considered mandalas laberintos, which are thought to represent ‘confusion, self-reflection and finding one’s centre’.
I was invited to stay at the temple for a couple of weeks in exchange for teaching the little monks some artistic techniques. I got to see a beautiful morning routine: every day at 4 a.m., the monks would get ready and go out into the streets, where people would give them offerings. This food would then be distributed to the most needy people in the community.
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