(Each Saturday, a faith leader in Franklin County offers a personal perspective in this space. To become part of this series, email religion@recorder.com)
In a world torn apart by misunderstanding, violence, and destruction, Northfield Mount Hermon celebrated Compassion Week from April 22 to 26. The campus community hosted six Tibetan Buddhist monks from Drepung Loseling Monastery, who spent several days creating a beautiful mandala from individual grains of colored sand. This spiritual work of art was dedicated to Avalokiteshvara, the bodhisattva of infinite compassion and mercy.
This was an invaluable opportunity for us to learn about and appreciate one part of the world’s rich diversity that was new to many of us at NMH. Our experience with the monks throughout the week, and the chance to witness the painstaking creation of the sand mandala, helped us think more deeply about who we are — individually and as a community — and to better understand others with compassion. As the concern for the difficulties and sufferings of others, compassion offers a way for us, as a community representing diverse religious and secular traditions, to come together despite our differences.
The NMH department of spiritual life and the religious studies and philosophy department, under the direction of Pete Masteller, were able to invite the monks’ Mystical Arts of Tibet group to campus thanks to The Ed and Ginny Brooks Speaker Series and the CDQ Charitable Trust. In addition to the creation of the sand mandala, the week contained a variety of activities to highlight the theme of compassion, a core value of NMH as exemplified in its mission statement, “to engage the intellect, compassion, and talents of students, empowering them to act with humanity and purpose.”
This emphasis on compassion was also evident on Tuesday, a campus-wide “Day of Care.” Organized by Atta Kurzmann, faculty member and coordinator of service-learning projects, and Amanda Santos-Valenzuela, faculty member and wellness-education coordinator, the Day of Care was designed to help students consider ways to care for themselves and neighbors in the community. Students cooked for the Franklin County Community Meals Program and did yard work at the homes of area senior citizens. On campus, students discussed practices that empower self-care, including visiting the Buddhist monks and the sand mandala. The Day of Care concluded with a panel discussion about compassion, with guest speakers from several religious and spiritual traditions. The panel was moderated by NMH junior Erick Jara, a member of NMH’s Interfaith Council.
From Wednesday through Friday, students, faculty, and staff visited the sand mandala and considered the importance of ritual and contemplation within a particular religious tradition. Friday afternoon, the mandala was ceremonially destroyed, providing an additional opportunity for us to ponder the value and role of impermanence and non-attachment in our lives.
We were honored to witness the creation of beauty in the slow, deliberate building of a sand mandala, to be invited to see others through the lens of compassion, and to be given opportunities to care for those in need. This week allowed us to tend to big, spiritual questions of life, such as why other people really matter to us and how we might create a shared world where compassion is the power that demands equity and justice for all.
Northfield Mount Hermon School is located in Gill. It is a coed boarding school of approximately 650 students in grades 9 through 12. Twenty percent of the student body are day students. International students are 24 percent. NMH is a secular school that affirms religious diversity. An interdenominational service is offered in the school’s Memorial Chapel on Sunday mornings at 11 a.m.