We’re feeling #blessed after visit from Buddhist monk

Columbus College of Art & Design students gathered all sorts of art-making tools, from paintbrushes to power drills, on Thursday, Jan. 31, for a Blessing of Art supplies by Buddhist monk Geshe la Kalsang Damdul.

Geshe la recently retired from serving as director for the Institute of Buddhist Dialectics in Dharamsala, India, where he worked under the direct administration of the 14th Dalai Lama, reported The Columbus Dispatch. He is on a six-week tour of the United States, and his stop in Columbus was hosted by Animation Chair and Associate Professor Charlotte Belland (Advertising & Graphic Design, 1997).

Geshe la "chanted, flung ceremonial flowers and rung a bell to bless the items and people gathered in the room," at the blessing, reported the Dispatch.

Belland told the Dispatch that having Geshe la bless art supplies is “an opportunity to create a positive start and to create a sense of, ’Let’s make something beautiful in this world.‴

“While some blessings are related to the communities they belong to, the Buddhist one (blessing) is open to all, and I thought that was a really good message,” she said.

Read more (and watch video coverage) from the Dispatch on the Blessing of the Art Supplies.