There is another form of art I would like to mention, where execution, fruition and form completely overlap, as they do in the dharani. It is the daily conduct of rites in all Buddhist traditions. As is known, they are not public ceremonies. Indeed, they are not exhibitions in the normal sense of this word. However, these ceremonies are a form of performing art in which sound, action and form are tightly interwoven. They are choreographies in which every gesture and every sound is carefully studied, measured, and performed with perfect timing by a group of meticulously trained persons. Within the wide parameters of the unchangeable rules of each rituals, there is interpretation, and this brings the ritual back to life.

If one must classify these performances, one would say that they belong in the theater. It is total theater. Moment by moment, every gesture, every sound (bell, voice, drum, kettledrum, cymbal) merge with style, rhythm and the smell of incense, to form a living, and therefore, moving, mandala, that transforms itself, lives and changes under our own eyes, ears and noses. If and when these moments of artistic religiosity become show and exhibition, they die. The purpose for which they are re-enacted dies with them.