Does repetition sharpen or dull our attention? Circumambulation, called kora (བསྐོར་བ།) in Tibetan and practiced by Buddhists across wider regions of East and Central Asia, is an old practice of circling a stupa or sacred object. Outside observers may ask: if the goal of Buddhism is to escape the karmic cycle (known as samsara), why would believers choose to reenact this cyclical repetition? 

To ponder this without taking to circumambulation yourself, walk with the reptiles in the hypnotic engravings of M.C. Escher. You might find discrete objects in your surroundings disappearing from the scope of your attention through repeated exposure. But this same repetition can also allow for something entirely new to emerge — like a phrase that grows strange because you’ve said it too many times, or the wooden grain on your elementary school desk that gradually reveals the likeness of trees and creatures. In these moments, the unexpected erupts from our usual framework of perception, transfigured like Escher's reptiles from ink to flesh and blood. The familiar discloses the new; the ordinary becomes a  portal to the extraordinary. Perhaps therein is an explanation for the puzzle of kora: that a purposeful, endless circling permits one's attention to be still, and to rise above the dizzying loops of daily life.