Bodhisattva. For the non-Buddhist, it is almost certainly a foreign term. Maybe you recall the name of an old Steely Dan album, at best. Put simply, bodhisattva is “a Sanskrit term for anyone or anything motivated by great compassion.” It is a combination of two separate Sanskrit concepts: Bodhi—meaning awakening or enlightenment Sattva—meaning existence, reality [...]
We all are a little broken. And that’s okay. Really, it is. In “The Art of Happiness” the Dalai Lama confided to his interviewer that he had a huge regret. He then shared a very sad story. The interviewer asked him if he ever got over it. The Dalai Lama was surprised. “Get over it? [...]
Ever get into a huff that things are not going your way? Are you hurt when you don’t feel understood, and then think that there is either a) something wrong with you or b) something wrong with the person who hurt or insulted you? We toss the term narcissistic around like a ball. We insult [...]
I received this note from one of our peeps, who collects my Jizos. “I gave one of your pendants to a friend. She wore it constantly while her mom was sick and dying from a brain tumour. She said that by wearing it, it did indeed help to keep her grounded and granted her some [...]
“Do not seek to follow in the footsteps of the men of old; seek what they sought.” ~ Basho I have used beautiful quotes of Basho’s for a long time. And while I loved his words, I did not know anything about the man, the poet. It is in grounding myself in my Jizo-experience that [...]
The other day in meditation, I was gazing at a painting I had made of Jizo. I began lazily to count the brush strokes and realized there were approximately 17 in each painting. The word “haiku” drifted through my mind. 17 syllables for haiku, 17 brush strokes for Jizo. […]
While it seems that barbecues, picnics and traffic are what Memorial Day has become, it is a opportunity for grieving. Jizo Bodhisattva is known for his compassion and wish for all suffering to end. […]
