We Are All Travelers

Jizo Bodhisattva, guardian of children, mothers and travelers, is my favorite Bodhisattva. I love his stubby, childish body, the oversized round head and the fact that he carries a staff with rings that jangle when he walks, so that even tiny insects in his path will know that he is coming and move from his foot falls. Those jangley rings keep them from harm's way.

This Jizo is photographed in the backyard of the House of Meditation, where we offer our worries and concerns to the fire of Segaki every Autumn, so that we may understand the limits of our Ego Self. Jizo presides over all, benevolent, harmonious, non judgemental, no matter what difficulty we feed the flames. The point is to empty ourselves, realizing that we are infinitely supported by Jizo Bodhisattva, by the True Self, by our Buddha Nature.

Here we find calm abiding, and the understanding that everything we need is within us, at our fingertips, in a smile, a word of encouragement, in the Middle Path.

Jizo forever walks the Middle Path, he knows no other path.