Meeting, Jizo Altar

Dara, Kodo, and I met today to review what we learned from the first Solidarity Meditation and to apply that to the next. The first one was at the Cambodian temple; the next will be in mid-July for fully vaccinated people only, at the Soto Zen temple, assuming Covid stays under control and there are no new restrictions.

Dara, who is Khmer and has led this effort to build allies and connection, had never heard of Jizo, who Soto Zen practitioners regard as a bodhisattva (closest translation would be saint). To the Japanese and those who follow this path in Zen, Jizo represents care and love for children who have died before their parents. The abbott of this Zen temple (a pediatrician now retired who specialized in children who have survived trauma) has written a book about Jizo. Dara says almost every elder in the Cambodian community in Portland has suffered the loss of at least one child, and she and Kodo discussed a possible Jizo ceremony sometime in the future. I suggested that perhaps we might all consider a walking meditation for Black Lives. It was a rich and fruitful meeting.

We met in the library at the Zen temple, and this small altar to Jizo is there. The plaque next to it says, “Earth Womb. Mahogany, Walnut, Padauk, Quilted Maple, Holly, Ebony. The Sanskrit character at the enter of the sculpture is KA, the seed syllable of the bodhisattva Jizo. Jizo is highly venerated in Japan as a protector of the spirits of deceased children. Jizo is also regarded as the “Earth Womb” bodhisattva. Artist Mitch Lang.”