09/30/2026
Jizō
I painted this study after a work that hangs at Dai Bosatsu Zendo Kongō-ji, the monastery in the Catskills where I studied many years ago. In China and Japan, students learn by copying the masters with their own brush, stroke by stroke, until attention itself becomes the teacher. This is my copy, made in that spirit.
Jizō Bosatsu (地蔵菩薩), Kṣitigarbha in Sanskrit, "Earth Treasury," walks as a humble monk. He carries a pilgrim's staff whose rings warn small creatures from his path, and a wish-fulfilling jewel held for all who suffer. In Japan, he stands at roadsides, crossroads, and cemeteries, guardian of travelers, mothers, and children, and keeper of the children who died too soon. Folklore says he hides them in his robes.
His vow: as long as the hells are not empty, he will not become a Buddha.
Today the hells are visible everywhere. A child's terror crosses our screen and vanishes in a scroll. War and exile become familiar pictures, while grief and loneliness sit quietly in the next room.
Jizō walks toward the suffering. He asks us to let it make a claim on our lives: to shelter the uprooted, protect the small, and stay beside the one whose sorrow we cannot fix.
His question is the measure of practice: if I do not go, who will?
Sumi ink study by Vazken Kalayjian
