To all experience, Gassho. To all experience, I bow.

Gassho. To all experience, I Bow.

This one probably requires a bit of explanation for many people:

The drawing (an actual drawing in this case, not digital) was part of an article which I wrote many years ago for the newsletter of the Zen Buddhist group with which I meditated.

A gassho, here, is the kind of palms-together-in-front-of-the-face little bow, with which many non-meditators also are familiar.

It is an acknowledging, greeting, accepting bow, similar to Namaste, a non-contact form of respectfully greeting and honoring the person you meet- a much better form of greeting than a handshake in my humble opinion, especially in these days of Covid ! I wish the whole world would adopt it.

In this drawing, the meditating person on their cushion, enfolded in the gassho-ing hands, is in black, because that is what is worn in zen meditation (when in a group). He or she is faceless because when we sit, we are, in one sense, self-less. However, in the heart region, the region of compassion,   there is a face which could be either a Buddha face or a person (or both!)  this figure is also tenderly cradling a face with tears.   We hold all these factors, these “faces”, in our hearts.  

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