Joyful Brew

She holds a frail jar in her hand
Into which she has poured nothing
No life’s joy or giddying brew. . .
Only a billion worlds!

Shinkichi Takahashi's world is exposed in his work, Statue of Kudara-Avalokitesvara. His world is filled with images of Kwan Yin, Zenko, and Hosho. Those figures are important in Eastern culture, but they are relatively unknown in the Western world. The title of his work comes from Kudara, which was an ancient Japanese clan founded in the 7th century. Avalokitesvara is a statue of compassion, and is often associated with Kwan Yin, who is the Buddhist model of compassion. Takahashi’s work flows in a stream of compassion that surprises, as well as stimulates actions. These actions spring from crevices in our inner consciousness. These crevices are filled with the ancient wisdom, and it hangs in our body consciousness like a sleeping bat.

Compassion of any kind is stimulated by our inner consciousness. It’s always right below the surface of our perceptions, and it patiently waits for us to become aware of it. It needs nothing, but an impulse from us. Once activated, it becomes a flame of unity that joins diversity with strands of awareness. All physical differences melt away, and a billion worlds become one when we express the compassion that is an innate feature of the self.

Compassion is more than an emotion; it is the energy of consciousness flowing through an aspect of our awareness, and notifying us of our own unity. When compassion is present separation disappears, and all life has value and substance.

To hold a frail jar of compassion, and never pour it is not possible in this physical reality. All creation and creators are compassionate expressions of the joyful brew that flows through our subjective consciousness. We live in a billion worlds, but focus on one in order to remember that compassion is a jar of nothing, but our own createful desire to be whole within our objective consciousness.