Gemini Thinking
This illustration features Śākyamuni Buddha (center) being revered by the monk Pūrṇa (left). Śākyamuni's teaching flows forth as light and complex symbols that appear as "words" (representing the structure and limits of conventional language). These streams then transform into visual depictions of interconnectedness, showing sentient beings—both human and animal—supporting one another, realizing their shared happiness as Bodhisattvas. The artist's signature reads 双子座 (Gemini), and the red hanko seal contains the katakana ジェミニ (Jemini).
The merits of the Buddha are beyond the expression of our words. Only the Buddha, only the World-Honored One, knows the wishes we have deep in our minds.
In Chapter Eight of the Lotus Sutra, Pūrṇa has these words in mind while looking at the face of Śākyamuni Buddha. The thoughts we have are mostly words, and the words are about the things we want. Words can help us make sense of the world around us, especially the words the Buddha uses to teach us. But words can also confuse us when we mistake our expectations for the reality of the world. When the Buddha calls us to become Bodhisattvas, to realize that our happiness is linked to that of all beings, his words open a part of our mind with which we are not familiar. He asks us to set aside the habits we have learned from this world of conflict and see his world in a new way.
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