A Sacred Jewel Chard

InuYasha is a wonderful Japanese animated series from the late 90’s.  It is one of my favorites of the genre.  I always enjoy stories with a band of interesting characters on a quest.  Add some history and maybe a little romance (or sexual tension) and I’m hooked.  Sprinkle in some positive messages and I am a lifelong fan.  I don’t believe it’s unusual, in Eastern cultures, to infuse even animated TV shows with a message or two.  But being a Western girl, I do not hold such high expectations.

As the story of InuYasha goes, in Feudal Japan, there’s a fight over a sacred jewel.  In the battle, the jewel is shattered and chards strewn all over the country.  It is our hero’s mission to find and repair the sacred jewel.

InuYasha is a sort of boy/dog, half demon, half human.  Kagome, his main partner and sometimes love interest, is a school girl from the present day who fell down the well in her grandfather’s shrine and ended up in the middle of all this.  She seems to be the future incarnation of the girl that InuYasha once loved and then battled for the jewel.  Kagome must return now and then for exams or celebrations with her family. Along the way they gather others to help them.  A beautiful woman who is a very capable demon slayer, with an adorable cat who can grow large enough to carry several people on her back and fly them wherever they need to go.  Then there’s the lecherous monk who is always asking women to have his baby.  He often fights with blessings and has a hole in his hand which can suck in everything in his path as if it were the eye of a hurricane.  There’s also a very young demon who can change himself into all kinds of shapes.

But the heart of it is the jewel chards.  Even a sliver can give the person amazing powers.  A forest demon they meet along the way (who fancies Kagome) has a small piece in his leg and it allows him to run super fast.

What I draw from this is that in everything is a chard of the sacred jewel that is special and magical.  Going through life with this idea we can see through even negative experiences to the jewel chard within.  What is the lesson?  What is glittering in the center?

True with people, too.  What if everyone had a shard of the jewel in them?  Can you find that good within them? Discover the jewel chard in everything that happens and you will soon be giving thanks for it all!

Powerful Gifts

Just a thought ~ What if you could see every event, every encounter as an opportunity to give or receive a powerful gift? 

Instead of the usual stress around questions like:  Will I be accepted?  How do I get what I want?  What’s going to happen?  Wouldn’t it be better to see it as a chance to receive some knowledge, learn more about whoever you come in contact with?   You might practice seeing the other as a human being, just like you, trying to do his or her best.

You might also stay open for ways you can give.  How can I serve this person?  What can I do to ease suffering, spread love, practice more understanding?  What is it this person really needs?

There is a Japanese anime series called “InuYasha”.  In it a sacred jewel is shattered into pieces.  Each person who gets a shard of this jewel is imbued with special powers. What if you greeted every person as if they had a shard of that sacred jewel to give you? 

There are so many ways to give and receive when you are in contact with others.  What amazingly powerful gifts can be exchanged!