The Daruma

This is the Daruma that my parents gave to me for the business. I didn’t really know what the meaning/story was behind it so my Dad explained it to me. Here’s the details…

“The gift we gave you for celebration of the new phase of your business is a traditional Japanese figurine of the great Buddhist monk called Daruma. He is the founder of Zen Buddhism. He was born in southern India. His Buddhist name is Bodhidharma. He came to China in the sixth century to spread Buddhism, and settled in the temple Shaolin (the very famous same named martial arts originate from this temple).

“According to legend, he sat facing the wall and meditated for nine consecutive years and developed the Zen. Subsequently his legs were permanently fixed in “za-Zen” posture. The Japanese admire Zen Buddhism and Bodhidharma’s determinations by creating Daruma figurine. It is used to symbolize someone’s determination and accomplishment. When one is facing a challenging task, the person or close friends/relatives may give him/her a Daruma with eyes without iris/pupil — to remind him difficult path to Zen Bodhidharma had. And when the person accomplished his goals, all come to celebrate and watching the person painting the big “eyes” on the Daruma figurine. I would suggest if your company’s struggle does not limited to you, you may want to have everyone participate in the process of painting Daruma’s eyes.”

Here’s more on Darumas.