August 2010 Newsletter

Greetings,
The new designs in this newsletter deals with the following question – Is our destiny determined upfront as a result of our action in our previous lives? In Buddhism, this is called Karma – the law of cause and effect -actions bring results and the state you are born in this life is directly affected by your actions in previous lives. The stories that led me to the new creations this month might answer this question.

One of my most vivid memories is from my kinder-garden – one of the children bragged in the way kids do about his father telling us how strong. The first thing I thought about (as a small kid…) was that his father, like all adults, will eventually grow old and pass from the world .I knew that this is one of the natural laws of this existence.

Years later I found out that the same understanding drove prince Siddhartha to go out and search for a way out of misery. The first sight that made him go on a quest and to find an answer to suffering was the image of an old man when he was 29...

15% Discount on New Designs

The new Dharma pendant and awakening pendant are 15% off until the end of August.
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New Designs

The Awakening Pendant
The awakening pendant design incorporates the Sacred Fig leaf which is known as The Buddhi Tree. Inside the leaf pattern appears the symbol of a deer-one of the first symbols of Busshism. The Symbol of the deer refers to the Deer Park in Sarnath, near Vārānasī (Benares) in northern India –the place where Buddha delivered his first sermonand set in motion the Wheel Of Dharma.


Awakening Pendant Gold		Awakening Pendant Silver

The Dharma Pendant
The symbol inside the leaf of the pendant is the 'Dharma wheel', also known as 'The Noble Eightfold Path'. The ancient path Siddhartha found as the way leading to the cessation of suffering (dukkha) and the achievement of self awakening.


Dharma Pendant Gold		Dharma Pendant Silver

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The stories behind the pendants

The Awakening Pendant
In the photo you can see the first piece of jewelry I ever made. It has the image of a deer - at the time I was not aware that it is a Buddhist symbol. I created it years ago. What really took me by surprise was the fact that all the images and visions I had prior to and after making this piece were Buddhist symbols.

Five or six years earlier I had met a woman who claimed she could clean Karmic patterns. Though I was skeptical I decided to give it a try out of curiosity. She gave me a sheet of paper on which were written different questions. One of the questions was "Do you want to fulfill your destiny in this lifetime?" It looked ridiculous but I wrote "yes". During my session with her I had a strange vision of "three jewels" only to find years later that these are the "Three Jewels" of Buddhism which are The Buddha – the awakened one; The Dharma -the teachings of The Buddha; The Sangha - the community of those who have attained enlightenment and help a practicing Buddhist to do the same. The Sangha is also used more broadly to refer to the community of practicing Buddhists.

The Dharma pendant
About a month ago I had a dream, a very symbolic dream. During the week before the dream I spent time wondering whether our consciousness ceases to exist when we die or we simply assimilate our own identity with the "Over soul" –a cosmic state of unity .I also had a conversation with someone about the way we accept our own "self", actually the way our consciousness works.

Then in this dream, I attended my own funeral, unseen. Someone from the crowd spoke and declared that I will be born again within 13 billion years.

Then I woke up.

It took me two more weeks to remember that the age of the universe, the world of phenomenon, is 13 billion years. Then I felt I got my answer - within this existence, in the cycle of constant birth and rebirth, we keep our "own" identity. However, when we get out of this endless cycle we assimilate with our true nature which is unity (hence "love everything and everyone") and shed our former identity as "you" or "David".