A Perennial Digression

A Perennial Digression

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A Perennial Digression
A Perennial Digression
Kṣitigarbha, Lazarus, and Christ

Kṣitigarbha, Lazarus, and Christ

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David Armstrong
Dec 02, 2021
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A Perennial Digression
A Perennial Digression
Kṣitigarbha, Lazarus, and Christ
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I was recently arrested by the following image, which gave me the most curious and in some ways splendorous dream:

Four heroic incarnations of Ksitigarbha, the "Earth Store" Bodhisattva

First, the dream: I was in hell. Not, mind you, an ancient hell: not a subterranean hell, a chthonian nightmare beset by the draconic breath of cavernous beasts and baleful woes, no Sheol or Hades or Tartaros or naraka or Inferno. Instead, I…

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