What is the significance of the graphic on the home page?
The graphic (left) that appears on the home page is a stylized rendition of a copper amulet (below, left) that was made and consecrated in Thailand in 2005. The amulet depicts an image of the Buddha meditating under the arch of a protective deity, or naga, in a design popularized by Somdet Toh (1788-1872).[1] The reverse (below, right) contains the Pali text (in Thai script) of the Jinapañjara Gatha (“The Victor’s Cage”), a traditional protective chant that describes a person surrounded on all sides by a field of extraordinary purity and goodness: the Triple Gem, all the past Buddhas, all the Buddha’s elder arahant disciples, and — as if that weren’t enough — all the suttas. In a dangerous and frightening world it is hard to imagine a safer place in which to dwell.
