Deciphering Designs

A friend received the below medallion from her mother and asked me if the design in the middle was actually a kanji and had a meaning. Unfortunately i had to tell her that i don't recognize a character in it, but am posting it here for others to look at.

Does anyone recognize a character here? (Click to enlarge it) If it's not a Japanese kanji, could it be a Chinese hanzi? Or two? Or one, dublified? Or maybe i'm right and it's just a pretty, symmetrical pattern? What thinks anyone?




OK, while i'm waiting for a response, i guess i might as well write something — it's been a while. The rice cooker is going and won't be done for another half hour, a fresh beer is sitting on the coaster by the chair, some beautiful, calm-inducing Indian flute music is playing in MediaMonkey,... so, with nothing else to do, here we go....

In a paper i'm reading called "The Five Buddha Families and The Eight Consciousnesses," Khenchen Thrangu Rinpoche lays out in a nice clear way the five meditational buddhas of Tibetan Buddhism, the klesha each represents, which one of the five skandha each symbolizes, and the one wisdom (of five) embodied in that buddha.

This is interesting because the same categorization technique was used by Kūkai as he established Shingon in the 9th century and it is still studied today at his monastery on Mt. Kōya.

God no, that's way too boring for Thanksgiving eve. Forget i wrote that.

I woke with a start, and with heart racing glanced across the room, but it didn't take a second to realize that what had woken me was Phoebe crawling into the bed. When i raised my eyebrows and shot her a quizzical "what's going on?" look, she put her finger on my lips and with her lips to my ear whispered "Shhhh. Don't say anything, just enjoy." Before i could utter another word, with a giggle and that devilish smile that i had come to know over the past year meant "hang on for the ride... if you can," she dove under the covers.

With her parents in the room down the hall, i knew we were playing with fire, but everyone that knows Phoebe knows that she will get what she wants when she's in one of these moods.

No, no. That's not what i meant to type.... Sorry, Dave has told me i can't post stories like this here. Something about making Google mad.

In the latest bicycling news, Alberto Contador has finally had his day in court and will now wait for the expected January release of a verdict in his attempt to get away with doping case of suspected doping.

As a surprise witness, Contador's lawyers produced a young Spanish herder who testified under oath that he had personally raised the cow in question. He also testified that he was certain beyond any doubt that he had seen it eating grass near the window of his hut while he (the herder) had been watching a PBS television show about Cherybutt Chernoble Cheerieo that nasty shit that we all know was inside the steak that Alberto purportedly ate.

Under cross-questioning, the herder expressed shock that prosecutors questioned his status as "expert witness," saying that he watched PBS everyday and pointing out that he was certain that he had seen a show pointing out the correlation between what you watch while you eat and the effects that can have on your health and physiology.

Ooops, the rice cooker just beeped, so i'll have to finish this another day. If you have any ideas about the medallion, please let me know.

Happy Thanksgiving to all. Remember at least one thing you are grateful for tomorrow. More if you can.