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Daruma doll
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Daruma is also the Japanese name for Bodhidharma.

Daruma doll
Daruma doll
Daruma dolls at Daruma-ji temple, Takasaki, Japan
Daruma dolls at Daruma-ji temple, Takasaki, Japan
A daruma doll with one eye filled in for wishing.
A daruma doll with one eye filled in for wishing.

Daruma dolls (達磨, daruma?), also known as dharma dolls, are hollow and round Japanese wish dolls with no arms or legs, modelled after Bodhidharma, the founder and first patriarch of Zen.[1] Typical colors are red (most common), yellow, green, and white. The doll has a face with a moustache and beard, but its eyes only contain the color white. Using black ink, one fills in a single circular eye while thinking of a wish. Should the wish later come true, the second eye is filled in.

Contents

* 1 Characteristics
* 2 Controversial aspects
* 3 Time Management
* 4 External links
* 5 See also
* 6 Notes

Characteristics

Because of their low centers of gravity, some types of daruma doll return to the upright position after being tilted to one side. As such, the daruma has become symbolic for optimism, persistence, and strong determination. The dolls are based on an older kind of self-righting doll known as a "little roly-poly priest" (起き上がり小法師, okiagari koboshi?). A 17th-century children's song describes the self-righting daruma dolls of the time as being much like their modern equivalents:

Hi ni! fu ni!
Fundan Daruma ga
Akai zukin kaburi sunmaita!

Once! twice!
Ever the red-hooded Daruma
Heedlessly sits up again![2]

Some dolls have written characters on the cheeks explaining the kind of wish or desire the owner has in mind, such as protection of loved ones. The surname of the owner may be written on the chin. Until the wish has been granted, the daruma is displayed in a high location in one's home, typically close to other significant belongings such as a Butsudan (a Buddhist house altar). It is normal to own only a single daruma at a time.

Daruma dolls are typically purchased in or near Japanese Buddhist temples and can range in price from 500 yen for small dolls (~5cm in height) to 10,000 yen or more for the largest dolls (~60cm in height). If the daruma doll was purchased within a temple, the owner can return it for burning. Dolls purchased at a temple are often marked; most temples will refuse to burn dolls not exhibiting the temple's mark. Burning usually occurs at the year's end. This is done as a purification ritual to let kami know that the wisher did not give up on the wish, but is on another path to make it come true.

Controversial aspects

In the late 1990s, several groups of human rights activists claimed that the practice of making Daruma without eyes (and the practices associated with them) is discriminatory against the blind. Although whether anyone actually found this custom offensive is debatable, some media organizations and politicians eager to show support of political correctness stopped showing eyeless daruma altogether.[3] It used to be a signifying moment in an election to have the winner draw an eye, but this is no longer shown. Such scenes are now deleted from recaps of previous elections as well.[citation needed]

Time Management

The daruma doll (or a printed version) has been used by various time management systems as a symbol for an uncompleted major task/goal. When you start a task you color in one pupil, and then put the doll/image where it can be seen so it continually reminds you about that task. When the task is completed the second eye can be filled in to denote completion.

External links

* Daruma San in Japan, Japanese Art and Culture, an online daruma museum

See also

* Religions of Japan
* Daruma Otoshi

Notes

1. ^ [1] Religion and ethics- Buddhism (British Broadcasting Corporation)
2. ^ *Hearn, Lafcadio (1901). A Japanese Miscellany. Boston, Massachusetts: Little, Brown, and Company, pp. 286, 288.
3. ^ Mainichi Shimbun, "だるまの目入れを与野党に中止申し入れ−視覚障害者団", Culture section, January 25, 2003.

Sources: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Daruma_doll

..so if you feel you have it, take appropriate precautions and contact your doc.  There is some good information on pinkeye here: http://www.clevelandclinic.org/health/health-info/docs/1900/1951.asp

That said, if your eyes are runny, there can be other things besides pink eye -- allergies, dry eye, etc.  Here's a good flowchart you can use: http://familydoctor.org/online/famdocen/home/tools/symptom/505.html

Hope you feel better soon!

The eye for an eye teaching was a MERCY.  In the time of Moses, in the time of Jesus, and even today, people can get killed in some cultures for minor infractions.  In Islamic countries today, hands get chopped off for stealing, women can be killed for not dressing according to code.  In Moses' time, a king could have a person killed for the most minor of infractions, or none at all. 

 

The 'eye for an eye' rule was a matter of a much more appropriate justice.  The punishment must not exceed the crime. 

 

What is interesting is that people really do recognize that even the total justice of 'eye for an eye,' etc., is really scary.  We all want mercy, don't we?

 

On the other hand, if crimes were not punished, THAT would be the two wrongs.  Punishment which fits the crime is the right thing to do.

 

It's either that or total anarchy. 

 

But we do appear to have a built-in need for rules.  Watch little children playing games.  If there is a problem which they do not know how to solve, they will attempt to make up a rule to fit the occasion.  Adults do this, too, in legislatures.  Despite all the cries for 'freedom,' we want everyone else to obey the rules so we don't have to....LOL. 

 

You have 'Bible' and 'Christianity' in the topics, so let's look at something God says in the Bible -- let's look at a couple of things. 

 

In Genesis 8, God is promising Noah that the earth will never again be destroyed in its entirety by water.  In verse 21 we read, "Never again will I curse the ground because of man, even though every inclination of his heart is evil from his youth."

And while many argue that that is not true, but we are all really 'good' inside, we nevertheless make more and more laws to control that inner 'goodness'!

 

Consider also this part from Hebrews 12: 

 

"My son, do not make light of the Lord's discipline,

and do not lose heart when he rebukes you,

because the Lord disciplines those he loves,

and he punishes everyone he accepts as a son."

Endure hardship as a discipline; God is treating you as sons.  For what son is not disciplined by his father?  If you are not disciplined (and everyone undergoes discipline), then you are illegitimate children and not true sons.  Moreover, we have all had human fathers who disciplined us and we respected them for it.  How much more should we submit to the Father of our spirits and live!  Our fathers disciplined us for a little while as they thought best; but God discipoines us for our good, that we may share in his holiness.  No discipline seems pleasant at the time, but painful.  Later on, however, it produces a harvest of righteousness and peace for those who have been trained by it.

(Hebrews 12:4-11)

 

Is punishment discipline?  Very often, yes.  And without discipline where would we be, either as individuals or as cultures?

 

The Bible demands that discipline and punishment be moderated so that it does not exceed the wrongdoing.  THAT is what "eye for an eye, tooth for a tooth, life for a life" means.