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Butsu / Buddha
Original Zen calligraphy by Zen monk and artist Peter Cutler.
The word Buddha or Butsu in Japanese means awake or one who is awake. Buddha not only refers to the historical Buddha but to the awakened nature, the Buddha Nature, of us all. And that is the first thing Prince Siddhartha Gautama Shakyamuni said when he awakened 2,600 years ago under the Bodhi tree and became the Buddha, "I and all beings are awake."

All of us have this Buddha Nature. I hope you awaken and free yourself forever from this dream of suffering as the Buddha did. Then you will also say, "I and all beings are awake." And it will not just be words or thoughts.

The small read chop or seal on the lower right is the Dharma Name given to Peter by Zen Master Thich Nhat Hanh. In English it reads True Virtue.

Peter Cutler is an internationally acclaimed artist, photographer and film director. At the young age of 20, he won Nikon Cameras prestigious international photography contest. Shows at leading galleries and art and photography magazines soon followed. Over the next 40 years he developed a successful career as a leading commercial artist, photographer and film director, winning over 150 international awards. After 20 years of meditation and spiritual practice, a profound spiritual awakening led him to leave the world of commercial art behind, become a Zen monk and devote his life to his newly discovered gift of healing and manifesting Spirit through art. As he readily acknowledges, this art flows through him, not from him. The art is...