The Jizo Project: by Michele Benzamin-Miki
Jizo Project is now  The Five Changes Foundation
Contact Information

Jizo is the Japanese name for the Bodhisattva Kshitigarbha, the archetypal embodiment of the awakened mind whose specific talent is to bring peace into those places where there is the greatest suffering. Jizo is associated with the Earth and, like the earth, nurtures, heals, and protects. Jizo is also closely associated with children. Ordinary Dharma has been involved with this work with kids and young people for a decade and a half. For a number of years we have called it The Jizo Project .

It has now evolved into The Five Changes Foundation

Since 1986 I have been using Meditation (Vipassana and Zen) and the Martial Arts (Aikido and Iaido) to teach Nonviolence and Compassionate Action to children and young adults. I have worked in schools in the Los Angeles area and elsewhere, and I have also worked with "high-risk" kids.

My work is an improvisation, drawing on the whole range of my training and skills. I also make use of my background and sensibilities as an artist to improvise creative ways to teach, using painting, sculpture, movement, improvisation, writing and mask-making.

In 1991, my partner Caitríona Reed and I participated in the Idylwild Zen Mountain Center's "Inward Bound" program. We brought "at-risk" kids to the mountains, to be in the beauty of the natural environment and to practice Meditation, Aikido, and communication skills through the use of Council. These kids were involved in a program in East LA called RAD. I later worked in that program at La Puente High School, and also participated in similar programs in South-Central Los Angeles.

In 1993 I was part of the team set up by Life Action Skills, an educational organization based in New Mexico, to work in several schools in Portland, Oregon. We worked with all age groups, to engage kids, teachers, and parents in dialogue and gain skills in communication, reconciliation, and peacemaking in their communities.

In 1997 Rev. Kusala, a monk from the International Buddhist Meditation Center, and I started to visit various correctional facilities for juvenile offenders in the Los Angeles area. We co-facilitated programs in Meditation, Yoga and principles of Nonviolence at the Central Juvenile Hall in downtown Los Angeles, and Camp Kilpatric in Malibu. Other members of Ordinary Dharma joined us.


With the support of the Programs Director, Mr. Russel, as well as the Catholic lay chaplain, Havier Stauring, we were able to bring our programs to many parts of Central Juvenile Hall where boys as young as 8 are held. We taught as part of their school programs, as well as in the special units holding kids in the foster care shuffle. We also worked with the "at risk' kids within the system, and we held classes on a regular basis for the high risk offenders units, as well as for kids in solitary confinement. Some of the individuals who collaborated with us in co-facilitating these programs are still involved in teaching at Juvenile Hall today.

I also started a class in the Omega Unit which houses the small minority of girls in Central Juvenal. Many of the girls there are pregnant and even more obviously traumatized than the boys.

We were also invited into the "Scare programs" set up for visiting kids not in the system.

Most of my involvement is now with programs outside the system, though I am still connected to the work at Central Juvenile Hall. I am working prevention programs, such as the "at risk" program at the John Muir School in South-Central Los Angeles, through LA Bridges and Didi Hersh Mental Heath Care Institute , and the People Who Care Center who are involved in gang, crime, and violence prevention programs in partnership with the Department of Justice.

Currently I am teaching "at risk" kids from ages 6 to 15 in my martial arts school Aikido Sho Bi Juku Dojo . They are supported by scholarships provided by supporters of The Jizo Project. I am teaching basic martial arts skills, providing tools for self-confidence, self-defense and Nonviolence as a way of being.

Special thanks go Dan Pomoroy who has continuously supported this program, and Katherine Veritas, and those who have helped in outreach for participants in the program, Jane Atkins and Lee Corrin through the "Virginia Ave Project" in connection with the Santa Monica Police League.

If you are interested in helping with your tax-deductible donation to support a child in this program ($50 a month), or if you know a child who could benefit from the current programs please contact us at The Jizo Project.

Contact Michele Benzamin Miki or Caitríona Reed

email
manzanita@ordinarydharma.org

Telephone
800-619-8416
760-782-9223

Mail
Ordinary Dharma and Manzanita Village
PO Box 67,
Warner Springs,
CA 92086

Telephone
800-619-8416
760-782-9223

Fax
760-782-0655