Buddhist Teacher, Jitsudo Ancheta, Brings Spiritual Practice to Artwork

LOCAL IQ
By Kayla Sawyer

NEW MEXICO---The artistry of Zen Buddhist teacher Jitsudo Ancheta began with gift-giving in celebration of New Year’s Day. He would carve on linoleum and multi-plate woodblock prints, embedding them with spiritual images and words, and each new year, give them to members of the local art and Buddhist communities. The Albuquerque art scene and the Buddhist community support each other, said Ancheta. “The art supports the practice,” he explained in a recent talk with Local iQ. While creating his pieces, Ancheta employs mantra chanting, like the “Heart Sutra,” a famous sutra in Mahayana Buddhism. [link]