Thus far, Lucas hasn't been terribly creative with the naming of his stuffed animals. His tiger is Tiger, the polar bear is Polar Bear, the cat is Kitty Cat, and so on. But something changed last week when Grandma bought him a small stuffed panda bear at their weekly visit to the zoo.
My mom reported that he immediately hugged the panda bear and said, "This is Sati." She thought the name sounded like it could be Chinese or at least Asian in origin, and she wondered how he would have known that the panda bears come from Asia. When she brought him home, she had a funny look on her face when she said to me, "He came up with some sort of Chinese-sounding name for the stuffed panda. How would he know that? … Lucas," she called to him, "What was that name again?" He called out, "Sati!" hugging the little panda and grinning.
On a whim, I decided to look up the word. Here are the first two references from Wikipedia:
- Mindfulness (Pali). In Buddhism the word 'Sati' usually carries the meaning of awareness or skillful attentiveness
An alternative name for Hindu goddess Dakshayani, Shiva's first wife
There were many more references to the word (many of them Hindu, and one including the practice of a widow throwing herself on her husband's funeral pyre) but none of them struck me as relevant.
Wouldn't it be great if the little panda actually reminds him to be mindful?
There is another reference to Buddhism buried in this story. One of his favorite books these days is Zen Shorts, which features a giant panda who tells three youngsters age-appropriate stories from the Buddhist tradition.
I could be reading far more into the name, Sati, than is warranted, but it's kind of fun to wonder at the connections. What do you think? Am I stretching it? Or is this really cool?
4 comments:
I'm aware of Sati as the early Hindu goddess (with the widow-burning terribleness named after her (though she threw herself into the fire while her husband was still alive, but disgraced..but whatever) so that's what I first thought of, but I love the awareness definition. Especially with the "Are you Happy?" question he keeps asking you & that beautiful post you made about it. Maybe you have a little former buddhist on your hands :)
Hello Ameya ~ Your comment brought such a smile to my face. Perhaps a little Buddha, indeed. Thank you for the nice compliment on my other post, as well.
Cheers!
Alexis
oh very cool, whether a connection or not. It's a lovely name with a wonderous meaning.
definitely cool. what a wonderful name.
we have a panda at our house that we call Stillwater (from Zen Shorts and Zen Ties).
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