What Is a Lodestar?
A lodestar is a guiding star — most famously, the North Star (Polaris) — used for navigation.
But more deeply, I’ve come to understand it as something more:
Something or someone that acts as a guiding light, principle, or source of inspiration.
In spiritual, philosophical, or poetic terms, a lodestar is:
- The fixed truth I navigate by
- The moral compass I refuse to abandon
- The inner law I trust, even when the world is lost in fog
So when I hear someone say, “That teaching is my lodestar,” or “She was my lodestar through the chaos,”
I understand that they mean it was the constant — the true point they held to, no matter what.
For me, that lodestar is Nam-myoho-renge-kyo.
Not a belief — a Law.
Because it is.
And I hope that through this work, this space, and this voice,
I can serve as a lodestar for others — for those who still remember how to look up.