Category: Artifact

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The Root Verses of the Six Bar Dos

Dhamma wheel

A pith guide on the practice of making full use of the opportunity offered by human existence in the cycle of life and death [samsarā].

Herein “The Root Verses of the Six Intermediate States [Bar do]”

Homage to the Peaceful and Wrathful Victorious Ones.

Alas!  Now, as the intermediate state of living arises before me,
Shedding indolence for which life has no time,
I will enter without distraction on the path of study, reflection, and meditation.
Taking sense perception and the nature of the mind as the path,
I will train in manifesting the three enlightened dimensions.
Now that I have obtained a precious human body,
I do not have leisure to remain in the ways of distraction.

Now, as the intermediate state of dreams arises before me,
Shedding the corpse-like sleep of uncaring ignorance,
I will relax in the natural state of undistracted presence,
Recognizing dreams, I will train in generating and transforming them
And with clarity, having overcome beast-like slumber,
I will treasure the practice of integrating sleep and clear light.

Now, as the intermediate state of [samādhi] meditation arises before me,
Shedding the multitude of distractions and fantasies,
I will rest in the state beyond limitations without grasping or losing focus,
And achieve stability in the practice of generation and completion,
Now free of all activity, practicing single-mindedly,
I will not be swayed by deceptive emotions.

Now as the intermediate state of the moment before death arises before me,
Shedding all attachment, grasping, and compulsion,
I will remain without distraction in the state in which the meaning of the oral teaching is clear,
And transfer my pure awareness into the unborn expanse of space.
As soon as I separate from the amalgam of flesh and blood,
I will recognize my body as an ephemeral illusion.

Now, as the intermediate state of [dharmatā] reality arises before me,
Shedding all feelings of terror and fear, I will recognize whatever appears as natural manifestations of my own pure awareness.
Knowing that sound, light, and rays are apparitions of the intermediate state.
Now that I have come to this crucial point,
I will not fear the host of peaceful and wrathful deities that emanate from myself.

Now that the intermediate state of rebirth rises before me,
I will maintain a strong resolve,
And determinedly unite with propensities of my past and good deeds.
I will block the womb entrances and recall the methods of reversal.
This is the moment when steadfastness and pure vision are vital.
I renounce all jealousy and meditate on my spiritual teacher with his consort.

Accomplished master have spoken these words:
“Because of indifference, thinking that death will never come,
Bewitched by the meaningless activities of this life,
If you were to return empty-handed, would not all your aspirations be confounded?”
“Recognize what you truly need is [dharma]!
So why not practice [dharma] from this moment on?”

It is also said [by the siddhas]
“If [one does not take their guru’s] teaching to heart,
[Does one] not become [one’s] own betrayer?”

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Gnosis

The preachings of a preacher
Are not the teaching of  the teacher.
At best an interpretation.
Worst, misrepresentation. 
Relying on another to imply,
Reliant on how to apply. 
Follow its course, 
Find purity of source.
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V838 Monocerotis Light Echo

V838 Monocerotis a spectroscopic binary star system (a binary star evident from the Doppler effect) in the constellation Monoceros about 19,000 light years from the Sun. Identified as a luminous red novae, thought to have been [caused by the] merger of two stars within a triple system.

V838 Monocerotis and its light echo as imaged by the Hubble Space Telescope on December 17, 2002
Credit: NASA/ESA
Images showing the expansion of the light echo. Credit: NASA/ESA.

A light echo is a physical phenomenon caused by light reflected off surfaces distant from the source, and arriving at the observer with a delay relative to this distance. The phenomenon is analogous to an echo of sound

Reflected light following path B arrives shortly after the direct flash following path A but before light following path C. B and C have the same apparent distancefrom the star as seen from Earth.
Direct light from a stellar outburst (white spot) reaches the observer (path 0) followed by light reflected off particles on progressively wider paraboloids (1–5): the observed disc apparently initially expands faster than light but the illusion is due to light reflecting off different unrelated particles
Animation of 11 images of light echo of V838 Mon

In the case of V838 Monocerotis, the light echo produced was unprecedented and is well documented in images taken by the Hubble Space Telescope. While the photos appear to depict an expanding spherical shell of debris, they are actually formed by the illumination of an ever-expanding ellipsoid with the progenitor star at one focus and the observer at the other. Hence, despite appearances, the structures in these photos are actually concave toward the viewer.

Source Wikipedia: V838 Monocerotis, Light echo

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Vascellum

To hear but not listen, 
The pot upside down
In which no water can be found. 

To listen but not retain, 
The pot with holes that soon drains
And contains little of what rains. 

To retain but then taint, 
The pot that is soiled 
With contents spoiled.
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Nada

“Teacher, you have said ‘There is nothing to comprehend. Nothing to attain.’  Yet you have practiced for many years with great masters, have spent countless hours studying the texts and commentaries, and even more in reflective meditation?”

“Nothing is very difficult to comprehend. Nothing is very difficult to attain.”

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Somnambulist

Narayana and Brahma
Like turbulence on surface of river,
Thoughts arise then subside.
Over bed river flows,
So mindstream goes.
As river is not individual drops, nor accretion, 
Mind not thoughts, nor stream of sensations,
Mere conceptualizations of dreamer’s creation.
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Entropic

Mid-candle flame
    can no more interchange 
    with initial frame 
    of when first lit, 
tip of yet unlit wick. 
Flame as it is, 
its current existence,
    is conditioned
    from burning thence. 
As flame that exists 
    is consequence of 
    what was consumed
    fore hence, 
 So I,
    all since.
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Out of Body

“Teacher, you say all phenomena is manifestation of mind, but  surely when cut, I bleed. How is that manifestation of mind? Does not something outside of mind cut me? Can you explain this?”

“Indeed. Is it mind that is cut or body?”

“The mind cannot be cut, it is body that is cut.”

“This sculpture of stone when chipped would it say ‘I am chipped’?”

“No, it has no mind to perceive that has been chipped.”

“And no mind that holds concept of being chipped, nor even mind that holds concept of self to chip.  Yet to the mind that chipped, it has been chipped. Do you understand?” 

After a moment of reflection, the student replies, “Mind cannot be cut where body can, but without mind body does not perceive being cut. Likewise, sculpture that is chipped is not chipped but by observing mind.”

“Good. Good. Very good. You have understood.”

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Is and not

“Teacher, earlier when teaching the dharma to the townsfolk and when explaining the emptiness of form and the other aggravates you said, “A thing that is not can be understood as that which is not, and that which is.” This is confusing to me. Could you explain it’s meaning?”

“Indeed.  Conceptually, a thing that is not can be understood as that which it is not and that which it is. Likewise, that which is can be known by both what it is and by what it is not. Glass that was full, when emptied, would you say that it is not full or empty?”

”One could say either, but I would say it is empty.”

The student then pulls out a copper coin from his mendicant bowl,  studies it from side to side, and after a brief pause says, “Other side of heads, not heads or tails.”

Good. Good. Very good. You have understood.

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Foundations (of Equivalent Exchange)

Transmutation Circle from Fullmetal Alchemist

Newtonian mechanics is built on the foundation of Newton’s three laws of motion (cause and effect) 

Which state: 

1. An object will remain at rest or in uniform motion in a straight line unless acted upon by an external force. Because inertia is the property of a body to resist any change in its state of rest or uniform motion, this law is also known as the law of inertia. In this sense, the mass of a body is a measure of its inertia and is called the inertial mass of the body.

2.  If a net force acts on an object, it will cause an acceleration of that object. The relationship between an object’s mass m, its acceleration a and the applied force F is given by the vector equation

F = ma

3. When one object exerts a force on another object, the second object exerts an equal force in the opposite direction on the first object. Said another way, that for every action there is an equal and opposite reaction, hence the alternative name for this law as the action-reaction law.

Commensurately:

Buddhist philosophy is built on the foundation of cause and effect (Tibetan: rgyu ‘bras; Sanskrit: hetuphala) the primary features of this law being:

1. Nothing evolves uncaused

2. Any entity which itself lacks a process of change cannot cause any other event

3. Only causes which possess natures that accord with specific effects can lead to those effects

 

“It is mind itself that sets in place the myriad array of beings in the world, and the world that contains them…living beings all arise from karma, and so without mind, there could be no karma.”

Madhyamakāvatarā, VI: 89
Bibliography:
A Most Incomprehensible Thing: Notes Towards a Very Gentle Introduction to the Mathematics of Relativity by Peter Collier

The Handbook of Tibetan Culture, 1993. 
Compiled by Graham Coleman