Category: Artifact

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Bodhicitta (Awakening Mind)

Dhamma wheel 
From: The Dhammapada: Cittavagga (The Mind)

33. Just as an arrow-maker straitens an arrow shaft, even so the discerning person straitens his mind- so fickle and unsteady,  so difficult to guard and control. 

36.  Let the discerning person guard their mind, so difficult to detect and extremely subtle, wandering wherever it desires. A guarded mind brings happiness.  

43. Neither mother, father, nor any other relative can do one greater good then one’s own well-directed mind.  

Thus said the Blessed One. 
From: A Guide to the Bodhisattva’s Way of Life. 
By: Shantideva. 

I. The Benefits of the Awakening Mind
4. Leisure and endowment are very hard to find;
And, since they accomplish what is meaningful for humanity,
If I do not take advantage of them now,
How will such a perfect opportunity come about again?

8. Those who wish to destroy the many sorrows of (their) conditioned existence, 
Those who wish (all beings) to experience multitude of joys, 
And those who wish to experience much happiness
Should never forsake the Awakening Mind. 

15. In brief, the Awakening Mind
Should be understood to be of two types;
The mind that aspires to awaken
And the mind that ventures to do so. 

25. This intention to benefit all beings,
Which does not arise in others even for their own sake, 
Is an extraordinary jewel of the mind,
And its birth is an unprecedented wonder. 

36. I bow down to the body of those
In whom the sacred precious mind is born. 
I seek refuge in that source of joy
Who brings happiness even to those who bring harm. 

III. Full Acceptance of the Awakening Mind
4. And with gladness I rejoice 
In the ocean of virtue, for developing an Awakening Mind
That wishes all beings to be happy,
As well as in the deeds that bring them benefit. 

24. Likewise, for the sake of all lives
Do I give birth to an Awakening Mind,
And likewise shall I, too,
Successfully follow the practices. 

28. Just like a blindman
Discovering a jewel in a heap of rubbish,
Likewise, by some coincidence,
An Awakening Mind has been born within me. 
From: Eight Verses for Training the Mind
By: Kadampa Geshe Langritangpa

5. In all actions may I watch my mind,
And as soon as disturbing emotions arise,
May I forcefully stop them at once,
Since they will hurt both me and others.

Bodhicitta (Sanskrit) (Tibetan: byang chub kyi sems): An altruistic aspiration to attain full enlightenment for all beings. Bodhicitta is cultivated on the basis of certain mental attitudes, principle among them being the development of love and great compassion towards all beings equally.

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

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Who is the lover and who the beloved

Dhamma wheel
Allah
This World Which Is Made Of Our Love For Emptiness
by Jalāl ad-Dīn Mohammad Balkhī (Rumi)

Praise to the emptiness that blanks out existence.
Existence: this place made from our love for that emptiness! 
Yet somehow comes emptiness, 
this existence goes. 
Praise to that happening, over and over!

For years I pulled my own existence out of emptiness. 
Then one swoop, one swing of the arm, 
that work is over. 
Free of who I was, free of presence, free of dangerous fear, hope, free of mountainous wanting. 

The here-and-now mountain is a tiny piece of straw
blown off into emptiness. 

These words I am saying so much begin to lose meaning:
existence, emptiness, mountain, straw:
words and what they try to say swept
out the window, down the slant of the roof.
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Śri Śivah Pūjā

Dhamma wheel 
namaste astu bhagavan viśveśarāya mahādevāya tryambakāya tripurāntakāya trikālāgnikāla kalagniridrāya nilakanthāya mrtyuñjayāya sareśvarāya sadāśivāya śrīmanmahādevāya namah. 
Salutation to you, O Lord, the master of the universe, the great Lord, the three-eyed one, the destroyer of Tripura, the extinguisher of the Trikāla fire and the fire of death, the blue-necked one, the victor over death, the Lord of all, the ever-auspicious one, the glorious Lord of all deities.

Tripura: cities built of gold, silver and iron in the sky, air and earth by Maya for the Asuras and burnt by Śivah The golden city of satttva, silver of rajas, and iron of tamas

Trikāla: the three times or tenses

Source in Sanskrit

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Praxis Thinking the Methodology (in a nutshell)

Determine what is desired and assess what is “Known” and “Not Known” toward that end. Map affinities of ”Known” and “Not Known” statements to derive at a set of “First Principle(s)” and “Challenge(s)” respectively.

Modeled as a system, where the stock is comprised of “Concepts,” the inflow into the system (its input)) are the stated “Challenges” (best captured as a problem statement such as “How might I/we…”) Apply Divergent Thinking (<+) to increase the stock of concepts. Apply Convergent Thinking (->) and narrow on practical “Ideas” toward a solution (the system’s output). Ideas flow into a feedback loop. Model Ideas, validate models, reassess what is “Known” and “Not Known” and iterate “Challenge,”

With each iteration what is “Known” increases and what is ”Not Known” decreases while solution becomes less conceptual and more ideal. 

Ideas are like seeds,  
some are annual and others perennial.
Some fall upon good earth to take root,    
Others upon stone to despair. 
Of those that root and bloom take care,
And of their fruit joyfully share.