In the last year or so I have gotten two tattoos that are quite special to me. I am not a buddhist by any means, but the teachings and symbolism speak to me and my path in life. I literally just starting reading more about this two years ago, when I saw a buddha in one of my ketamine treatments. I really am just a beginner.
The first tattoo was a lotus flower-I chose purple for the flower-The purple color represents self-awakening, balance within yourself and self enlightenment.
- The spiritual lotus flower is a well-known Buddhist symbol representing finding the light within the darkness. In nature, a lotus flower grows in muddy, murky water hidden from the sun. Even without sunlight, the lotus flower still emerges and blossoms into a beautiful plant.
So, the lotus flower represents overcoming challenges. It reminds us that, like the lotus flower, we too can rise from the mud and blossom into the best versions of ourselves, despite the challenges we have faced in the past or are currently facing.
The second was Unalome
Like most other spiritual symbols, each part of the Unalome carries a specific visual representation of the symbol's meaning. Each aspect represents a different part of your spiritual growth.
- The spiral – At the base of the symbol, the spiral represents the beginning of your spiritual journey. It is the state before you awaken spiritually; our being is purely in the earthly realm, and illusions, blockages, emotions, and dramas cloud our minds.
- We all can remember a time in our lives when we felt like we were spiraling and everything was out of control. Eventually, we find direction and begin the path toward self-discovery. This pivotal period leads to the next part of the symbol.
- The loops – The spiral turns into a swirl (or loops) in the middle of the symbol, starting big and getting smaller. These loops show how life is full of sharp bends and unexpected turns, and it is these challenges that allow us to grow.
The loops remind us that spiritual and personal growth is never linear. When we accept this, we can enjoy the process rather than desperately seek to reach our desired destination.
- The straight line – At the end of the swirl, the loops become smaller and gradually turn into a straight line. The path appears less winding and unpredictable, and the ups and downs of life are no longer so extreme. As a result, our minds become clear, we become more aligned with ourselves, and we cultivate a deeper connection with the divine, entering higher states of consciousness.
Therefore, the line at the top of the symbol represents the last stages of our end goal. This part, in particular, can serve as a reminder to have hope and faith when we're in the tangles of the loops and spiral.
- The dots – Above the straight line are three dots, which represent completion and enlightenment. By this stage, we have successfully escaped the cycles of suffering. As we are no longer controlled by our minds or stuck in the challenges of the earthly plane, we experience a profound sense of inner peace.
Buddha means "the enlightened one" or "the awakened one"
Buddhist ethical worship
Kamma
The Buddha taught that Kamma is important as it means that people have the power to determine their own destiny through their own actions. Through kamma people can be set free from ignorance and suffering. Thinking about how they behave enables Buddhists to do good things in their life.
Buddhists should try to follow the Noble Eightfold path and the teachings of the Buddha so that they do not cause suffering. This enables them to reach enlightenment and freedom from samsara.
Kamma is the idea that all actions (no matter how big or small) have consequences. However, for Buddhists it is more specific than that, as they believe that there are skillful and unskillful actions. A skillful action is one that produces happiness, whereas an unskillful action is one that produces suffering.
In Buddhist teaching, the fourth truth (the stopping of dukkha) contains the leading out of (i.e., the cycle of repeated birth, mundane existence and dying again) to (release from release from rebirths in saṃsara and cessation of dukkha). It consists of:
- Right View – an accurate understanding of the nature of things, specifically the Four Noble Truths
- Right Resolve – avoiding thoughts of attachment, hatred, and harmful intent
- Right Speech – correct speech, refraining from verbal misdeeds such as lying, divisive speech, harsh speech, and senseless speech
- Right Action – refraining from physical misdeeds such as killing, stealing, and sexual misconduct
- Right Livelihood – avoiding trades that directly or indirectly harm others, such as selling slaves, weapons, animals for slaughter, intoxicants, or poisons
- Right Effort – abandoning negative states of mind that have already arisen, preventing negative states that have yet to arise, and sustaining positive states that have already arisen
- Right Mindfulness – awareness of body, feelings, thought, and phenomena (the constituents of the existing world)
- Right Meditation – single-mindedness; focusing attention in order to enter meditational states.
Karuna and metta
Compassion (karuna)
Compassion is a feeling of concern for others who are suffering and therefore makes a person want to do something to help. In Buddhism, compassion is called . The Buddha taught that showing compassion to others is something all people can do, even if they find other parts of his teaching difficult to follow.
Buddhists believe that they should show compassion to everyone. They should also try to think about how they would feel if it was them suffering, as this will help them to want to free others from that suffering.
Compassion is one of the , which the Buddha taught that people should work on and develop within themselves. People should do this so that they know (through wisdom) how to help others.
Loving kindness (metta)
Another one of the Four Sublime States is , or loving kindness. It is important as Buddhists want to develop this quality in order to help others to be free from suffering.
Metta is a more positive way of looking at life than karuna, as metta is about trying to show love to others before they need help. A good example of this would be giving something to a friend to make them happy (metta) rather than helping someone if they fell over (karuna). Although both are important, metta is more positive as it involves acting before being prompted to do so by a bad situation.
Metta leads people to be kinder, more considerate and more helpful.
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The Triple Gem
- Buddha – the historical Buddha and one’s own potential for awakening
- Dharma – the teachings of the Buddha; the truth of the way things are
- Sangha – the community; in Asia this refers to the monastic community, in the West this includes lay practitioners
These are also referred to as The Three Refuges:
“I take refuge in: the Buddha, the Dharma, the Sangha”
The Four Noble Truths
- There is suffering
- The origin of suffering is craving
- There is an end to suffering
- The way to the end of suffering is the Noble Eightfold Path
The Four Foundations of Mindfulness
- Mindfulness of the body in the body (includes the breath and the four elements: earth, fire, water, air)
- Mindfulness of feeling tones in feeling tones (whether something is pleasant, unpleasant, or neutral)
- Mindfulness of the mind in the mind
- Mindfulness of objects of the mind
The Three Marks of Existence
- Impermanence (anicca)
- Suffering (dukkha)
- No Self (anatta)
The Four Brahma-Viharas (Heavenly Abodes)
- Loving-kindness (metta)
- Compassion (karuna)
- Empathetic Joy (mudita)
- Equanimity (upekkha)
The Five Precepts
- To refrain from taking life
- To refrain from taking that which is not freely given
- To refrain from sexual misconduct
- To refrain from unwise/unskillful speech
- To refrain from intoxication
The Five Hindrances
- Sensual Desire (kammachanda)
- Anger or ill will (byapada vyapada)
- Sloth and Torpor (thina-middha)
- Restlessness (uddhacca=kukkucca)
- Doubt (vicikiccha)
The Seven Factors of Enlightenment
- Mindfulness (sati)
- Investigation of the dharma (dhammavicaya)
- Energy (viriya)
- Rapture (piti)
- Tranquility (passaddhi)
- Concentration (samadhi)
- Equanimity (upekkha)
www.accesstoinsight.org
This website contains an extensive collection of books, essays, and sutta commentaries by well-known Theravada Buddhism teachers, including Ajahn Chah and Thanissaro Bhikkhu, as well as a Pali-English glossary. It is an important resource for anyone interested in studying the suttas.
www.bps.lk
This website of the Buddhist Publication Society has an extensive library of hard-to-find works by such notable Buddhist teachers as Nyanaponika Thera and Bhikkhu Bodhi, as well as an English-Pali dictionary.
www.buddhanet.net
This Web site by the Buddha Dharma Education Association contains the World Buddhist Directory, a comprehensive listing of Buddhist centers and communities around the world; an extensive library of e-books, including The Four Noble Truths by Venerable Ajahn Sumedho; and audio recordings.
www.dharmaseed.org
Dharmaseed offers nearly 500 audio recordings of dharma talks by vipassana meditation teachers, many of which were recorded at Spirit Rock Meditation Center and Insight Meditation Society.
www.sacred-texts.com
This website features online electronic versions of The Sacred Books of the East, a 50-volume series published by Oxford University Press between 1879 and 1910 containing translations of key sacred texts of Buddhism, Hinduism, Taoism, Confucianism, Zoroastrianism, Jainism, and Islam. This is an important resource for anyone with a scholarly interest in Buddhism.
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