Two three-fold wheels

Some time ago, I made this SVG representation of a Gankyil in Processing:

Now, I made another three-fold wheel, the World Triad:

As the Gankyil is "the Wheel of Joy", maybe this is the flip side, that is, the three poisons perpetuating? After all, it's "the World Triad", and isn't that the way of the world?

Anyway, I just wanted to write about this to remark that currently, the task of drawing the World Triad is beyond state-of-the-art Artificial Intelligence (Bing Copilot): it was not able to give me the radii or midpoints of the smaller circles. So, I had to do like was suggested in a Github Issue where an AI had "fixed" an issue in the wrong way: use a different kind of AI: Actual Intelligence! So, I grabbed my grid paper and after some basic trigonometry whirl-abouts, I had these figures, which I am providing here, but which the adept should really work out themselves:

float r = R * 1/(1+1/(sqrt(3)/2)); //r is smaller circle's radius, R is larger's
float l = (2/sqrt(3) - 1)*r //from center of larger along radius to circumference of smaller

Instanssi 2024

This weekend, I attended the Instanssi 2024 demoparty. I participated in the Graphics Compo with this work:

Cosmic Serenity

It's made using Amberlight, a photo of a Buddha statue I made, DALL-E3 through Bing Copilot (for the halo), Inkscape, and Gimp. It placed #9/13. Prints on RedBubble.

"Monks, whatever in the cosmos — with its devas, Maras, & Brahmas, its generations with their contemplatives & brahmans royalty & common people — is seen, heard, sensed, cognized, attained, sought after, pondered by the intellect: That do I know. Whatever in the cosmos — with its devas, Maras, & Brahmas, its generations with their contemplatives & brahmans, their royalty & common people — is seen, heard, sensed, cognized, attained, sought after, pondered by the intellect: That I directly know. That has been realized by the Tathagata, but in the Tathagata it has not been established.
- AN 4.24 Kalaka Sutta

 Thanissaro Bhikkhu explains "in the Tathagata it has not been established" like this: "the Tathagata hasn't taken a stance on it.". The Middle Way philosopher Nagarjuna has said: "If I had any thesis, I would be at fault. But since I have no thesis, I am not at fault". In the western logical tradition, too, the maker of a positive claim (ie. an affirmation, not a negation) has the burden of proof. So, by avoiding positive positions, and instead taking a negating "Neti neti" (not this, not this) approach, we are spared much unnecessary hardship and strife that would be involved in the necessary defense of our claims, if we had an affirming stance on something. In emptiness, there is no nail to hang your hat on.

I also participated in the Summamutikka (Wild) compo with a music video for a track by our band, Valmet Children:

The name of the song, and thus, the music video for it, is "low frequency". It placed #12/19. 

When he encountered some confounding situation, my grandfather would say something that translates roughly as "Now I am completely in the shortwave!" ("Nyt minä olen aivan ulalla!"). Indeed, when trying to figure out some perplexing thing, it makes sense for our minds to "throttle" themselves into an "overclocked" state - that's exactly what modern CPUs do. So, as clock frequency increases, wavelength (being inversely proportional) shortens, leading us to "the shortwave". Several thinkers, perhaps most notably Nikola Tesla, have likened the brain to a radio transmitter-receiver: our link between the body, which is right here, and the mind, which is "out there" (actually, Bodhidharma said that the mind is neither inner nor outer, but let's leave that for now). So, if a frantic search for understanding of the immediate situation at hand can lead to increased operational frequency ("ultra-short waves"), perhaps the state of "low frequency" is the opposite: a deep, unurgent state of rest and relaxation; stressless, only occasionally rippling with thought, if that; a mind like the pool of water in the Samaññaphala Sutta: "clear, limpid, and unsullied". 

Bodhi Leaf Cards

 In continuation of robotic Buddha drawings (1, 2), I used my AxiDraw to draw these Bodhi Leaf cards:

Bodhi & Wisdom cards

I used them to participate in the 4th Demoscene Card Exchange and the Plot Party 2023 card exchange. I like sending and receiving stuff in the mail, so if you want to send me something (that I won't get in
trouble for), let me know your email address and I will send you my mailing address! 

The original image looks like this, and is made by DALL-E3 through Bing Chat:

Bodhi Leaf by DALL-E3

Comparade 2023

 This past weekend, the Comparade 2023 party was held. I remotely entered the following graphics piece:

Pink Enlightenment

I made it using the Fluid app, DALL-E3 for the Mandelbox halo, a photo of a concrete Buddha statue by me, and Gimp.

Unfortunately, the video stream from the party, described by the web page as "highly unstable", proved worthy of that description, and I did not see the compo or the prize giving, but it placed #6/6.

Prints on RedBubble.

More Robotically Drawn Buddhas

 I previously wrote about having a robot draw Buddhas for me. Well, I wanted to give my AxiDraw some more work, so I used frosting.ai to generate a monochrome Buddha face, which I then edited in Gimp and RunwayML. Then I used the CutRocket halftone generator, which conveniently has output directly as SVG. I edited the SVG further in Inkscape and plotted it from there with the AxiDraw. 

The AI-generated face after editing

Much like in the previous piece, my motivation was to play with the limits of when we still recognize something as "Buddha".

The face after halftone treatment

The first "training print" was done with a Baoke brush pen from AliExpress

The "trial run"

My plan all along was to render it in silver on black. Browsing, I found the Plot Party event, which was set to happen in a week, and had "black paper" as one of the prompts. So, I entered!

The final entry

I ran out of ink in my silver pen, so the final rendition was in gold. Prints available on Etsy.

Under Construction

 Some time ago, I decided to make a modern version of those infamous "under construction" pages - complete with spinning skull animation. As I did say "modern", the animation is VP9 WebM with alpha channel. For this, I needed to first download and install WebM from Fnordware. 

I thought "for sure, AI can already remove the background, no sweat!". I already had a spinning skull on a black background; I just needed the subject isolated and the background made transparent.

So, after trying a few services that wanted me to sign up for a subscription, I found Unscreen, where it's possible to work on a pay-as-you-go basis. I uploaded my clip, looked at the preview, where everything seemed fine - and forked over my €3.33. However, what came back was a noisy matte with a lot of bleeding. So, I initiated a refund under their 14 day money back guarantee, which, to their credit, they honored, and went to work isolating the skull myself.

A great help was the "Magic Wand" preset from Mikey's Effects. Maybe you know the Magic Wand tool from Photoshop - this preset brings that to After Effects. This video will explain:

So, after using this preset, and somewhat haphazardly animating a matte for fine-tuning, I got the end result you can see on the live page.

In conclusion, AI has great potential for this kind of simply definable routine editing work, but it's not there yet. 

Skrolli Party 2023

 This weekend, I attended Skrolli Party 2023. Like last time, I participated in the Wild Compo with a graphics work, shown here:

Nature of Buddha

It features a Buddha statue made by me and some computer graphics and photo elements. The title, "Nature of Buddha", refers to "Buddha Nature", a concept that seems easily misunderstood. Buddhism teaches "emptiness of inherent existence", and this should not be replaced with an idea of "Buddha nature as the inherent character of existence", as pointed out in the article "Freedom from Buddha Nature". Buddhism is concerned with freedom, especially freedom from suffering, and this should not be allowed to be replaced with a rigid self-definition of "Self as Buddha". 

"I have Buddha Nature", or, in other words, "I am of the nature of Buddha", is simply a special case of "the conceit 'I am'". From the Alagaddupama Sutta:

And how is a monk a noble one with banner lowered, burden placed down, unfettered? There is the case where a monk's conceit 'I am' is abandoned, its root destroyed, made like a palmyra stump, deprived of the conditions of development, not destined for future arising. This is how a monk is a noble one with banner lowered, burden placed down, unfettered.

The means of gaining enlightenment are sometimes classified as Jiriki and Tariki, or self-power and other-power, respectively. But, both are mistaken: we think we must get something either through our own power, or with outside help. However, even the earlier expressiong "gaining enlightenment" is wrong, according to the Heart Sutra, which says "no attainment, with nothing to attain". 

Even resting in a state of inaction (wu wei) can become despoiled by the sneaking in of the idea of striving towards some ideal through this inaction; a mental apprehension of natural, effortless inaction as the factual striving towards a goal. 

So, the emptiness of self (ātmaśūnyatā) is not non-existence of self, yet not existence of self, even self as Buddha, either. 

By construing for ourselves an essential nature, and therefore a being, as Buddha or as anything else, is to fall from the peaceful resting beyond being and non-being. Creating a mental object to represent oneself is to move away from the serene emptiness of "No color, no sound, no smell, no taste, no touch, no object of mind". As it says in the Yavalakapi Sutta: 

Anyone who construes is bound by Mara. Anyone who doesn't construe is freed from the Evil One.

So, let us be liberated through lack of construing! 

Prints on RedBubble. I placed #5/7.

Assembly 2023: Nirvana Patterns

 This weekend, I went to Assembly 2023. I had a piece to enter into the Freestyle Graphics Competition, but, for the third time in a row, it was not qualified to be shown. 

Nirvana Patterns

I used MandelBrowser, Gimp, and photos in making this. I also had ChatGPT come up with the name.

Prints on RedBubble.

Sailing in Sweden

I went sailing with our club in the Swedish archipelago.

Bodhi Cyber Systems

 This weekend, I remotely participated in the graphics competition of ATK-Lohja with this work:

Bodhi Cyber Systems

It placed #2/3. Prints on RedBubble.

I used Apophysis, photographs from a kaleidoscope and a Buddha statue at the Goa Restaurant in Tallinn, the mage.space text-to-image AI (for coloring), and a screenshot of a Windows 10 screensaver.

The theme is "Buddha in Cyberspace". What kind of operating system would a fully awakened being use to surf the Web? Maybe Bodhi Linux, although I think it's more likely that they would not need the intermediary of a computer to do so - direct mind access to the WWW. After all, a buddha supposedly "knows the awareness of other beings, other individuals, having encompassed it with his own awareness", so why should he not be able to encompass the collective mind of the Internet with that very same awareness? 

Instanssi 2023

 This weekend, I attended the Instanssi 2023 demoparty. I entered the Graphics Competition with this work:

Sambhogakaya

Sambhogakaya is one of the three bodies of the Trikaya of a buddha. It is the "reward", "enjoyment", or "bliss body". The host of the competition commented that "it looks like there's been achieved either Nirvana or a brain hemorrhage". It placed #11/13.

I made it using AmberLight, vvvv, a photo, and Gimp.

Prints on RedBubble.

Assembly 2022: Sky Mind

This weekend, I took part in the Assembly 2022 party. 

Sky Mind

I made this image using vvvv and Gimp. The halo is made using a faceted crystal ball. Here's the link to prints. I entered it into the Graphics Competition, but it did not qualify to be shown.

There is the comparison that the mind is like the sky (and, of course, it's a big sky!), and the thoughts like clouds.
While searching for the term used as the title of this image, I found this song. The lyrics are quite close to what I had in mind with this image.

The real sky is (knowing) that samsara and nirvana are merely an illusory display.

            — Mipham Rinpoche, Quintessential Instructions of Mind, p. 117

the mind of the past has ceased and perished. The mind of the future is unborn and unarisen. The mind of the present is very difficult to examine because it is colourless and shapeless like the sky
        - Atisha 

Meditating on the perfection of wisdom awareness is like meditating on the sky. The sky is without conceptual thought; the perfection of wisdom awareness is without conceptual thought.

        - 8000 Stanza Perfection of Wisdom Sutra  

Thus, the self-nature is like the sky. I have obtained the self-nature which is permanently free.

        - Arisal of the View of Supreme Happiness

Now, this last one should come with the warning that as it talks of "self-nature", it could bring about association or identification with the mind - and, as the Assutavā Sutta states:

It would be better for the uninstructed run-of-the-mill person to hold to the body composed of the four great elements, rather than the mind, as the self. Why is that? Because this body composed of the four great elements is seen standing for a year, two years, three, four, five, ten, twenty, thirty, forty, fifty, a hundred years or more. But what’s called ‘mind,’ ‘intellect,’ or ‘consciousness’ by day and by night arises as one thing and ceases as another. Just as a monkey, swinging through a forest wilderness, grabs a branch. Letting go of that, it grabs another branch. Letting go of that, it grabs another one. Letting go of that, it grabs another one. In the same way, what’s called ‘mind,’ ‘intellect,’ or ‘consciousness’ by day and by night arises as one thing and ceases as another.

 As for the nature of the mind:

Luminous, monks, is the mind. And it is defiled by incoming defilements.

                  - Pabhassara Sutta: Luminous

The mind can also be described as spacious, of the nature of space, nowhere to be found (there was a text that said "Wherever you are looking for the mind, that is the wrong place"!), unsupported, unestablished. The mind is not internal to the body; nor is it to be found existing externally. For the first of these points, the Shurangama Sutta makes it like this:

If you cannot perceive your internal organs, how could you perceive what is external to you?
"Therefore you should know that declaring that the aware and knowing mind is inside the body is an impossible statement."

A typical division is between the ignorant and the enlightened mind. Vatthupama Sutta describes the mind of a monk who is virtuous, developed in concentration and wise as "grown great, lofty, boundless and free from enmity and ill will". 

The biggest thing in the world is the sky. Whatever has form cannot be called great. The sky alone has no form, thus is it called great. All natures have their limits and cannot be called great. Our buddha nature alone has no limits, thus is it called great. The sky has no quarters. If you see its quarters, you are focusing on a perception. By the same token, our buddha nature is free of the four perceptions of self, being, life, and soul.

                - Hui Neng 

The unenlightened mind is merely a sky-mind covered in clouds of ignorance, but its nature of spaciousness and unobstruction does not change even when it clears and becomes "enlightened":

when a cloud covers the sun, the sky’s spaciousness is not affected by the cloud, nor by whether the sun is visible or not. Chan methods and teachings point to the realization
that who we truly are can never be covered by the clouds of vexations and afflictions. The point is that we should not get bogged down by the clouds, but instead we should see the big picture—the sky

        - Guo Gu: The Essence of Chan 

Sailing in Greece 2022

To kick off the summer, I took the opportunity graciously provided by Robin of S/Y Diamond to sail with him in Greece. Here's Robin's Instagram and Youtube.

 

Here are some photos from the trip:

Instanssi/Revision 2022

This weekend, I took part in a Revision 2022 satellite party, hosted by the Instanssi organizers. I participated in the "Modern Graphics" competition with this work:

Samatha

This work is titled Samatha, meaning a mind abiding in calmness. I made it using Ultra Fractal, Gimp, Inkscape, and a photograph taken at Aurinko (=Sun) shop with my Ixus 170, like my previous Buddha images. Prints on RedBubble.
It is a basic reclining Buddha, bathed in golden light. The rays emanating from the head are arrayed according to "nautical lines", that is, they are 1/32th of a circle, or 11.25°, apart.
Regarding "calm abiding", here is an excerpt from Saṃyutta Nikāya 35.116:

"Monks, that dimension should be experienced where the eye [vision] stops and the perception [label] of form fades. That dimension should be experienced where the ear stops and the perception of sound fades... where the nose stops and the perception of aroma fades... where the tongue stops and the perception of flavor fades... where the body stops and the perception of tactile sensation fades... where the intellect stops and the perception of idea/phenomenon fades: That dimension should be experienced."

The picture did not make it into the compo. I am unsurprised. One of my earlier works elicited the comment "when you have no talent, you have to intentionally do shit". Well, I'll admit that I've previously done semi-intentionally bad prods as a self-deprecating gesture, but, even when I try, I am reminded of the saying "shit has its maker" - and, dear reader, it is I. 

I also took part in the Animated Gif competition with this work:

Scroll of Happiness

Unsurprisingly, it was disqualified as well. In fact, since the organizers of the party are german, and you can find a swastika in there, I think it might've even been illegal if they'd shown it publicly.

These days, overly strict rules and rigid adherence thereto are colloquially called "nazi". So, it's ironically funny that this ageless symbol is the subject of this kind of "nazi" regulation. As a buddhist, I will continue to try and take back the Swastika. After all, the "nazis" were a mere blip in the history of the Swastika, the NSDAP no longer exists, so I see no reason for the continued demonization of this ancient symbol. Furthermore, since the Swastika is a sacred, holy symbol in several world religions, banning it is religious persecution - inadvertently, perhaps.

So, in the spirit of reclaiming this symbol, here's another Swastika animation. This was done in Processing:

Assembly Creative Tech 2021

I went to Assembly Creative Tech 2021, an event held in lieu of Assembly Summer this year. I took part in the Freestyle Graphics competition with this picture:

Buddha field

“If a disciple were to speak as follows, ‘I have to create a serene and beautiful Buddha field’, that person is not yet truly a disciple. Why? What the Buddha calls a ‘serene and beautiful Buddha field’ is not in fact a serene and beautiful Buddha field. And that is why it is called a serene and beautiful Buddha field. Subhuti, only a disciple who is wholly devoid of any conception of separate selfhood is worthy of being called a disciple.” - Diamond Sutra 

For this picture, I took a photo of this miniature Buddha in my light box. The listing identifies the Buddha as Maitreya, the coming fifth of the Buddhas of our kalpa; so, it is fitting that there are more than one Buddha pictured. It is said in the Vimalakirti Sutra that our kalpa is to have 1000 buddhas in total; thus, it is called "the worthy kalpa".

The software I used are Inkscape, Gimp and a program called Inspirit. The image layout is based on a vision I had once.

Prints are available on RedBubble.

It placed 11/12 in the compo. Here it is being shown on the main screen: