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
my things
Monday, April 1, 2024
Two three-fold wheels
Sunday, March 3, 2024
Instanssi 2024
This weekend, I attended the Instanssi 2024 demoparty. I participated in the Graphics Compo with this work:
Cosmic Serenity |
"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".
Friday, December 1, 2023
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 |
Monday, November 20, 2023
Comparade 2023
This past weekend, the Comparade 2023 party was held. I remotely entered the following graphics piece:
Pink Enlightenment |
Monday, November 6, 2023
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 |
The face after halftone treatment |
The "trial run" |
The final entry |
Tuesday, October 10, 2023
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:
Saturday, September 23, 2023
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 |
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.
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.
Friday, August 4, 2023
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.
Friday, July 21, 2023
Sunday, June 11, 2023
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?
Sunday, March 5, 2023
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.
Friday, August 5, 2022
Assembly 2022: Sky Mind
Sky Mind |
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 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.
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
Saturday, June 4, 2022
Sailing in Greece 2022
Monday, April 18, 2022
Instanssi/Revision 2022
Samatha |
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 |
Sunday, November 7, 2021
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:
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".“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
Buddha field