Users' Avatars

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weitsicht
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Users' Avatars

Post by weitsicht »

Queequeg (a Moby Dick character whose pronunciation is beyond my imagination) misses the middle finger
Ayu eternally sits on a bench - as skeleton in what I take to be a bridal dress (?)
Johnny Dangerous is balancing out on pink flowers and a Buddha statue
Hazel's Avatar is a Tortoiseshell cat, which by fur colour most probably is female
And then we have this oversized nodding, grinning Guru PadmaVonSamba

I come to wonder what that wants to tell me. Maybe not much, maybe very much.

You want explain?
Add?
Who's your favorite avatar in the forum?
Ho! All the possible appearances and existences of samsara and nirvana have the same source, yet two paths and two results arise as the magical display of awareness and unawareness.
HO NANG SRI KHOR DAE THAMCHE KUN ZHI CHIG LAM NYI DRAE BU NYI RIG DANG MA RIG CHOM THRUL TE
narhwal90
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Re: Users' Avatars

Post by narhwal90 »

Caoimhghín - mostly because the name seems pronouncable at first glance but then you look closer and....
denise
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Re: Users' Avatars

Post by denise »

must admit that covering the laughing cartoon Buddha is helpful to reading.... :jumping:
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Kim O'Hara
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Re: Users' Avatars

Post by Kim O'Hara »

denise wrote: Mon Apr 12, 2021 12:30 pm must admit that covering the laughing cartoon Buddha is helpful to reading.... :jumping:
+ 1

- but the reading is always worthwhile. :smile:

:coffee:
Kim
denise
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Re: Users' Avatars

Post by denise »

yes....always
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Queequeg
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Re: Users' Avatars

Post by Queequeg »

My son is of that age where when he goes to a friend's birthday party, well, back in the pre-covid days there were birthday parties... I digress... the kids get a goody bag of candy and trinkets (I really hate this custom - we end up with lots of useless plastic toys that either don't work out of the bag, or break after a single use - the mounds of trash that will outlast human civilization produced to fill kids treat bags are depressing to think about...)

So, to the point, my son got a pen with a skeleton hand cap. The middle finger broke off. I suppose there are different ways that it can be interpreted - a fist with an extended middle finger has a certain meaning; a hand missing that finger perhaps doesn't have that gesture in its vernacular. I saw it as a reference to Jerry Garcia, one of the the guitarists of the Grateful Dead. He was missing most of his middle finger on his right hand - he lost it when he was a child when his brother was chopping wood with an axe. Anyway, among Dead obsessionists, Jerry's hand is an iconic image.

Image
There is no suffering to be severed. Ignorance and klesas are indivisible from bodhi. There is no cause of suffering to be abandoned. Since extremes and the false are the Middle and genuine, there is no path to be practiced. Samsara is nirvana. No severance achieved. No suffering nor its cause. No path, no end. There is no transcendent realm; there is only the one true aspect. There is nothing separate from the true aspect.
-Guanding, Perfect and Sudden Contemplation,
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Hazel
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Re: Users' Avatars

Post by Hazel »

Oh, wow I'm famous! Or at least my cat is...

Correct regarding the description of my cat. I didn't know there were marking differences between sexes!

I'm a little obsessed with her. My teacher warns us that if we're too attached to our cats, we might be reborn as one!

She's also a complete pain in the ass, in natural tortie fashion. She is also missing her teeth and looks like like an old lady... Who is grumpy, judgey, and slightly pissed all the time. Like a little judge judy.
Happy Pride month to my queer dharma siblings!

What do you see when you turn out the lights?
reiun
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Re: Users' Avatars

Post by reiun »

narhwal90 wrote: Mon Apr 12, 2021 12:23 pm Caoimhghín - mostly because the name seems pronouncable at first glance but then you look closer and....
Here we go:
How to pronounce "Caoimhghín"

Hey, I listened to the English (UK) version +10x, and still no go. :shrug:

I did, however, learn "Saoirse", though (eventually).

P.S. Thank heavens for copy/paste.
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PadmaVonSamba
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Re: Users' Avatars

Post by PadmaVonSamba »

Professionally, I am in the laugh business.
My when lama friend visited the United States on two separate occasions, he gave me little statues of “Laughing Buddha” so I figured maybe there was a reason, and that maybe I should use that as an avatar too.
This “laughing Buddha” is regarded as an image of Maitreya.
At the same time, many very serious Buddhists only regard him as Ho Tai, who is in some ways like Santa Claus. He carries a big sack full of goodies to give to children. These very serious Buddhists get upset by this Ho Tai fellow. I think that is hilarious.
I also think it’s good to keep things like internet forums in perspective. Don’t get too wrapped up in the drama. Web forums, Facebook, it’s all just fluff, really. We should actually be spending this time meditating. How foolish and silly we all are!
That’s the reason for my avatar.
EMPTIFUL.
An inward outlook produces outward insight.
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Caoimhghín
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Re: Users' Avatars

Post by Caoimhghín »

reiun wrote: Mon Apr 12, 2021 2:38 pm
narhwal90 wrote: Mon Apr 12, 2021 12:23 pm Caoimhghín - mostly because the name seems pronouncable at first glance but then you look closer and....
Here we go:
How to pronounce "Caoimhghín"

Hey, I listened to the English (UK) version +10x, and still no go. :shrug:

I did, however, learn "Saoirse", though (eventually).

P.S. Thank heavens for copy/paste.
Kee-veen, stress on the first syllable.

Caoimh = lovely, fair, noble, royal
Ghín = birth, generation, age, family

Cognate with "Kevin."

My parents didn't know how to spell Irish but gave me an Irish name. It is spelled "Keevin" on my driver's license and birth certificate.

My former username here and current one over at the other wheel is a Vulgar Romance form of the Latin translation for "Caoimhghín," namely "Coëmgenu." Saint Coëmgenus was a medieval Irishman named Kevin who is celebrated by the Roman Church.
Then, the monks uttered this gāthā:

These bodies are like foam.
Them being frail, who can rejoice in them?
The Buddha attained the vajra-body.
Still, it becomes inconstant and ruined.
The many Buddhas are vajra-entities.
All are also subject to inconstancy.
Quickly ended, like melting snow --
how could things be different?

The Buddha passed into parinirvāṇa afterward.
(T1.27b10 Mahāparinirvāṇasūtra DĀ 2)
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Johnny Dangerous
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Re: Users' Avatars

Post by Johnny Dangerous »

Mine is just a Chenrezig statue I like.

For years I had Mr. Furious from Mystery Men as my Avatar, I might go back to that, I always identified with the character.
Meditate upon Bodhicitta when afflicted by disease

Meditate upon Bodhicitta when sad

Meditate upon Bodhicitta when suffering occurs

Meditate upon Bodhicitta when you are scared

-Khunu Lama
udawa
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Re: Users' Avatars

Post by udawa »

I wonder sometimes how much my reaction to a particular user's post is affected by the picture or the name. There is the marvellous opening of Great Expectations, which is relevant here I think:
I give Pirrip as my father’s family name, on the authority of his tombstone and my sister,—Mrs. Joe Gargery, who married the blacksmith. As I never saw my father or my mother, and never saw any likeness of either of them (for their days were long before the days of photographs), my first fancies regarding what they were like were unreasonably derived from their tombstones. The shape of the letters on my father’s, gave me an odd idea that he was a square, stout, dark man, with curly black hair. From the character and turn of the inscription, “Also Georgiana Wife of the Above,” I drew a childish conclusion that my mother was freckled and sickly. To five little stone lozenges, each about a foot and a half long, which were arranged in a neat row beside their grave, and were sacred to the memory of five little brothers of mine,—who gave up trying to get a living, exceedingly early in that universal struggle,—I am indebted for a belief I religiously entertained that they had all been born on their backs with their hands in their trousers-pockets, and had never taken them out in this state of existence.
Edwards: You are a philosopher. Dr Johnson: I have tried too in my time to be a philosopher; but, I don't know how, cheerfulness was always breaking in.
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Matt J
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Re: Users' Avatars

Post by Matt J »

It makes me a bit seasick, actually.
Kim O'Hara wrote: Mon Apr 12, 2021 12:33 pm
denise wrote: Mon Apr 12, 2021 12:30 pm must admit that covering the laughing cartoon Buddha is helpful to reading.... :jumping:
+ 1

- but the reading is always worthwhile. :smile:

:coffee:
Kim
"The world is made of stories, not atoms."
--- Muriel Rukeyser
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Budai
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Location: ༀ ∞ Nam Myoho Renge Kyo ∞ ༀ

Re: Users' Avatars

Post by Budai »

Ayu’s Avatar of a skeleton sitting on a rock(?), in a quiet suburban neighborhood. It means something to me. I went through a hardship and my “previous” skeleton is preserved somewhere, in a Sacred place. Those people who know that about me generally are my friends. Just Ayu having a picture of a skeleton in her Avatar makes me feel Metta. I Love human skeletons for that reason, and whenever I see one or see a picture or representation of one I offer my respects inwardly. As you can tell this has a deep Spiritual impact on me.

Nam Myoho Renge Kyo.

Om Mani Padme Hum.

All Peace.

:namaste:
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Shotenzenjin
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Re: Users' Avatars

Post by Shotenzenjin »

My first Avatar was a guy looking through a cats ass for binoculars. It was my good friend minobu who suggested that I change it to something better which I did.

I don't have the first Avatar on my phone now so can't post it. A funny one though
Generation's shall pass, our determination shall grow, at the foot of Mount Fuji
Like smoke that reaches far beyond the clouds.--nichimoku shonin. Third high priest of Nichiren Shoshu

Hokekko of true Buddhism https://nstny.org

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SilenceMonkey
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Re: Users' Avatars

Post by SilenceMonkey »

I like LastLegend's avatar, Jigong or "crazy Ji." It's fitting. :rolling:
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Kurp
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Re: Users' Avatars

Post by Kurp »

I only have one post, but someone might eventually be curious regarding my name and avi.

Explanation: I was watching this when I registered on the forum:



But I think I’m going to switch my avi soon as a nod to impermanence. Let’s see... what other imagery comes to mind when I think of the word “kURP”...?


ETA: Okay. Made the switch avi switch. Berries don’t remind me of kURP. I just liked the cartoon. :mrgreen:
Last edited by Kurp on Tue Apr 13, 2021 11:01 am, edited 1 time in total.
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Ayu
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Re: Users' Avatars

Post by Ayu »

weitsicht wrote: Mon Apr 12, 2021 12:08 pm ... Ayu [/i]eternally sits on a bench - as skeleton in what I take to be a bridal dress (?) ...

I come to wonder what that wants to tell me. Maybe not much, maybe very much.

You want explain? ...
It's a work I drew for my application portfolio before I was going to study art therapy. It's an hommage to Marilyn Monroe's famous photo by Milton Greene:
https://www.ecosia.org/images?q=marilyn ... 48D9D9E201

I was thinking of impermanence when I drew it, about the phenomenon how time passes and how phases melt to nothing. I thought of these phenomena as well when I chose the picture as avatar.
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weitsicht
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Re: Users' Avatars

Post by weitsicht »

Thanks for sharing all,
particuliarly Ayu
:anjali:

concerning PadmaVonSamba's Nodding, this frequency distracts my eyes from reading, but that's me...

By the way... where's Simon gone?
Ho! All the possible appearances and existences of samsara and nirvana have the same source, yet two paths and two results arise as the magical display of awareness and unawareness.
HO NANG SRI KHOR DAE THAMCHE KUN ZHI CHIG LAM NYI DRAE BU NYI RIG DANG MA RIG CHOM THRUL TE
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