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To make your own dodecahedron, download a free printable

Template . Use a heavy paper or card. Decorate, place a small marble or ball bearing inside and stick together.

Roll it in the morning to see which one to work with ….

Or use in other creative ways… have fun!

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I was trying to show a couple of things through my creative contribution. First, for me the 6 pairs aren't about escaping dukkha - it's there, that's unavoidable. Someone in the group commented that it almost looks like a stop sign in my representation. It's about what happens next, not getting stuck on the dukkha but responding to it skilfully. That's where the 6 pairs come in. Second, the pairs might be needed in different balances and different ways (hence the different sizes and colours of words on the word map). They can help us respond wisely (i.e. with attunement to time, place and situation). Through investigation and practice with the 6 pairs they can start to colour our instinctive responses to different circumstances and challenges, developing the wisdom with which we respond.

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'Winter Studio Window' a copper etching, was made at this time of the year about ten years ago in the Superintendant's room of a former Baptist chapel, rented as a studio.

It was cold!

One of the first prints I made (and to my astonishment the first that someone bought) it is significant to me now though many others have followed on. I realise in retrospect that I was 'in the flow' at the time. Open to possibilities, curious and experimenting, drawing spontaneously direct on the copper, there were no real expectations and there was total absorption in the process. The six pairs (or most of them) may have been in balance , though I was unaware of it.

Etching is alchemic and also serendipitous-you're never sure quite what the action of the mordant (ferric chloride) on the soft copper will yield. A chancy business! A bit like life.....

Finding ways to step aside, get out of one's own way, creating the conditions so that gentleness, that 'beginner's mind' can flourish is perhaps the creative task of the everyday?

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Winter-Studio Window  etching Jude Freeman.JPG

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Perfection of Skill in Being: The Six Pairs

Standing straight as an arrow aiming at the heavens but firm on the earth

Softly from the heart centre of being.

Shooting forth golden streams, like molten flames, purifying obstacles and hindrances.

The bow is flexible and bends easily with the intention of the archer.

It sits lightly in the hand, but the string is taut

Allowing the arrow to go directly to the mark.

Archer and arrow are as one.

Enter ye at the strait gate: for wide is the gate and broad is the way that leadeth to destruction, and many there be that go in thereat:

Because strait is the gate and narrow is the way which leadeth unto life, and few there be that find it.

Matthew 7:13/14

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a story in Dhammapada atthakatha style

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He walked upright, confident

Light steps buoyant

A soft countenance open

Ready to receive and respond

Proficiently, honestly to

Everyone and everything

A man who exuded tranquillity

While engaged with all that is

And ultimately, is not

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Suggestions for investigating the six pairs on an individual basis

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Suggestions for investigating the six pairs on an individual basis

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Suggestions for investigating the six pairs on an individual basis

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A Poem of Six Pairs

Calmness, the stillness of morning air,
A quiet strength, beyond compare.
Steadying the heart, soothing the mind,
A peaceful refuge for all to find.

Lightness, the clouds that drift and play,
Carrying burdens far away.
A gentle lift, a freeing release,
A dance of joy, a touch of peace.

Softness, the whisper that calms the storm,
Breaking through pride, reshaping form.
It softens the heart, clears the mind,
Releasing the grip of views confined.

Adaptability, a gentle force,
It transforms ill will, shifts its course.
It frees the heart from doubt’s tight grip,
Releasing attachment with each soft slip.

Proficiency, a skill refined,
It quiets doubt, sharpens the mind.
With competence, it makes its way,
Overcoming vacillation, clear as day.

Straightness, a line that cuts through the deception,
It dissolves the schemes and needless misconception.
With clarity, it clears the blur,
Overcoming complexity with honest gaze.

Together they shape a life refined,
A steady guide for heart and mind.
In their presence, a rhythm flows,
A timeless path that ever grows.

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Uju lahu mudu pagu

Paguñña and passaddhi

All worked in with skilful kamma

kammañña kammaññatā

In one structure can we find them?

In one heart confine and bind them?

Where to find the secret sign

To find these jewels and make them mine?

The Buddha said: The roots of trees

Are where to sit, come sun or freeze

There are the roots of trees: go sit

And work it out, with all you wit.

I did. I sat. I thought a lot.

And still, and still I found it not.

Until I saw in what he spoke:

So plain it was: his little joke.

Of course: A tree!

How very slow and dumb of me.

What other thing, or which or who

Are all the things that end in -u

The uhu, lahu, mudu pagu:

,

I’m uju upright, stand aloft

I bend in gales, that’s mudu: soft

Though seeming heavy: lahu - light

I bear my load without a fight

Paguññatā - My thread of skill

Runs though it all so quiet and still

Gentry ruling every leaf

Passaddhi keeps me free of grief.

That isn’t how I’ve led my life

But maybe why I fled my wife.

But now it’s clear: I’ll strive to be

With all those virtues: like a tree

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Article on the six pairs