Three objects, three poisons, three seeds of virtue.

 Alder Catkins Kaleidoscope - photographed and created by Trina Stephenson

          A kaleidoscope's tube contains a collection of small, loose objects, such as beads, confetti and bits of colored glass. Patterns are created with these objects through multiple reflections. Usually three mirrors are attached together inside the scope, creating a triangular shape with the objects at one end. Peering through the eyehole at the other end of the cylinder, a colorful mandala can be seen, formed by the reflections. As the tube is turned, the objects are rearranged in various positions; no pattern is ever exactly the same as before. The objects in our lives are the people and things we categorize: friend/asset, enemy/affliction and nobody/insignificance. Our feelings about these groups are like the mirrors; each one reflects how our emotions color our perceptions. They create the poisons of attachment (craving), aggression (aversion), and indifference (ignorance). Like a kaleidoscope's design, they create a pattern too - of behavior and thought. Instead of being helpful, these reactions become entrenched and cause suffering. As the scope creates numerous designs, so we have many habitual responses. Awareness of how our beliefs arise and result in perpetual reaction can transform the poisons into seeds. We can pause and look at what stains our viewpoint. Instead of simply reacting, we can aspire to act with compassion. Breathing in the emotion (rather than the story around it) and breathing out with tenderness, we send out a wish that all beings be free from craving, aversion and ignorance. Without an object to focus on, the emotional energy dissipates on its own.

For more information on the eighth slogan, go here.