Some site changes

I recently changed the design of the site a little bit, and I wanted to explain what everything means. The two graphics on the left and right of the title are the compassionate eyes of Buddha, painted on a Tibetan temple. The squiggle between the eyes is not a nose but a stylized sanskrit character for "unity." (This reflects the Buddhist idea of nondualism.) There is also a third eye of wisdom that can be made out above the squiggle. The eyes are meditating, as indicated by the droop of the eyelids. The Tibetan script below the blog title means "Gate gate paragate parasamgate bodhi svaha" which is the mantra of the perfection of wisdom (prajnaparamita), and is a mantra that is close to my heart. I've mentioned translations of this a couple of times before, but again, it basically means "gone, gone beyond, gone completely beyond, enlightenment, so be it." The quote on the right is
number 8 in the 37 practices of a Bodhisattva. The full quote is


The suffering of lower realms, so difficult to bear,
Is the fruit of wrong deeds, so the Buddha taught.
Therefore, even at the cost of your life,
Never to commit negative actions is the practice of a Bodhisattva.


An example given to us by Lama Karma Chötso concerns whether or not it is okay to kill someone, even if that is the only way to stop them from killing you. The answer is an unequivocal NO. By intentionally killing another human being, no matter what the circumstances, you accumulate so much negative karma that you will be reborn in a hell realm and suffer for countless lifetimes. Someone asked why it's not better to prevent our attacker from killing us, because then we are selflessly saving them from future suffering. The Lama said that if that were our motivation, then this would be appropriate, but that it was very easy to deceive ourselves about our true motivations. If we kill a would-be attacker, are we really thinking "I have just resigned myself to an almost infinite amount of suffering to save this sentient being from a similar fate." I doubt that in my current spiritual condition that that's what I would be thinking.