1. How can wisdom arise from emotions?
2. What is your predominant Buddha Family?
3. What are the ruling emotions and wisdoms of your Buddha Family?

• Verbal/Linguistic – yes
• Visual/Spatial – yes
• Bodily/Kinesthetic – yes
• Intrapersonal – yes
• Interpersonal – yes
• Musical/Rhythmic -no
• Logical/Mathematical/Scientific (environmental) -yes

1. Origami paper in red, yellow, blue, white and green.
2. Origami folding instructions:

1. Have a discussion about Lotuses. Talk about how lotuses compare to the mind. Bring up what Vimalikiriti tells Manjushri. Read what Rinpoche’s commentary is on this passage in the sutra. (See below)

2. Discuss what the dominant emotion and wisdom is of each family Buddha Family and have students choose which Buddha Family and they want to work with.

3. Choose the color origami paper associated with each Buddha Family Color. Fold the lotus with the folding instructions provided in the pdf download.

4. Write an emotion on the bottom side of the lotus and a wisdom in the front.

5. Offer the lotuses to the shrine.

“Just as the lotus, born of mud, is not tainted thereby, So the lotus of the Buddha preserves the realization of voidness.” – Vimalakīrti

From a more intellectual and practical perspective, emotions only become so-called emotions – ‘so-called’ is important here – when they are not accompanied by awareness. How does that work? Imagine you are peeing in the open air. Suddenly, you notice someone walking directly towards you. What is your automatic reaction? To stop peeing – it’s part of our conditioning. Similarly, when you feel extreme anger, jealousy and pride, if you inject even a drop of the virus of awareness into that emotion, it will get sick. And a sick emotion is what you need, because a sick emotion is a weak emotion. The problem is that most of us leave it far too late to inject ourselves, and that delay helps our emotions become enormously fat and surprisingly agile. This is why Buddha offered us this path, and it’s a path that can be distinguished from all others because simply being aware is entirely painless.

Most people expect that first injection of awareness to work immediately, but as it’s the first time in hundreds of lifetimes that we have applied awareness to our emotions, the effect will only last for a split second. We also expect every scrap of jealousy, or anger, or pride to disappear instantly and forever – and obviously, that doesn’t happen. It’s because we continue to experience emotions that some practitioners become disillusioned with their practice. Having spent so many years meditating and flattened hundreds of zafus, how is it possible still to feel jealous? It’s very discouraging. Learn to be satisfied with consistency. Every time an emotion arises, just be satisfied that you remembered to inject it with that irritating virus of awareness. It’ll take a few years to see any observable effects, but in time, you will begin to notice your emotions as they arise and, eventually, you may even be able to laugh at yourself for feeling jealous in the first place. Jealousy isn’t the only emotion that can overwhelm you, all emotions can – feeling ridiculous, for example.

Beginners on the spiritual path have no idea what obstacles look like. Your responses to your emotional risings are like weeds in a flowerbed and unless you are a gardener you won’t know the difference. Learning to identify a weed as a weed will take time, but once you can do that, you are not doing badly.

– Dzongsar Khyentse Rinpoche (from the A Celebrity Falls Sick)

Origami Buddha on a Lotus

The Lotus Effect: Make Your Own Lotus