Pocket Buddhas

“Pokémon” is short for Pocket Monsters — so these are Pocket Buddhas. Collectible teaching cards in that aesthetic. Series I · The Awakened Ones.

✎ Digital Template ✎ Hand-Drawn Set 📖 Iconography Guide

✦ The Cloud-Cover Cards

Dharma teaching cards. The sun is Buddha-nature — always whole, never diminished; the veils are clouds that only hide it. One jewel runs the whole deck: hidden, then gleaming, then revealed.

Buddha-Nature cardBuddha-Nature Ādikarmika cardĀdikarmika Kleśa-āvaraṇa cardKleśa-āvaraṇa Jñeya-āvaraṇa cardJñeya-āvaraṇa

☸ The Wheel of Life

Saṃsāra — the round of becoming. Turned by the three poisons, held in the jaws of Death; its six realms are the worlds we are reborn into, and beyond it a Buddha points the way out.

The Wheel of LifeThe Wheel of Life · Bhavacakra
The God RealmGod · Pride The Asura RealmAsura · Jealousy The Human RealmHuman · Desire The Animal RealmAnimal · Ignorance The Hungry GhostsHungry Ghosts · Greed The Hell RealmHell · Hatred

✦ The Three Poisons

The hub of the Wheel — the engine that turns it all. Greed, hatred, and delusion, biting one another's tails; delusion at the root. Name each, and its antidote is already there.

DelusionDelusion · the Pig GreedGreed · the Rooster HatredHatred · the Snake

✦ The Twelve Links

Pratītyasamutpāda — dependent origination. The chain that turns the Wheel: each link conditions the next, and the loop closes on itself — until wisdom cuts the root (Ignorance), or awareness opens the gap between Feeling and Craving.

Ignorance1 · Ignorance Formations2 · Formations Consciousness3 · Consciousness Name and Form4 · Name & Form Six Senses5 · Six Senses Contact6 · Contact Feeling7 · Feeling Craving8 · Craving Grasping9 · Grasping Becoming10 · Becoming Birth11 · Birth Aging and Death12 · Aging & Death

✦ The Antidotes

Series II — the cards you play. Every poison, veil, and link names its cure; here the cures become playable. The Six Pāramitās plus Loving-kindness and Mindfulness — and the chain breaks only when we cut it for one another.

WisdomWisdom · Prajñā GenerosityGenerosity · Dāna Loving-kindnessLoving-kindness · Mettā PatiencePatience · Kṣānti EthicsEthics · Śīla ConcentrationConcentration · Dhyāna EffortEffort · Vīrya MindfulnessMindfulness · Sati