- Dharma
- The word Hindus, Buddhists and Jains share for what holds. Its name, धर्म, is from √dhṛ, to hold, to uphold: the order of the world and the duty within it, and in the Buddha’s mouth the teaching itself. The ring gives the three a column each, each in its own script, each glossed by etymology rather than by summary.
- The ring
- The first of the seven rings, on the fourth verse of al-Fātiḥa: مَٰلِكِ يَوْمِ ٱلدِّينِ, Master of the Day of Dīn. Its function is how to sit still and be quiet — not calm but attention held under pressure: I must stay conscious through the madness and chaos. And its pairing is the sharpest of the seven: dharma, what is upheld, against dīn, what is owed.
- Contents
- Six pages, from the Bismillah to the Shahada: Dharma, three traditions in their own scripts; Karma, the wheel of life, the two epics and the schools; Ṛta, Sanskrit, two mantras and Tilopa on how to sit; al-Dīn, the three verses that license all seven rings; and a closing song.