Via Daily Dharma: Remember the Truth

 

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Remember the Truth What if we remembered the underlying truth that each of us is always changing, preciously impermanent, and lacking any essential qualities that divide and distinguish us from one another? Billy Wynne, “The Emptiness of Love” CLICK HERE TO READ THE ARTICLE

Via Dhamma Wheel | Right Speech: Refraining from False Speech

 

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RIGHT SPEECH Refraining from False Speech False speech is unhealthy. Refraining from false speech is healthy. (MN 9) Abandoning false speech, one dwells refraining from false speech, a truth-speaker, one to be relied on, trustworthy, dependable, not a deceiver of the world. One does not in full awareness speak falsehood for one’s own ends, or for another’s ends, or for some trifling worldly end. (DN 1) One practices thus: "Others may speak falsely, but I shall abstain from false speech." (MN 8) Such speech as you know to be true, correct, and beneficial but which is unwelcome and disagreeable to others—know the time to use such speech. (MN 58)

Reflection Sometimes we have to speak the truth to people who don’t want to hear it or to powers that feel threatened by it. Right speech does not mean retreating from such difficult encounters. Even if something is “unwelcome and disagreeable” we should still speak up if it is true. But right speech is skillful speech, and it is necessary to take on such communication with care. Daily Practice The next time you need to have a difficult discussion—when someone needs to hear something that is true but you know it will be unwelcome and disagreeable—see if you can bring the skills of right speech to the occasion. Notice that timeliness is one of such skills, as is not being harsh or abusive. But refraining from false speech does not mean refraining from true speech, and you should speak the truth with confidence. Tomorrow: Reflecting upon Bodily Action One week from today: Refraining from Malicious Speech Share your thoughts and join the conversation on social media #DhammaWheel Questions? Visit the Dhamma Wheel orientation page.

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Via Rachael - Love Serve Remember Foundation \\\ Ram Dass on Finding the "Right" Spiritual Practice

 

This week, Ram Dass answers an audience question about finding the right spiritual practice - and how what's 'right' will likely change over time: "go slow, don't get too gung ho. Don't figure you're gonna get enlightened yesterday. Relax." The full lecture is also linked below...  Weekly Teaching [Audio + Article Below]: Ram Dass Answers an Audience Question on Finding the Right Spiritual Practice  TOMORROW - March 19 — Free Live Call and Q&A with Sharon Salzberg: Resting As Loving Awareness: Save Your Spot!  June 6 in NYC: A Day in the Heart — A Benefit with Krishna Das, Sharon Salzberg & More  There's still space for you in the Mountains: Retreat in community with us this August 27 - 31st. Ram Dass on Finding the "Right" Spiritual Practice for the Moment An audience Q&A from the Listening Heart Series in 1989 [Listen Here] In this 43-minute lecture from the 1989 'Listening Heart' series, Ram Dass explores explores the benefits of practices in meditation, how different practices work for different individuals, and the individuals' role in spiritual growth. The transformation for the initial part is to move the plane, the perspective from where you're sitting. So a discipline, but not too violent, don't get ahead of yourself. And if you feel it's too rigid, stop for a while and try other forms. Keep allowing the eclecticism to go until you feel pulled genuinely into a deeper process. - Ram Dass Audience Member: How do I discipline myself to practice with compassion and with no judgment? Ram Dass: There is a matter of timing in sadhana [spiritual practice] that's important to keep in mind, I mentioned it a little bit last night that we tend to overthink. So we often choose a sadhana, a spiritual practice, a little before its time or before it chooses us, before the marriage works, and we find ourselves in this ought and should predicament where you start out with great love and within a little while it's, "Oh my God, I got to do my practice." And it's like another thing like washing the dishes. And certainly there is value in doing a practice regularly every day, even when you don't want to do it, especially in meditation practice, because in meditation practice, the not wanting to do it is as much grist for the mill of meditation as wanting to do it, it's all stuff you can work with, with your mind. That's very beautiful. But the delicate balance that has to go on inside oneself, recognizing that if you build up too much negative tone to your practice, too much resistance, you're going to have a reaction to it that's going to take you away from it for a while before you can come back later on. A lot of people were so gung ho in their spiritual practices early on, I remember in the early seventies that you find them five years later at the local bars, drinking beer and watching television and talking about how they used to do spiritual practices and how they fell off the path. Now it isn't really falling off the path, it's just another part of the path. But part of that violent reaction was because of the impurities with which they did it in the first place. So my usual guidance is to go slow, is to not get too gung ho. Don't figure you're gonna get enlightened yesterday. Relax. Just start to tune. Now, the other thing is when you say, "I found my practice," you can't assume that the practice you found is the practice that's going to last you for the rest of your life. Because who found that practice is in the course of the practice going to change into somebody else. And so the practice that was appropriate for the person initially may not be appropriate a little way down the line. So you've got to keep staying open. So you hear all these delicate balances that are going on in you. One is the value of deepening a practice. Like Swami Satchidananda was criticizing me for being such an eclectic dilettante. And he said, "Well, you can't just go around digging shallow wells everywhere. You've got to dig a deep well so that you get fresh water," which is just a metaphor, that I could counter with, you know, another metaphor that would be equally as sweet for the other argument. But when I watch people over time, what I see is that they start out quite eclectically, and then they get drawn into one practice quite deeply, and then when they come out the other end, like Ramakrishna, then they can do all practices, and they're all the same practice, alright? So it's like a funnel. It goes in, and then it goes out again. So my answer is that you go gently. Gurdjieff said an interesting thing, he was a Russian philosopher, and he said that an alarm clock that'll wake you up one moment, you can sleep right through later on. And he said you need to keep finding new alarm clocks to awaken you because you can have something that awakens you out of your sleepwalking, of normal waking consciousness, and it works one moment like something you read, and a moment later, you're reading it and you're busy planning your shopping list while you're reading it. I mean, you've gone completely to sleep in the process of doing it. So all of these are merely variables that you have to keep in mind as you're proceeding with your practice. And in terms of the question of discipline, you've got to work very gently with pressing against it, making right effort without turning it into a neurotic achievement game, which we in the West are masters of... >> Keep it going... Listen to the full lecture on YouTube right here.

Via Ram Dass - Love Serve Remember Foundation \\\ Words of Wisdom - March 18, 2026 🏔️

 

“I agree with the Buddha: Satsang is beautiful. I treasure it, it is family. Satsang is a group of people pointed at truth.”   Source: Ram Dass Here & Now - Ep. 115 – Satsang and Taking Risks

Via FB // A young man once approached a wise monk and asked...

A young man once approached a wise monk and asked,

“How do I stop overthinking?”

The monk replied:

“You overthink because your mind is trying to protect you… from a future that does not yet exist.

Tell me—who has ever seen tomorrow?

Whatever you fear about it is not reality, but imagination wearing the mask of truth.

So the mind creates problems that aren’t real…

and then exhausts itself trying to solve them.

Like a cat spinning in circles, chasing its own tail.

If you wish to be free, remember two things.

First—your thoughts are not facts.

Most of what you worry about will never happen.

Second—life will unfold as it must.

Release what you cannot control, and respond wisely to what actually comes.

Do this, and your restless mind transforms…

from a loop of fear into a steady river—

flowing, adapting, and at peace with whatever lies ahead.

Understand this clearly:

the mind is often trying to solve problems it created itself.

Trust life.

Act where you can.

Let go where you cannot.

This is the way.”

Moral:

Overthinking is not wisdom—it is fear pretending to be preparation.

Peace begins the moment you stop battling an imagined future… and start living in the present.

Via FB // Meet Jack Baker and Michael McConnell.

In 1971, two men walked into a county office in Minnesota and walked out with a marriage license. It wasn't a stunt or a protest prop. It was a real license, stamped and issued by the state.

Meet Jack Baker and Michael McConnell.

The couple had already tried in Minneapolis. The clerk there refused to process the application. So Baker and McConnell tried a different strategy. They drove about 80 miles south to Blue Earth County and applied again. This time, the paperwork went through.

On September 3, 1971, county clerk Gerald Nelson issued the license. A few days later, the couple married in Minneapolis. A Methodist minister performed the ceremony. For a brief moment, two men were legally married in the United States.

Of course, the state quickly tried to undo it. Officials declared the license invalid and the case headed to court. Baker and McConnell fought back, arguing Minnesota law never explicitly banned two men from marrying.

The case eventually reached the U.S. Supreme Court.

In 1972, the justices dismissed it with a single sentence, saying the issue did not raise a “substantial federal question.” That one line froze marriage equality lawsuits for decades. Courts kept citing Baker v. Nelson as settled law.

But Baker and McConnell never gave up their claim. They stayed together. They insisted their marriage was real.

In 2015, the Supreme Court legalized same sex marriage nationwide in Obergefell v. Hodges. That decision quietly erased the legal barrier created by the 1972 dismissal.

Minnesota officials later acknowledged something remarkable. The 1971 marriage had never actually been dissolved. Which means Jack Baker and Michael McConnell were legally married all along.

More than forty years before marriage equality became the law of the land, two men already had the paperwork to prove it. They had insisted their marriage was legal all along. Turns out, they were right.

They're still married today.

Via GBF -- "Loving-Kindness Practice: Cutting Through Everyday Anxiety" with Sean Feit Oakes

Our latest dharma talk is now available on the GBF website, podcast and YouTube channel:

Loving-Kindness Practice: Cutting Through Everyday Anxiety – Sean Feit Oakes

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How can we cultivate a heart that remains open and loving regardless of the external circumstances we face?

 

In this talk, Sean Feit Oakes explores the Brahma Viharas, also known as the "divine abodes" or states of the heart, as a comprehensive framework for answering this question. He explains that while the Buddha is often associated with wisdom, these practices of love are foundational for both laypeople and monastics to access extraordinary states of consciousness.

 

He describes these four qualities not as separate entities, but as the "song" love sings depending on the context it encounters:

• Loving-kindness (Metta): The quintessential quality of friendliness and unbounded, impersonal love.
• Compassion (Karuna): What happens when loving-kindness encounters suffering and pain.
• Empathic Joy (Mudita): Also referred to as "celebration," this is love encountering well-being or beauty.
• Equanimity (Upekkha): A balanced, resting state of love that exists beyond specific objects or conditions, helping to prevent love from turning into grasping.

Sean weaves together diverse influences, from the devotional lineage of Neem Karoli Baba to modern poetry, to illustrate how a dedicated practice of love can cut through everyday neuroses and anxiety. He emphasizes that love inevitably brings us into contact with both beauty and the "heartbreak" of the world's suffering, yet it remains the primary vehicle for healing and waking up.

 

Drawing on the Kalama Sutta, he encourages listeners to test these practices for themselves through direct experience rather than blind faith. He invites us to "turn on" the quality of love within the heart and allow it to lead one's movements and perceptions in daily life, suggesting that communities moving from a place of love have the power to ripple out and change the world.

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Enjoy 900+ free recorded dharma talks at https://gaybuddhist.org/podcast/

The Real Enemy Isn’t Doctrine — It’s Outsourcing Perception

Author: Alison Marshall Categories: Baha'i Scripture Deep Dive

Via Daily Dharma: Complete Selflessness

 

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Complete Selflessness If enlightenment is, among other things, complete selflessness, then only when we have rid ourselves of selfishness to the point where we are no longer greedy, even for the fruits of training, do we really reach the “goal” of the Way. Francis Dojun Cook, “Bodhicitta’s Ripple Effect” CLICK HERE TO READ THE ARTICLE

Via Dhamma Wheel | Right Intention: Cultivating Lovingkindness

 

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RIGHT INTENTION Cultivating Lovingkindness Whatever you intend, whatever you plan, and whatever you have a tendency toward, that will become the basis on which your mind is established. (SN 12.40) Develop meditation on lovingkindness, for when you develop meditation on lovingkindness, all ill will will be abandoned. (MN 62)  The proximate cause of lovingkindness is seeing the lovable qualities of beings. (Vm 9.93)

Reflection We can all practice being kinder to one another. If we are able to make lovingkindness the basis upon which our mind is established, then we will all become kinder. The principle is so simple: the emotions we feed and nurture will grow stronger, and their opposites will starve and eventually die off. The immediate benefit of such practice is not only the growth of kindness but also the withering of hate and ill will. Daily Practice The way to develop lovingkindness is to bring to mind the lovable qualities of others. Try looking at a puppy or a kitten. Don’t you just love it? It has many lovable qualities. All the people you know also have such qualities; you just have to look for them and call them to mind. Practice seeing how often you can find something lovable in another person, even someone you might not like that much. Cultivate lovingkindness. Tomorrow: Refraining from False Speech One week from today: Cultivating Compassion Share your thoughts and join the conversation on social media #DhammaWheel Questions? Visit the Dhamma Wheel orientation page.

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