A personal blog by a graying (mostly Anglo with light African-American roots) gay left leaning liberal progressive married college-educated Buddhist Baha'i BBC/NPR-listening Professor Emeritus now following the Dharma in Minas Gerais, Brasil.
The eightfold path is a foundational Buddhist teaching offering eight practical guidelines for moral living, mental training, and wisdom as the way out of suffering.
Right action, one of the guidelines for moral living, aims at promoting honorable and peaceful conduct. Scholar Andrew Olendzki argues that at its core, right action translates as acts of kindness, including mental acts of kindness, and that cultivating this quality can change the world.
“The mental state of actively caring about someone and wishing them well is not to be taken for granted but is something to remind yourself of and practice doing often,” says Olendzki. “The more seeds of kindness you plant, even with your thoughts alone, the more healthy fruit of goodwill and love you will reap. When these thoughts spill over into words and deeds expressing loving-kindness, all the better.”
Join Olendzki on Thursday, May 7 at 1 p.m. ET for a free online workshop exploring intention and kindness through the lens of the eightfold path as a starting place for social action.
Workshop participants will receive a special discount on Dhamma Wheel, Olendzki’s year-long daily contemplative study email program.
Also this week:
In our latest podcast episode, Theravada monk Thanissaro Bhikkhu breaks down what the Buddha really meant by not-self. Listen here.
A new month means a new film! Living Sanctuaries: The Monasteries of Zanskar follows the architecture firm Studio Nyandak on their research expedition to document and preserve the history of Buddhist monasteries in the Zanskar Valley of Ladakh, India.
