Saturday, April 10, 2021
Via Daily Dharma: Start with a Clean Slate
Unlike a painting, our minds are not fixed. It is like the image is wiped clean
and a new one is created every moment. While the next image will often
be very similar to the previous one, it is never exactly the same.
—Khentrul Rinpoche, “A New Mind Each Moment”
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Via Tricycle // Engaging with the Truths of Suffering
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April 10, 2021
Engaging with the Truths of Suffering
Engaging with the Truths of Suffering
The four noble truths
are the very essence of the Buddha’s teachings. Beginning with the
radical declaration of the first truth—that everything in our lives is
qualified by suffering—they lay out the existence of suffering, its
causes, the possibility of its cessation, and the means of its cessation
(the eightfold path).
At a time of widespread global suffering, these truths matter more than ever. But their value goes beyond their ability to help us to understand the nature of suffering. They also provide us with a practical set of principles for actively engaging with the reality of suffering in our world.
Soto Zen priest Rev. Keiryu Liên Shutt, a former social worker who spent 10 years working with homeless seniors, has devoted her life to putting the four truths into action. She reminds us that these are truths to be lived by, not just learned or memorized. We can apply and embody them in our everyday lives to actively engage with hardship and injustice.
Watch this new four-part Dharma Talk series to discover Shutt’s reframing of the four noble truths as the four engaged noble truths and to learn how they can enliven us, reconnect us with a sense of wholeness, and inspire real-world engagement.
At a time of widespread global suffering, these truths matter more than ever. But their value goes beyond their ability to help us to understand the nature of suffering. They also provide us with a practical set of principles for actively engaging with the reality of suffering in our world.
Soto Zen priest Rev. Keiryu Liên Shutt, a former social worker who spent 10 years working with homeless seniors, has devoted her life to putting the four truths into action. She reminds us that these are truths to be lived by, not just learned or memorized. We can apply and embody them in our everyday lives to actively engage with hardship and injustice.
Watch this new four-part Dharma Talk series to discover Shutt’s reframing of the four noble truths as the four engaged noble truths and to learn how they can enliven us, reconnect us with a sense of wholeness, and inspire real-world engagement.
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Via Lion's Roar // Ram Dass: To Love & Serve
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| Ram Dass: To Love & Serve | ||
Sara Davidson remembers the American spiritual icon Ram Dass, born 90 years ago today. |
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Via Lion's Roar // The Sunlight of Awareness
The Sunlight of Awareness
Shine the warm light of awareness on your thoughts and feelings, says Thich Nhat Hanh.
Observe the changes that take place in your mind under the light of awareness. Even your breathing has changed and become “not-two” (I don’t want to say “one”) with your observing self. This is true of all your thoughts, feelings and habits, which, together with their effects, are suddenly transformed.
From time to time you may become restless, and the restlessness will not go away. At such times, just sit quietly, follow your breathing, smile a half-smile, and shine your awareness on the restlessness. Don’t judge it or try to destroy it, because this restlessness is you yourself. It is born, has some period of existence, and fades away, quite naturally. Don’t be in too big a hurry to find its source. Don’t try too hard to make it disappear. Just illuminate it. You will see that little by little it will change, merge, become connected with you, the observer. Any psychological state that you subject to this illumination will eventually soften and acquire the same nature as the observing mind.
Throughout your meditation, keep the sun of your awareness shining. Like the physical sun, which lights every leaf and every blade of grass, our awareness lights our every thought and feeling, allowing us to recognize them, be aware of their birth, duration, and dissolution, without judging or evaluating, welcoming or banishing them.
It is important that you do not consider awareness to be your “ally,” called on to suppress the “enemies” that are your unruly thoughts. Do not turn your mind into a battlefield. Opposition between good and bad is often compared to light and dark, but if we look at it in a different way, we will see that when light shines, darkness does not disappear. It doesn’t leave; it merges with the light. It becomes the light.
To meditate does not mean to fight with a problem. To meditate means to observe. Your smile proves it. It proves that you are being gentle with yourself, that the sun of awareness is shining in you, that you have control of your situation. You are yourself, and you have acquired some peace. It is this peace that makes a child love to be near you.
Adapted from “The Sun, My Heart: Reflections on Mindfulness, Concentration and Insight,” published by Parallax Press.
Make the jump here to read the original and more
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