Via Daily Dharma: Adjusting Your Rudder

 I liken the process of transforming habits to turning a cargo ship at sea. A large vessel with that much momentum can’t make sharp turns. However, a one- or two-degree course correction of the rudder, if held steady, will take that ship in a very different direction over time.

—Oren Jay Sofer, “Turning a Ship”

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Via Daily Dharma: Celebrate with Peace

 

[The holiday season] is a wonderful time, especially if we remember to celebrate with feelings of peace and good will, banish our harsh judgments and foolish prejudices, and remind ourselves of our interrelatedness with other people, sentient beings, and the natural environment that surrounds us.

—Reverend Earl Ikeda, “O Bodhi Tree, O Bodhi Tree”

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Via Dhamma Wheel // Maintaining Arisen Healthy States

 

RIGHT EFFORT
Maintaining Arisen Healthy States

Whatever a person frequently thinks about and ponders, that will become the inclination of their mind. If one frequently thinks about and ponders healthy states, one has abandoned unhealthy states to cultivate healthy states, and then one’s mind inclines to healthy states. (MN 19) Here a person rouses the will, makes an effort, stirs up energy, exerts the mind, and strives to maintain arisen healthy mental states. One maintains the arisen awakening factor of mindfulness. (MN 141)

Reflection

The premier list of healthy mental and emotional states includes the seven factors of awakening, the first of which is mindfulness. It is good to practice mindfulness frequently, for that will incline the mind to further mindfulness. Right effort has a lot to do with developing and maintaining healthy habits of mind and body. It is not always easy to do the right thing, and it often takes effort, but it is invariably good for us.

Daily Practice

The effort required to sustain the state of mindfulness over time—that is, over multiple mind moments in a row—is not the teeth-clenching discipline of forced action but rather the gentle willingness to come back to the present moment. See if you can access a way of understanding effort that is easeful and natural rather than strained. Think of the effort you put into doing the things you like to do—it is an easy effort.

Tomorrow: Establishing Mindfulness of Mental Objects and Abiding in the Fourth Jhāna
One week from today: Restraining Unarisen Unhealthy States

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Questions? Visit the Dhamma Wheel orientation page.

Via Tricycle // The Best Possible Life

 

The Best Possible Life By Seth Zuiho Segall

In the West, our deeply rooted ideal of human flourishing as the pinnacle of a good life has shaped the way we’ve adapted the dharma.

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Vi Daily Dharma: Cherishing Family //

 

While an attitude of nonattachment is essential, it would be sadly misguided to imagine we need to give up love and affection for our family members in order to follow the Bodhisattva Way of universal compassion.

—Lama Jampa Thaye, “Bringing It All Back Home”

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Via White Crane Institute // SOL INVICTUS

 

The Unconquered Sun 2017 - SOL INVICTUS ("the Unconquered Sun") or, more fully, Deus Sol Invictus ("the Unconquered Sun God") was the late Roman state sun god. The cult was created by the emperor Aurelian in 274 CE and continued until the abolition of paganism under Theodosius I. The Romans held a festival on December 25 called Dies Natalis Solis Invicti, "the birthday of the unconquered sun." The use of the title Sol Invictus allowed several solar deities to be worshipped collectively, including Elah-Gabal, a Syrian sun god; Sol, the patron god of Emperor Aurelian (270-274); and Mithras. Oh, and a Jewish upstart named Jesus. December 25th was also considered to be the date of the winter solstice, which the Romans called bruma. It was therefore the day the Sun proved itself to be "unconquered" despite the shortening of daylight hours. (When Julius Caesar introduced the Julian Calendar in 45 B.C.E., December 25th was approximately the date of the solstice. In modern times, the solstice falls on December 21st or 22nd.) The Sol Invictus festival has a "strong claim on the responsibility" for the date of Christmas, according to the Catholic Encyclopedia. Solar symbolism was popular with early Christian writers as Jesus was considered to be the "sun of righteousness." The date for Christmas may also bear a relation to the sun worship. According to the scholiast on the Syriac bishop Jacob Bar-Salibi, writing in the twelfth century: "It was a custom of the Pagans to celebrate on the same 25 December the birthday of the Sun, at which they kindled lights in token of festivity. In these solemnities and revelries the Christians also took part. Accordingly when the doctors of the Church perceived that the Christians had a leaning to this festival, they took counsel and resolved that the true Nativity should be solemnized on that day." (cited in "Christianity and Paganism in the Fourth to Eighth Centuries", Ramsay MacMullen. Yale:1997, p155)

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Via Be Here Now Network // Madison Margolin – Set and Setting – Ep. 2 – Connecting the Dots with Jason Pinsky

  Madison Margolin – Set and Setting – Ep. 2 – Connecting the Dots with Jason Pinsky
December 21, 2021 Jason Pinsky joins Madison Margolin for a conversation about connecting the dots of The Pinsky Triangle, and the great power of plant medicines to...

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