Friday, January 20, 2023

Via Dhamma Wheel | Right Living: Abstaining from Intoxication

 

RIGHT LIVING
Undertaking the Commitment to Abstain from Intoxication
Intoxication is unhealthy. Refraining from intoxication is healthy. (MN 9) What are the imperfections that defile the mind? Negligence is an imperfection that defiles the mind. Knowing that negligence is an imperfection that defiles the mind, a person abandons it. (MN 7) One practices thus: "Others may become negligent by intoxication, but I will abstain from the negligence of intoxication." (MN 8)

One of the dangers attached to addiction to intoxicants is increased quarreling. (DN 31)
Reflection
Diligence is one of the mental states most highly valued in Buddhist teachings, and negligence, its opposite, is one of the greatest dangers. The argument against intoxication is not the substance itself (alcohol, drugs, and the like) but the state of negligence it invites. The mind is "defiled" or poisoned by these dispositions, and they lead to a host of secondary problems, such as diminishing health and increased quarreling.

Daily Practice
Practice diligence of mind at every opportunity and in any creative way you can. This is not a practice of what you put into your body in the way of food or drink but of how alert, clear, and balanced you can be in your life every day. So many modern activities involve a sort of mental intoxication that makes us negligent in various ways. As a practice, notice what effect different activities have on your mental clarity.

Tomorrow: Maintaining Arisen Healthy States
One week from today: Abstaining from Harming Living Beings

Share your thoughts and join the conversation on social media
#DhammaWheel

Questions?
Visit the Dhamma Wheel orientation page.



Tricycle is a nonprofit and relies on your support to keep its wheels turning.

© 2023 Tricycle Foundation
89 5th Ave, New York, NY 10003

Via Daily Dharma: Our Real Home

 Anyone can build a house of wood and bricks, but the Buddha taught that that is not our real home. Our real home is inner peace.

Ajahn Chah, “Our Real Home”


CLICK HERE TO READ THE FULL ARTICLE

Via Tricycle // Meditation Month: Day 20

 

A Reminder to Pause
By Kathy Cherry 
Try these four “pause practices” from meditation teacher Kathy Cherry for returning to our bodies.
Read more »

Via White Crane Institute // RICHARD C. FRIEDMAN

 This Day in Gay History

January 20

Born
Dr. Richard C. Friedman
1941 -

RICHARD C. FRIEDMAN was born on this date and was an academic psychiatrist, the Clinical Professor of Psychiatry at Weill Cornell Medical College, and a faculty member at Columbia University. He was also a courageous ally of the gay community. He conducted research in the endocrinology and the psychodynamics of homosexuality, especially within the context of psychoanalysis. Friedman was born in The Bronx, New York.

In the 1960s when marriage and adopting children seemed an impossible dream for gay men, Dr. Friedman was our champion. His 1988 book, Male Homosexuality: A Contemporary Psychoanalytic Perspective showed that sexual orientation was largely biological and presented a case that helped undermine the belief held by most Freudian analysts at the time that homosexuality was a pathology that could be cured.

His wife, a clinical social worker at the Weill Medical College of Cornell commented, "Straight people had the same personality issues, and they got away with murder; but gay people were stigmatized, and he didn't think that was right."

His work was a direct challenge to popular Freudian theories and thrust him into the center of debates among the more established heavyweights of psychoanalysis. It led to a model in which analyst and patient simply assumed that homosexuality was intrinsic, said Jack Drescher, a professor of psychiatry at Columbia University who knew Dr. Friedman and would later offer his own critiques of Dr. Friedman’s theory as new approaches to working with gay and lesbian patients emerged.

 
“Given that he was a younger colleague, it was brave of him to take older experts on,” a colleague said. But it was in keeping with who he was. “He had an edge and wasn’t afraid of anybody,” he said.  Dr. Friedman died in his home in March 2020.
 
 

|8|O|8|O|8|O|8|O|8|O|8|O|8|O|8|

Gay Wisdom for Daily Living from White Crane Institute

"With the increasing commodification of gay news, views, and culture by powerful corporate interests, having a strong independent voice in our community is all the more important. White Crane is one of the last brave standouts in this bland new world... a triumph over the looming mediocrity of the mainstream Gay world." - Mark Thompson

Exploring Gay Wisdom & Culture since 1989!
www.whitecraneinstitute.org

|8|O|8|O|8|O|8|O|8|O|8|O|8|O|

TRAILER: I Have Arrived, I Am Home: A Documentary On Thich Nhat Hanh's l...


 

Amazon frown logo
RIP, AmazonSmile

Amazon is sunsetting its AmazonSmile program, which allows shoppers to donate a percentage of purchases to their charity of choice, by Feb. 20.

The news comes as the company tightens spending and lays off 18k+ employees — some of whom received notification by email this week, per Business Insider.
Why?

Amazon says it’s donated $449m+ to 1m+ charities since AmazonSmile launched in 2013, but says the program was “spread too thin” and failed to have the desired impact.

In 2022, charities received an average of less than $230, per NPR.

Yet small organizations say it helped:

The SquirrelWood Equine Sanctuary tweeted that the $9.3k+ it’d received made a “huge difference.”
The Cat’s Meow tweeted that the ~$4k it’d received covered expenses when donations fell short.

Meanwhile…

… others argue Amazon could have done more.

In 2017, journalist Marc Gunther pointed out AmazonSmile only gave 0.5% — so a dime for a $20 purchase — and only when shoppers remembered to use the right URL.

Case in point: In 2015, the AmazonSmile Foundation donated ~$12.8m — 0.00012% of Amazon’s ~$99.1B in retail sales that year.

What now?

Customers can still donate to their favorite charities until the program ends, buy items from their wish lists, or, obviously, donate without Amazon.

Meanwhile, Amazon says it will continue to invest in areas “where it can make meaningful change,” including local nonprofits and — perhaps conveniently for Amazon — its own charitable efforts, like Amazon Future Engineer, which funds computer science education.

BTW: We know you’re dying to see the farm animals at SquirrelWood Equine Sanctuary, so here ya go.