Via Dhamma Wheel | Right Intention: Cultivating Appreciative Joy

 

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RIGHT INTENTION Cultivating Appreciative Joy 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 appreciative joy, for when you develop meditation on appreciative joy, any discontent will be abandoned. (MN 62)  The function of appreciative joy is being unenvious. (Vm 9.95)

Reflection The reason for working so consistently with intention and for developing healthy intentions like appreciative joy is to clear the mind of toxic states like envy and discontent. When you are able to feel good about the good fortune of others, you cannot at the same time feel bad about it. Just as suffering is the trigger of compassion, seeing people do well and be healthy gains access to joy. Daily Practice Look around you at any time of day and notice things that are going well for yourself and for other people. We are often habituated to seeing the fault in things. Try deliberately to go in the other direction and be aware of positive situations and events. Then allow yourself to feel gently joyful about them. There is a lot that is going well in our world, and it is a worthy practice to take notice of these things and allow them to bring joy. Tomorrow: Refraining from Harsh Speech One week from today: Cultivating Equanimity Share your thoughts and join the conversation on social media #DhammaWheel Questions? Visit the Dhamma Wheel orientation page.

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Via Tricycle // Making Friends with Death

 

Making Friends with Death
By Wes Nisker

Without death there is no life—and this alone is reason enough to practice making death our friend, writes author and Buddhist practitioner Wes Nisker. Read more »

Via Daily Dharma: Cultivate a Beginner’s Mind

Cultivate your beginner’s mind. Be willing not to be an expert. Be willing not to know. Not knowing is nearest. Not knowing is most intimate.

Zenkei Blanche Hartman, “The Zen of Not Knowing”

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Via White Crane Institute // JONATHAN, SON OF SAUL

 This Day in Gay History

February 07

Born

David and Jonathan [Pierre et Gilles, 2005]

1046 BCE -

JONATHAN, SON OF SAUL, born; OK...there was no "February"in 1046 BCE. And no one knows exactly when the biblical Jonathan was born, either. But since no one of any particular importance to Gay history was born on February 7, let’s just assign it to this sweet young man, whose present in Holy Writ has always been an embarrassment to fundamentalist preachers everywhere?

The love of Jonathan for David, a love so deep that he foreswore his father out of loyalty to his beloved, has provided literature with both a powerful trope for male love and one of the most oft-quoted lines of Scripture, spoken by David at the death of his friend: “My brother, Jonathan, thy love to me was wonderful, passing the love of women” (2 Samuel 1:26). Attempts to explain away this line are among the most dazzling examples of sophistry, ingeniousness, and wrong-headed mumbo-jumbo in 2,000 years of biblical exegesis. But we know what it means, don’t we?

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Gay Wisdom for Daily Living from White Crane Institute

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