Via Dhamma Wheel | Right Effort: Maintaining Arisen Healthy States

 

TRICYCLE      COURSE CATALOG      SUPPORT      DONATE

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 the healthy state, and then one’s mind inclines to the 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 investigation of states-awakening factor. (MN 141)

Reflection Because the mind is inclined in the direction of whatever you frequently think about and ponder, influencing your own mind becomes the way of changing yourself for better or worse. When healthy states arise, such as kindness or insight or mindfulness, or when the factor of awakening called the investigation of states is present, this is beneficial and needs to be maintained through the deliberate and skillful application of effort. Daily Practice When mindfulness is present enough to give rise to the awakening factor of the investigation of mental and emotional states, do what you can to strengthen and maintain this quality of mind. Investigating your own experience is the primary way of gaining wisdom, but like so many other habits of value in our lives, it does not just happen by itself and requires the application of effort. This is worthwhile to do, so do it. Tomorrow: Establishing Mindfulness of Mental Objects and the Fourth Jhāna One week from today: Restraining Unarisen Unhealthy States 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. Donate »

© 2024 Tricycle Foundation 89 5th Ave, New York, NY 10003

Via Daily Dharma: Embracing All of Ourselves

 

Support Tricycle with a donation »

Embracing All of Ourselves  Peace and kindness have their best shot at establishing themselves when we accept our own inadequacy, when limitation and error become aspects of ourselves we can embrace rather than strive to mask. Henry Shukman, “The Art of Being Wrong” CLICK HERE TO READ THE FULL ARTICLE

Weathering the Eight Worldly Winds Ethan Nichtern in conversation with James Shaheen and Sharon Salzberg In this episode of Life As It Is, Tricycle’s editor-in-chief, James Shaheen, and meditation teacher Sharon Salzberg sit down with Ethan Nichtern to discuss how the worldly winds of pleasure and pain can ground us in felt experience, the interplay between hope and fear, and what self-confidence looks like in the absence of a stable self. Listen now »