A personal blog by a graying (mostly Anglo with light African-American roots) gay left leaning liberal progressive married college-educated Buddhist Baha'i BBC/NPR-listening Professor Emeritus now following the Dharma in Minas Gerais, Brasil.
Whatever a person frequently
thinks about and ponders, that will become the inclination of their
mind. If one frequently thinks about and ponders unhealthy states, one
has abandoned healthy states to cultivate the unhealthy states, and then
one’s mind inclines to unhealthy states. (MN 19)
Abandoning sluggishness, one abides free from sluggishness; one purifies
the mind of sluggishness. (MN 51) Just as a person who had been gravely
ill, suffering, with no appetite and weak in body, would recover from
that illness and regain their strength, so would one rejoice and be glad
about the abandoning of sluggishness. (DN 2)
Reflection
Some mental and
emotional states drag us down into suffering and obstruct our ability
to see things clearly, and some states move us away from suffering and
enhance our ability to see what is really going on. Sluggishness is
unhealthy—not wrong or bad but unhelpful to the project of understanding
and diminishing suffering. Whenever it arises, it is worth making an
effort to abandon it by stirring up and applying some energy.
Daily Practice
Focus your
attention on that moment when you recognize you are sleepy or lazy or
otherwise feeling sluggish and counter it with an upsurge of energy,
whether physical or mental. There is a transition point at which the
mental state of sluggishness is met with the mental state of energy, and
your experience is thereby transformed. Learning to be aware of such
nuances in experience is the essence of mindfulness practice.
Tomorrow: Establishing Mindfulness of Feeling and Abiding in the Second Jhāna One week from today: Developing Unarisen Healthy States
Share your thoughts and join the conversation on social media #DhammaWheel
The Conditions for Ethical Well-being and Happiness With John Peacock
A
brand new Dharma Talk is available now! John Peacock, a retired
academic and a Buddhist practitioner for over fifty years, offers a
discussion of Buddhist ethics and why they matter.