Revoked: Jan 24, 2025

Friday, January 24, 2025

Via Daily Dharma: Failure Is Natural

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Failure Is Natural

Do not fear failure. Whatever happened in the past is past; do not worry about it happening again. Before you meet with success, failure is natural and necessary. As a baby learns to walk, it keeps falling down. Is this failure?

Master Sheng Yen, “Being Natural”

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Three Methods for Letting Go of Thoughts
By Haemin Sunim

Are you bombarded by thoughts when you sit down to meditate? Zen monk Haemin Sunim offers three helpful ways to work with our monkey mind.

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RIGHT LIVING
Undertaking the Commitment to Abstain from Harming Living Beings

Harming living beings is unhealthy. Refraining from harming living beings is healthy. (MN 9) Abandoning the harming of living beings, one abstains from harming living beings; with rod and weapon laid aside, gentle and kindly, one abides with compassion toward all living beings. (MN 41) One practices thus: "Others may harm living beings, but I will abstain from the harming of living beings." (MN 8)

A layperson is not to engage in the livelihood of trading in weapons. (AN 5.177)

Reflection

Everyone has to earn a living somehow, and all human activities involve some form of harm to others. The Buddha encouraged his followers to abstain from certain trades that do the most harm, including involvement with weapons of warfare. He did not condemn them as morally wrong but pointed out that the harm caused by weapons rebounds on the worker and has a cumulative unhealthy effect on the mind.

Daily Practice

Think about what you do professionally and reflect on how much harm to other beings is intrinsic to the job. If there are ways to mitigate this harm, try to implement changes in how things are done. If you are engaged in a job that is fundamentally harmful, such as making or deploying weapons that are used to kill, then it would contribute to your welfare to look for another line of work.

Tomorrow: Restraining Unarisen Unhealthy States
One week from today: Abstaining from Taking What is Not Given

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Questions? Visit the Dhamma Wheel orientation page.