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.
Consciousness itself is arising and passing away in each instant. There is not one mind that is observing all phenomena; at every instant “mind” is created and destroyed.
A Journey Through Arya Tara's Many Forms With Dorje Lopön Chandra Easton
Arya Tara, the female buddha of compassion, manifests as peaceful, fierce, and semi-fierce, or joyful—qualities we can learn to embody in our practice and lives. In this talk, Chandra Easton will explain how these qualities transform ignorance, aversion, and attachment.
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)
There are these two worldly conditions: fame and shame. These are conditions that people meet—impermanent, transient, and subject to change. A mindful, wise person knows them and sees that they are subject to change. Desirable conditions do not excite one’s mind nor is one resentful of undesirable conditions. (AN 8.6)
Reflection
The “worldly winds” are aspects of life that are as inevitable as the blowing of the wind, and we are better off accepting and adapting to them rather than attempting to avoid them. Among these are fame and shame, meaning sometimes we are a hero and sometimes a chump. In either case, we may not deserve the label placed on us by others, so the advice here is to see both fame and shame as the result of changing circumstances and view them with equanimity.
Daily Practice
One form of intoxication we are susceptible to is being influenced overmuch by what other people think of us. If people raise you up unrealistically or put you down undeservedly, try not to let it sway your own sense of who you are. As the text says, “A mindful, wise person knows them” to be the passing opinions of others, subject to capricious change. Practice remaining balanced, independent of the judgment of others.
Tomorrow: Maintaining Arisen Healthy States One week from today: Abstaining from Harming Living Beings
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