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.
That which knows and that which is known are one and the same.
Choose an object right in front of you. Do you experience the knowing of the object as something separate from the object itself? Are there two different experiences, or only one?
If you begin to think about it, it may seem that there is a difference between the object and the awareness of the object. Look more carefully: are there really two separate entities here, or just one experience?
A practitioner reflects on a private interview with her Zen teacher wherein she learns more about dropping her own self conception and connecting with expansiveness.
In an article about sunyata, writer and researcher Simeon Mihaylov explains the perspective of “no subject-ojbect” in Yogacara, the mind-only school of Mahayana Buddhism.
When you’re feeling frustrated that you can’t change someone’s harmful opinions or terrible judgment, it’s important to recognize the skillful means you can use to care for yourself and others.
Kimberly Brown, “Want to Change Someone’s Mind? Try This Instead.”
The Afterlife of Japanese American Wartime Incarceration Brandon Shimoda in conversation with James Shaheen
In this episode of Tricycle Talks, poet Brandon Shimoda explores the ongoing legacies of the US government’s mass incarceration of Japanese immigrants and Japanese Americans during World War II.
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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