Revoked

Sunday, September 27, 2015

“The process of undoing bewilderment is based on stabilizing and strengthening our mind,” says Sakyong Mipham Rinpoche. “Shamatha meditation is how we do that.”

We sometimes forget how the Buddhist teachings came into being. We forget why the Buddha left his father’s palace. Dissatisfied with maintaining an illusion, he wanted to understand his life—and life itself.

Just like the Buddha, most of us would like to discover some basic truth about our life. But are we really capable of knowing what’s going on? This is a question that relates to the most profound truth of the Buddhist teachings. The Buddha’s answer is, “Yes, ultimately we are. But we need to go on a journey of meditation to find out, because essentially we are in a state of bewilderment.” Why are we bewildered? Because we don’t understand how our mind works.

The process of undoing bewilderment is based on cultivating the ability to become familiar with, stabilize, and strengthen our mind. Being aware and observant of what’s happening in our mind gives us an opportunity to see a more profound level of truth all the time. In the practice of meditation, we learn to zoom back and get a bigger perspective, rather than always thinking so small.

The Buddha understood that if we want to go on any kind of journey—not just a spiritual one but also a secular one, such as studying or doing business—we need a mind that is workable. We need a mind that we can rely on. That’s the notion of training the mind, of making the mind workable so it can do whatever it needs to do.

Shamatha, or mindfulness, meditation is how we make this mind more stable, more useful. From this point of view, shamatha is not purely a Buddhist practice; it’s a practice that anyone can do. It doesn’t tie in with a particular spiritual tradition. If we want to undo bewilderment, we’re going to have to be responsible for learning what our own mind is and how it works, no matter what beliefs we hold.

The word shamatha in Sanskrit (Tib.: shi-ne) means “peacefully abiding.” Peacefully abiding describes the mind as it naturally is. The word “peace” tells the whole story. The human mind is by nature joyous, calm and very clear. In shamatha meditation we aren’t creating a peaceful state—we’re letting our mind be as it is to begin with. This doesn’t mean that we’re peacefully ignoring things. It means that the mind is able to be with itself without constantly leaving.

In meditation we learn how to calmly abide: we learn how to let ourselves just be here peacefully. If we can remember what the word “shamatha” means, we can always use it as a reference point in our practice. We can say, “What is this meditation that I’m doing? It is shamatha—calmly, peacefully abiding.”

At the same time we begin to see that our mind isn’t always abiding calmly or peacefully. Perhaps it’s abiding irritatingly, angrily, jealously. Seeing all of this is how we begin to untangle our bewilderment.

Meditation is a very personal practice. Just like the Buddha, we can approach it by way of valid cognition: “What is truly valid? What is the truth of my experience?” We begin to realize what we don’t know, and we become curious.

In doing so we leapfrog from question to answer, with each new answer leading to a new question. And if we persist we begin to experience another truth that the Buddha also discovered: in every situation there is the continuum of the truth. Each answer is followed naturally by the next question.

It’s seamless.

With this kind of practice and inquisitiveness, the Buddha learned to look at the landscape of life in a clear, unbiased way. When he began to teach, he was just reporting his observations: “This is what I see. This is the truth about how things are.” He wasn’t presenting any particular viewpoint. He wasn’t preaching dogma; he was pointing out reality. We forget this. For example, most people would say that one of the key teachings in Buddhism is karma. But the Buddha did not create karma; the Buddha just saw it and acknowledged it. Saying that karma is a Buddhist belief is like saying that Buddhists believe water is wet. And if you’re a Buddhist, you must also believe that fire is hot!

In meditation, what we’re doing is looking at our experience and at the world intelligently. The Buddha said that this is how we learn to look at any situation and understand its truth, its true message, its reality. This is what a Buddha does—and we are all capable of being Buddhas, whether or not we are Buddhists. We all have the ability to realize our naturally peaceful minds where there is no confusion. We can use the natural clarity of our mind to focus on anything we want. But first we have to tame our minds through shamatha meditation.

Perhaps we associate meditation with spirituality because when we experience a moment of peacefully abiding, it seems so far-out. Our mind is no longer drifting, thinking about a million things. The sun comes up or a beautiful breeze comes along—and all of a sudden we feel the breeze and we are completely in tune. We think, “That’s a very spiritual experience! It’s a religious experience! At least worth a poem, or a letter home.” Yet all that’s happening is that for a moment we are in tune with our mind. Our mind is present and harmonious. Before, we were so busy and bewildered that we didn’t even notice the breeze. Our mind couldn’t even stay put long enough to watch the sun to come up, which takes two-and-a-half minutes. Now we can keep it in one place long enough to acknowledge and appreciate our surroundings. Now we are really here. In fact, this is ordinary. We can bring the mind under our own power. We can train it to be useful and workable.

This is the not just the point of being Buddhist, it’s the point of being human.

Make the jump here to read the original and more here

Por que o Budismo não apoia o amor romântico? | Thich Nhat Hanh

Cultivando sua mente e seu coração | Jetsunma Tenzin Palmo (Mind & Its Potential 2014)

Jetsunma Tenzin Palmo no Brasil | Ensinamento #3: sabedoria, natureza da mente e meditação vipassana

Jetsunma Tenzin Palmo no Brasil | Ensinamento #2: meditação shamatha

Jetsunma Tenzin Palmo no Brasil | Ensinamento #1: introdução ao budismo e à felicidade genuína

Via FB:

Via my amigo Joseph on FB: Yesterday in a discussion on friendship

I said that I base my friendship philosophy on this passage:

' To make the most of yourself is to live so that your inner life will rejoice.

It is to live so that you will receive the feeling, at the very depth of your soul, that it is wonderful to be alive."

The answer is to help others.
Your life expands to embrace others.
You are able to rejoice because your life grows.
The people around us are mirrors on which we can look at our lives.

To help others - that is how man has been created"
Seicho no ie Book of Daily Life... so on a personal level - I treasure my friends who are so generous and kind to others - always trying to add beauty and joy to another persons life... Those are my friends

So I guess that's why
when I find out someone is a narcissist- only thinkkng about themselves ... I slowly but surely stop sharing energy and they surely but slowly go away.

Quite simple really .... " as the cliche goes " birds of a feather flock together."

Yeah to all my friends!!!!!!!!!!

Via Sri Prem Baba: Flor do Dia- Flor del Día - Flower of the Day 27/09/20

“Uma das crenças que permeiam a mente condicionada e que é um grande obstáculo para a liberdade, é acreditar que a felicidade vem de fora de nós. E essa crença alimenta outra crença: a de que somos vítimas indefesas da maldade do mundo. Vemos a maldade somente no outro, o que gera separação e isolamento, e ainda por cima acreditamos que somos colocados nesse lugar por ele.”

“Una de las creencias que permean la mente condicionada y que es un gran obstáculo para la libertad, es creer que la felicidad viene de afuera nuestro. Y esa creencia alimenta otra creencia: que somos víctimas indefensas de la maldad del mundo. Vemos la maldad solamente en el otro, lo que genera separación y aislamiento, y aún por encima creemos que somos colocados en ese lugar por él.”

“The belief that happiness comes from the outside is a core tenet of the conditioned mind and a great obstacle towards freedom. This belief in turn feeds another: that we are helpless victims of all the evil in the world. We only see evil in the other, and this generates separation and isolation. Worse yet, we then believe that we are in this painful state all because of what the other did to us.”

Today's Daily Dharma: Generosity Produces Peace

Generosity Produces Peace

Receiving is a powerful—and intimate—practice, for we are actually inviting another person into ourselves. Rather than focusing on our own practice, or on our own virtue, we can focus on providing an opportunity for someone else to develop generosity. . . . That moment itself is unsullied. For that reason it is said that generosity is the discipline that produces peace.

—Judy Lief, "The Power of Receiving"

United Future Organization - Tears Of Gratitude

Stephen Colbert’s All-Inclusive Wedding Cake Toppers

Via WGB: Guess Who Grindr Users Want in the Oval Office?

"In partnership with Rock the Vote, Grindr recently conducted a early election poll of its users to find out their presidential preferences.

The results?

Bernie Sanders edges out Hillary Clinton 38% to 35% among Democrats.
Donald Trump is topping the poll with 21% support among Republicans. John Kasich and Jeb Bush came next, each with 7%. Ben Carson and Carly Fiorina were both at the 5% level, with others candidates trailing behind.
76% of respondents said they vote in both general and presidential elections (for comparison, just 36.4% of eligible voters turned out in the 2014 midterm)
When asked to name the “biggest issue” facing America today, “the economy, stupid” won the results with 50% support. Other issues were immigration (10.3%), healthcare (9.8%), minority rights (9%), and LGBT rights (3%)."

After Marriage Equality, Then Comes... That said, LGBTQ matters still remain front and center on Grindr guys’ minds. Asked “After marriage equality, what’s next for the LGBTQ movement in the U.S.?” – 41% singled out “Pushing forward the Equality Act to end legal LGBTQ discrimination.” “Fighting HIV/AIDS” drew 15% of votes; then, “ensuring that states follow the law on marriage and adoption” was selected by 12.4% and after that “strengthening transgender rights” was the choice of 11.5%.

Young with a Point of View. What’s the profile of these electorally savvy Grindr users? They are young or young-ish – 56% told us they were either in the 20-29 or 30-39 age groups. As for political affiliation – more than half of our respondents identified as Democrats (51%); with 19% Independents and 15% Republicans. (H/T - Towleroad via Grindr blog.)

Make the jump here to read the orginal on WGB

Via Gay Christians / FB:

Mercedes Sosa - Gracias a La Vida

Today's Daily Dharma: All is We

All is We

Somewhere this very moment, babies are born, fathers are dying, mothers are grieving. Yet, pervading all is a groundless awareness, delicate and strong at the same time. Everything becomes we, a beating heart with a transparent, radiant smile. And we are awake.

—Judith Simmer-Brown, "Insomnia"

Via Sri Prem Baba: Flor do Dia- Flor del Día - Flower of the Day 26/09/20

“Podemos dizer que iluminação espiritual é sinônimo de pureza de coração. Mas, o que é um coração puro? É um coração sem maldade, pois somente esse coração é capaz de ver a luz que está por trás da sombra do outro e perdoar. O coração puro vê a alma por trás dos corpos. Ele não olha os bons e os maus hábitos dos outros, ele olha a alma por trás disso. O coração puro é capaz de amar de verdade - e o Amor vê a si mesmo.”

“Podemos decir que iluminación espiritual es sinónimo de pureza de corazón. Pero ¿qué es un corazón puro? Es un corazón sin maldad, porque solamente ese corazón es capaz de ver la luz que está por detrás de la sombra del otro y perdonar. El corazón puro ve el alma por detrás de los cuerpos. Él no mira los buenos o malos hábitos de los otros, mira por detrás de eso. El corazón puro es capaz de amar de verdad - y el Amor se ve a sí mismo.”

“Spiritual enlightenment is synonymous with purity of heart. What is a pure heart? It is a heart without malice. Only this kind of heart can see the light behind the other’s shadow and thus be able to forgive. A pure heart doesn’t look at the good or bad habits of the other – it only sees the soul behind all of this. Only a pure heart can love in a true way, for love sees itself in everything.”