Via Daily Dharma: Your Spiritual Practice Influences the Social World

As our dharma practice deepens, it begins to inform and influence everything we do, including how we engage with the important moral and social issues of our times.

—Ven. Santusikka Bhikkhuni, “Dharma in Action”

Via Tricycle: New at Tricycle: Why Buddhists Should Run for Public Office

November 6, 2017
 

Mixing Buddhism and Politics
 

The 2016 presidential election in the United States sent shockwaves across the world. As Americans prepare to head back to the polls on Tuesday, we have two reflections from Buddhists on the intersection of practice and government.

Suzanne Harvey, who is likely the only Buddhist in New Hampshire’s 400-member House of Representatives, is calling on engaged Buddhists to seriously consider running for a position on their local school board, city council, or higher governing office.

“When I enter the state house complex, my practice enters with me,” Harvey writes. “Federal, state, and local governments and municipal boards might function a lot differently if we had more Buddhists serving in positions.”

Dick Allen, a Republican Zen Buddhist practitioner and the former poet laureate of Connecticut, offers an Election Day reminder that moderation is a “sorely needed political position” that will help things get done in these highly divided times.

And, just in time for cooler temperatures and shorter days is our Winter 2017 issue. Inside, you’ll meet a former nun and latex enthusiast, learn about a new vision for globalism, get instructions on cutting off negative emotions at the pass using the third moment method, and more.

Via Daily Dharma: Are You Awake?

We lose something very vital in our life when it’s more important to us to be one who knows than it is to be awake to what’s happening.

—Zenkei Blanche Hartman, “The Zen of Not Knowing”

Via Ram Dass / Words of Wisdom - November 5, 2017

We can't be afraid of making errors. We may choose the wrong teacher; we may get into a method that's no good. Many things can happen. We make errors; we correct them if we can, without hurting another being's spiritual opportunities.

There is another rule for this game: we may never use one soul for another. If our journey to God is keeping another being from going to God, forget it. We're never going to get there. It's as simple as that.

-  Ram Dass -

Via Daily Dharma: Human Intelligence Is a Gift; Use It Wisely

So long as we remember that we have this marvelous gift of human intelligence and a capacity to develop determination and use it in positive ways, we will preserve our underlying mental health.

—The Dalai Lama, “Countering Stress and Depression”

Via Tricycle / Why Trees Are The Ultimate Meditation Teachers

In Buddhism, trees have long been recognized as living things worthy of recognition and protection.

"A meditation teacher once advised me to look to the example trees set as steady, observant beings. “They are excellent meditators,” she said. “They sit in one spot for decades, watching all that goes by.” In his book The Island Within, anthropologist Richard Nelson described trees in a similar manner. “The dark boughs reach out above me and encircle me like arms. I feel the assurance of being recognized, as if something powerful and protective is aware of my presence . . .  I am never alone in this forest of elders, this forest of eyes.”

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Via Daily Dharma: You Are Not Alone

The absence of self—this emptiness—is not a thing that we can feel. It is, rather, more of a vehicle to help us understand our intrinsic connectedness with all things. This teaching can remind us that even though we may feel alone or isolated at times, we are not.

—Lauren Krauze, “Why Trees Are the Ultimate Meditation Teachers”

The Hope Speech | Figures of Speech

Via Daily Dharma: Perfect Your Love, Not Yourself

It is important during such dispiriting times to recall the infinity of small actions that support what is good in life.

—James Shaheen, “Unhistoric Acts”

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Via Daily Dharma: Lovingkindness Starts Close to Home

Although we are aiming at an all-inclusive lovingkindness unrestricted by the partiality that divides the world into “mine” and “yours,” it needs to start with simple, uncontrived loving feelings toward those closest to us.

—Lama Jampa Thaye, “Bringing It All Back Home”

Via Ram Dass / Words of Wisdom - November 1, 2017

We can take our lives exactly as they are in this moment; it is a fallacy to think that we're necessarily going to get closer to God by changing the form of our lives, by leaving so-and-so, or changing our jobs, or moving, or whatever...by giving up our stereos, or cutting off our hair, or growing our hair, or shaving our beards, or...

It isn't the form of the game; it's the nature of the being that fulfills the form. If I'm a lawyer, I can continue being a lawyer. I merely use being a lawyer as a way of coming to God. 

- Ram Dass -

Via Daily Dharma: What Is Boundless Compassion?

Boundless compassion, which is distinct from being overwhelmed by emotion, is the wish that everyone everywhere be free of pain and its causes.

—Anne C. Klein, “The Four Immeasurables”

Via Daily Dharma: Don't Feed Your Demons

When many demons are struggling inside you, the one that you feed is the one that will become the strongest. You alone are responsible for what you feed.

—Wendy Egyoku Nakao Roshi, “Hold to the Center!”

Via Daily Dharma: Engaged, but Not Busy

Though we usually associate busyness with activity and speed, and lack of busyness with stopping or slowing down, this is not always the case. It is possible to be actively engaged and not be busy.

—Marc Lesser, “Do Less, Accomplish More”

Via Ram Dass / Words of Wisdom - October 29, 2017

People ask me if I believe there is continuity after death. I say that I don't believe it - it just is. This offends my scientific friends to no end. But belief is something you hold with your intellect, and for me this goes way beyond my intellect.

The Bhagavad Gita also tells us, "As the Spirit of our mortal body wanders on in childhood and youth and old age, the Spirit wanders on to a new body: of this the sage has no doubts." As Krishna says, "Because we all have been for all time... And we all shall be for all time, we all for ever and ever." 

-  Ram Dass -

Via Daily Dharma: Tradition's Symbolic Truths

My own teacher . . . said that learning that many of her traditional beliefs were not historically accurate only made her think more deeply about their spiritual meaning. This is really the point. When we cease to confuse history and stories, when we look at traditional stories outside the context of literal truth and sectarian debate, we are freer to appreciate the imaginative truths they convey.

—Rita Gross, “The Matter of Truth”

Via Daily Dharma: Treating Fear with Wisdom

In spiritual life, the problem with fear lies in whether we have the wisdom to respond well to it.

—Dharmavidya David Brazier, “The Gift of Fear”

Via Daily Dharma: Happiness Requires a Foundation in Compassion

Trying to build happiness on a foundation of ego is like trying to build a tower on quicksand.

—Pamela Gayle White, “A Slow, True Path”