Via Tricycle // Teachers You May Not Know But Should

 

Teachers You May Not Know But Should

Ross Nervig on some teachers past and present whose lives and teachings have a lot to offer us.

Qiyuan Xinggang was a legendary female Chan master who amassed thousands of devotees in seventeenth-century China, resisting family pressure to marry and skepticism from male Buddhist leaders. As a child, Qiyuan Xinggang demonstrated a strong interest in Buddhism. Fated to marry, she yearned to train under a Chan master instead. Even after her fiancé died, her parents still refused to allow her to seek a religious life, so she went on a hunger strike until they gave in. Seeking spiritual direction from a series of masters, Qiyuan Xinggang encountered abuse, setbacks, and frustrations as she struggled with the difficult questions put to her by the masters, but nonetheless, she persisted.

Via Ram Dass - Love Serve Remember Foundation // Words of Wisdom - December 12, 2021 💌

 
 

There is not an experience that goes down in your life that doesn’t have the potential to help liberate you. It is so perfectly designed and there is not irrelevancy in the system. When you finally want to get free, everything, every single thing in your life is grist for the mill.

- Ram Dass

Via Daily Dharma: Free the Mind of Joy and Sorrow

 

If we can recognize and accept our pain without pushing it away or clinging to it, we’ll be better able to see that joys and sorrows are truly the same. Through letting go and touching emptiness, we can then choose a compassionate response.

—Jessica Angima, “The Not-Knowing of Our Time”

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Via FB

 

Via Daily Dharma: Wear a Loving Face

Your body reflects your mind. When you feel love for all beings, it shows on your face. Seeing your honest, relaxed face, others will gravitate toward you and enjoy being around you.

—Bhante Henepola Gunaratana, “11 Benefits of Loving-Friendliness Meditation”

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Via Melli O'Brien of The Mindfulness Summit

 

Via Daily Dharma: Befriending Your Faults

There is no need to be afraid of having faults, because knowing we have them can help us to improve. If you considered yourself perfect, would you still want to meditate and cultivate your practice?

—Master Sheng-Yen, “How to Be Faultless”

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Via Dhamma Wheel // Refraining from Malicious Speech

 

RIGHT SPEECH
Refraining from Malicious Speech

Malicious speech is unhealthy. Refraining from malicious speech is healthy. (MN 9) Abandoning malicious speech, one refrains from malicious speech. One does not repeat there what one has heard here to the detriment of these, or repeat here what he has heard there to the detriment of those. One unites those who are divided, is a promoter of friendships, and speaks words that promote concord. (DN 1) One practices thus: "Others may speak maliciously, but I shall abstain from malicious speech." (MN 8)  When others address you, their speech may be timely or untimely. . . . One is to train thus: "My mind will be unaffected, and I shall utter no bad words. I shall abide with compassion for their welfare, with a mind of lovingkindness, without inner hate." (MN 21)

Reflection

The second category of right speech is refraining from malicious speech, which has a lot to do with setting people against one another and causing divisions. Such speech involves harmful intentions and is therefore unhealthy. Notice the final phrase of the text, wherein one undertakes to personally refrain from such speech even though others may do it. The practice here is to change your own behavior, not that of others.

Daily Practice

Pay attention to the speech you hear around you and see if you can identify malicious speech when you hear it. Then listen for when you yourself engage in such speech, often inadvertently. Finally, undertake a commitment to refrain from malicious speech. This is particularly challenging when you are interrupted by untimely speech, but such episodes provide an opportunity to practice not being thrown off by the impropriety of others.

Tomorrow: Reflecting upon Verbal Action
One week from today: Refraining from Harsh Speech

Share your thoughts and join the conversation on social media
#DhammaWheel

Questions? Visit the Dhamma Wheel orientation page.

Little Buddha (1993) - Keanu Reeves - A Film by Bernardo Bertolucci

Via Daily Dharma: Find Your Meaning

 

If we wish to live well in the world, not just amble along through life without any examination of our being, then we must engage in the effort to find meaning in our lives.

—Eido Frances Carney, “The Way of Ryokan”

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Via Ram Dass - Love Serve Remember Foundation // Words of Wisdom - December 8, 2021 💌

 
 

One of the big traps we have in the West is our intelligence because we want to know that we know. Freedom allows you to be wise, but you cannot know wisdom. You must be wisdom.

When my guru wanted to put me down, he called me ‘clever.’ When he wanted to reward me, he would call me ‘simple.’

The intellect is a beautiful servant, but a terrible master. Intellect is the power tool of our separateness. The intuitive, compassionate heart is the doorway to our unity. - Ram Dass

Happy Bodhi Day! Feliz dia de Bodhi!

 

Via Wiki:

Bodhi Day is the Buddhist holiday that commemorates the day that the historical Buddha, Siddhartha Gautama (Shakyamuni), experienced enlightenment,^[also known as bodhi in Sanskrit and Pali. According to tradition, Siddhartha had recently forsaken years of extreme ascetic practices and resolved to sit under a peepal tree, also known as a Bodhi tree (Ficus religiosa), and simply meditate until he found the root of suffering, and how to liberate oneself from it.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Bodhi_Day

Via Daily Dharma: Embracing Kindred Believers

 

We all believe in something: self, nonself, an omnipotent creator, karma, science, reality, emptiness, dragons, elves. . . When we see that belief gives color to every stratum of our experience of reality, we can embrace others as kindred believers, regardless of the shades we tend to favor.

—Pamela Gayle White, “Real Belief”

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2 Quotes Via GBF Email today

“Find something that needs help, and help it, then you work on yourself to make it a conscious act. As Gandhi said, ‘The act that you do may seem very insignificant, but it is important that you do it.”
– Ram Dass

 

“Do the best you can until you know better. Then, when you know better, do better.”
– Maya Angelou

 

Via Daily Dharma: It’s Not Rocket Science

 

When you’re kind to someone else, it feels good. It’s not rocket science. It feels good to you, and it feels good to them. It makes for a very happy, peaceful mind.

—Andy Puddicombe, “10 Tips for Living More Mindfully”

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Via FB

 

Via Rumi Quotes// Try not to resist the changes that come your way

 

Rumi > Quotes > Quotable Quote

“Try not to resist the changes that come your way. Instead let life live through you. And do not worry that your life is turning upside down. How do you know that the side you are used to is better than the one to come?”

― Rumi

Read more quotes from Rumi

IN-PERSON and Online: Sunday meditation and practice talk: Com Muito Gratidão! with Daniel Orey (Zen) August 8

A Practice Talk I gave @ SBMG in August

August 8 @ 6:30 pm - 8:30 pm

Com Muito Gratidão!

Practice Talks by sangha members give us an opportunity to learn how we are arriving at this point of our lives and our practice.

Daniel has been a member of SBMG for over 15 years, and currently serves on Scheduling Committee, while living and working in Ouro Preto, Brazil. . He is a university professor of Mathematics.

We will end with a Melvin Escobar-inspired Metta:

Meditation
Here is a typical series of metta contemplations you can practice, reciting them three times as you change the subject of your prayer from “I” to “you” to “all.” But feel free to create your own or adapt these to resonate with your own experience.

May (I/you/all beings) be safe and protected, free from inner and outer harm.
May (I/you/all) be happy.
May (my/your/everyone’s) body support the practice of loving awareness.
May (I/you/all) be free from ill-will, affliction, and anxiety.
May (I/you/everyone) love (myself/yourself/themselves) as (I am/you are/they are).
May (I/you/all) be happy and free from suffering.
May (I/you/all) find peace in an uncertain world.
May (I/you/all) find ease on the middle path between attachment and apathy.

When you lose concentration, simply and kindly return to your phrases. Try not to judge the judgments that inevitably arise. Meet each moment with unstoppable friendliness. May you be inspired by the transformative potential of this practice.

Via Melvin Escovar

Sunday Night Sit Online Schedule:
6:25 Zoom opens
6:30 Welcome and announcements
6:45 Meditation
7:20 Break
7:30 Dharma talk
8:30 Closing bell

 Make the jump here to listen to the talk

Via Dhamma Wheel // RIGHT MINDFULNESS: Establishing Mindfulness of Body

 

RIGHT MINDFULNESS Establishing Mindfulness of Body A person goes to the forest or to the root of a tree or to an empty place and sits down. Having crossed the legs, one sets the body erect. One establishes the presence of mindfulness. (MN 10) One is aware: "Ardent, fully aware, mindful, I am content." (SN 47.10)   Mindful, one breathes in; mindful, one breathes out. . . . One is just aware, just mindful: "There is body." And one abides not clinging to anything in the world. (MN 10)

Reflection The path factor of right mindfulness will be explored by going carefully through the meditation instructions found in the classic text Satipatthāna Sutta, or Establishment of Mindfulness Discourse. The first thing we notice about it in this introductory section is how deliberate and intentional the practice is: one goes to a quiet place, sits down, and engages deliberately in the establishment of mindfulness. Daily Practice Mindfulness of the body begins with breathing. Take some time to sit quietly and just breathe in and out. Breathing mindfully simply means bringing full awareness to the various micro-sensations that accompany every in-breath and out-breath. As the refrain prompts us, see if you can attend to these sensations directly, without thinking about them and without clinging in any way by favoring or opposing any sensation.  RIGHT CONCENTRATION Approaching and Abiding in the First Phase of Absorption (1st Jhāna) Having abandoned the five hindrances, imperfections of the mind that weaken wisdom, quite secluded from sensual pleasures, secluded from unwholesome states, one enters and abides in the first phase of absorption, which is accompanied by applied thought and sustained thought, with joy and the pleasure born of seclusion. (MN 4) Reflection Since there are seven days in the week and eight path factors, we dedicate Sundays to practicing both kinds of meditation: mindfulness and concentration. Concentration practice involves focusing the mind on a single object, such as the breath, and returning attention to this focal point whenever it wanders off, which it will do often. All forms of meditation involve some level of concentration, so it is a good thing to practice. Daily Practice Formal concentration practice, involving absorption (Pali: jhāna) in four defined stages, requires more time and sustained effort than occasional practice generally allows and would benefit from careful instruction by a qualified teacher. You may begin on your own, however, simply by practicing to abandon the five hindrances, since jhāna practice only really begins when they temporarily cease to arise.  Tomorrow: Understanding the Noble Truth of the Origin of Suffering One week from today: Establishing Mindfulness of Feeling and Abiding in the Second Jhāna Share your thoughts and join the conversation on social media #DhammaWheel Questions? Visit the Dhamma Wheel orientation page.