Via Dhamma Wheel // Abandoning Arisen Unhealthy States

 

RIGHT EFFORT Abandoning Arisen Unhealthy States

Whatever a person frequently thinks about and ponders, that will become the inclination of their mind. If one frequently thinks about and ponders unhealthy states, one has abandoned healthy states to cultivate unhealthy states, and then one’s mind inclines to unhealthy states. (MN 19) Here a person rouses the will, makes an effort, stirs up energy, exerts the mind, and strives to abandon arisen unhealthy mental states. One abandons the arisen hindrance of sense desire. (MN 141)

Reflection

Unhealthy states arise in human experience all the time. This is not your fault; you are not to be blamed for it or to feel guilty about it. What is important is first of all to notice when an unhealthy state is arising—hence the value of mindfulness training—and then to understand that it is unhealthy, which comes gradually with wisdom, and finally to let go of it—not suppress it or ignore it but simply let it pass through the mind and go away.

Daily Practice

One of the most persistent and common of the unhealthy states is sense desire. There is a natural tendency for the senses to lean in to experience, to subtly seek out and attach to things that give us a sense of gratification. Make an effort to recognize when this is happening, and respond with letting go. Notice, understand, and release. Repeat often.

Tomorrow: Establishing Mindfulness of Feeling and Abiding in the Second Jhāna
One week from today: Developing Unarisen Healthy States

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Via Dhamma Wheel // Approaching and Abiding in the Second Phase of Absorption (2nd Jhāna)

 

RIGHT MINDFULNESS Establishing Mindfulness of Feeling

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)    When feeling a pleasant feeling, one is aware: "Feeling a pleasant feeling." . . . One is just aware, just mindful: "There is feeling." And one abides not clinging to anything in the world. (MN 10)

Reflection

The second basis on which mindfulness is established is feeling tone. This does not refer to our emotional life—feelings of affection or anger or dismay—but rather to the valence of feeling as pleasant or unpleasant or neutral (not obviously pleasant or unpleasant). The practice is to sit down deliberately for some time—even five minutes, if that is all you can manage—and simply notice pleasant and unpleasant sensations as they occur.

Daily Practice

As with mindfulness of breathing, the attitude with which you are aware of feeling tone is of great importance. The text is guiding us to be fully aware of a painful feeling, for example, without analyzing it or wishing it was not happening. Simply notice it as a brief episode of a particular feeling tone, without clinging in any way either to its going away if it is painful or to its coming again if it is pleasant. Just be aware of it.

RIGHT CONCENTRATION Approaching and Abiding in the Second Phase of Absorption (2nd Jhāna)

With the stilling of applied and sustained thought, one enters upon and abides in the second phase of absorption, which brings inner clarity and singleness of mind, without applied thought and sustained thought but with joy and the pleasure born of concentration. (MN 4)

Reflection

The teachings around right concentration have to do with four phases of absorption, also known as jhānas. When the mind rests steadily on a single object of attention—which is quite difficult to do at first—it gradually disentangles itself from the various hindrances and becomes unified, peaceful, and stable. With this comes inner clarity and the dropping away of the internal use of language.

Daily Practice

You will know when you have entered into absorption of the jhānas because the state is accompanied at first by a great deal of physical and mental pleasure. The physical pleasure is described as being fundamentally different from any sensual gratification, and the mental pleasure comes naturally when the mind is free of the hindrances (phase one) and when it becomes concentrated or one-pointed (phase two).

Tomorrow: Understanding the Noble Truth of the Cessation of Suffering
One week from today: Establishing Mindfulness of Mind and Abiding in the Third Jhāna

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Via Daily Dharma: Our One True Choice

 

At our Zen center, we often chant the words: “Just this moment; compassion’s way.” Just this moment, including perhaps terror, but also potentially liberation. For in truth, “just this moment” is the only moment, and being open to it is the only true choice we ever really have.

—Diane Eshin Rizzetto, “In Brief”

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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 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

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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