Via Tricycle -- Peter Coyote on Transforming the Self

 

Peter Coyote on Transforming the Self
By Hanna Rahilly

Explore the contours of the personality and the self with the prolific actor and Zen priest Peter Coyote.

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Via Daily Dharma: Let Truth Awaken

 

Truth is seeking to awaken to itself through you, to see itself everywhere through your eyes and taste itself everywhere through your lips.

—Stephan Bodian, “Encountering the Gateless Gate”

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Via Dhamma Wheel // Refraining from Harsh Speech

 

RIGHT SPEECH
Refraining from Harsh Speech

Harsh speech is unhealthy. Refraining from harsh speech is healthy. (MN 9) Abandoning harsh speech, one refrains from harsh speech. One speaks words that are gentle, pleasing to the ear, and affectionate, words that go to the heart, are courteous, and are agreeable to many. (DN 1) One practices thus: "Others may speak harshly, but I shall abstain from harsh speech." (MN 8) A person may be extremely kind, extremely gentle, extremely peaceful, so long as disagreeable courses of speech do not touch them. But it is when disagreeable courses of speech touch them that it can be understood whether that person is really kind, gentle, and peaceful. (MN 21)

Reflection

Learning to speak words that are "gentle, pleasing to the ear, and affectionate" is about taking care that the emotion with which they are uttered is not laced with hatred or ill will. It does not mean that we should refrain from stating what is true, only that we take care with what attitude we deliver it. Even very hard truths can be uttered with kindness rather than with an intention to cause harm. Speaking harshly is unhealthy for the speaker as well as for the hearer.

Daily Practice

Pay careful attention to your own patterns of speech and especially be on the lookout for nastiness or an intention to harm. Consider your words before you speak. And when you catch yourself speaking harshly, reflect on whether the same thing might have been said in a more skillful manner. Harsh speech brings out the worst in others. But it can be very challenging to refrain from hurtful speech, even when the other person has provoked it.

Tomorrow: Reflecting upon Mental Action
One week from today: Refraining from Frivolous Speech

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Questions? Visit the Dhamma Wheel orientation page.

Via Daily Dharma: Return to Nirvana

 

If the deer like to be in the countryside, and the birds like to be in the sky, then the practitioner likes to be in nirvana. We are in nirvana. The only problem is that we are not able to return to it.

—Thich Nhat Hanh, “A Wave in the Water”

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Via Ram Dass - Love Serve Remember Foundation \\ Words of Wisdom - December 15, 2021 💌

 
 

Time is a box formed by thoughts of the past and future.

Dwelling in the moment is dwelling in the soul, which is eternal presence. When we're outside of time, there's no subject or object; it's all just here. The thinking mind deals only with subject and object. But from within here now, you watch time go by. You are not being in time. You be, and time goes by, as if you were standing on a bridge and watching it all go by.

- Ram Dass

Via Daily Dharma: The Light Is Always There

 

 There may be moments when you feel emotionally cold and dark, when it seems that all the light has gone from your life. But your experience and inner truth are not in sync—the light is always there.

—Tenzin Wangyal Rinpoche, “The Light Is Always There”

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Via Dhamma Wheel // Cultivating Appreciative Joy

 

RIGHT INTENTION
Cultivating Appreciative Joy

Whatever you intend, whatever you plan, and whatever you have a tendency toward, that will become the basis on which your mind is established. (SN 12.40) Develop meditation on appreciative joy, for when you develop meditation on appreciative joy, any discontent will be abandoned. (MN 62)  Suppose there were a pond with lovely smooth banks, filled with pure water that was clear and cool. A person scorched and exhausted by hot weather, weary, parched, and thirsty, would come upon the pond and quench their thirst and their hot-weather fever. In just the same way a person encounters the teachings of the Buddha and develops appreciative joy, and thereby gains internal peace. (MN 40)

Reflection

When lovingkindness encounters the good fortune and happiness of another, it transforms into appreciative joy. This is the emotion of feeling good for another person, of being glad that good things are happening for them. Appreciative joy arises easily for the people we care about, but so often its opposite—some form of jealousy, envy, or resentment—comes up for us. The antidote for these forms of discontent is learning how to feel good for others, which generally takes a lot of practice.

Daily Practice

Try reminding yourself on a regular basis that the world is ruled by impersonal laws of cause and effect, also known as karma. Sometimes good things happen, sometimes bad things, and we often have little control over these things. Why not feel happy for other people when they experience good fortune or reap the rewards of their hard work? Like a cool drink on a hot day, feeling happy is more beneficial than feeling bad.

Tomorrow: Refraining from Harsh Speech
One week from today: Cultivating Equanimity

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Questions? Visit the Dhamma Wheel orientation page.

Via Daily Dharma: Compassionate Transmutation

Buddhism is a path of supreme optimism, for one of its basic tenets is that no human life or experience is to be wasted or forgotten, but all should be transformed into a source of wisdom and compassionate living.

—Taitetsu Unno, “Number One Fool”

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Via BBC // Ani Choying Drolma : The Singing Star Nun from Nepal Outlook

 

Ani Choying Drolma decided to become a Buddhist nun when she was 13 after witnessing violence from her father in her childhood home. Whilst learning songs for the spiritual ceremonies Ani discovered a love for singing and was noticed by a music producer who recorded her singing and took it back to the US. Ani was offered a record contract and a tour and has gone on to become one of the most celebrated musicians to emerge from Nepal.

 

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A panel from a Tibetan scroll that shows direct correlations between the universe and the human body. Wheel of Time (Kalachakra) Tantra.

Ruben Museum

 

 

Via Dhamma Wheel // Understanding the Noble Truth of the Cessation of Suffering

 

RIGHT VIEW
Understanding the Noble Truth of the Cessation of Suffering

What is the cessation of suffering? It is the remainderless fading away and ceasing, the giving up, relinquishing, letting go, and rejecting of craving. (MN 9) When one knows and sees visual forms as they actually are, then one is not attached to visual forms. When one abides unattached, one is not infatuated, and one’s craving is abandoned. One’s bodily and mental troubles are abandoned, and one experiences bodily and mental well-being. (MN 149)

Reflection

The third noble truth declares that once suffering has been identified (the first noble truth) and its origin has been discovered (the second noble truth), it is possible to bring that suffering to an end. This is the great promise of the Buddhist path: that any time we are experiencing suffering, we can reverse or neutralize it with insight and practices that loosen the specific craving that causes the particular instance of suffering.

Daily Practice

Let's begin with focusing on the sphere of visual experience. So many of the things we see give rise to impulses of attachment, infatuation, and craving. When we want what we see, that visual object becomes the trigger for a brief episode of suffering. Notice, however, that this impulse to crave what we see need not have irresistible power over us. Practice noting the craving, then letting go of it. Notice the ensuing sense of well-being.

Tomorrow: Cultivating Appreciative Joy
One week from today: Understanding the Noble Truth of the Way to the Cessation of Suffering

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Questions? Visit the Dhamma Wheel orientation page.