Sunday, January 23, 2022

Via Plum Village /FB


"Our actions [are] our continuation. We cannot die. We can never die. Like a cloud, we continue with our actions. And our actions will take forms, many kinds of forms. It can take very beautiful forms." - Thich Nhat Hanh 

One of the short Dharma Talk clips we featured on our https://plumvillage.org/memorial-practice-resources/ - selected chants, meditations, teachings, readings, songs, calligraphies & photos, to support your practice at home or with a local sangha, as we generate the energy of mindfulness and compassion in memory of our teacher Thich Nhat Hanh.

 https://fb.watch/aJqAoxDtle/

ViaFB


 

Via FB


 

via FB


 

Yale Sociologist Nick Christakis: COVID-19 Will Reshape Humanity | Amanp...

Saturday, January 22, 2022

Via Dhamma Wheel | Right Effort: Maintaining Arisen Healthy States

 

RIGHT EFFORT
Maintaining Arisen Healthy States
Whatever a person frequently thinks about and ponders, that will become the inclination of their mind. If one frequently thinks about and ponders healthy states, one has abandoned unhealthy states to cultivate the healthy states, and then one’s mind inclines to healthy states. (MN 19)

Here a person rouses the will, makes an effort, stirs up energy, exerts the mind, and strives to maintain arisen healthy mental states. One maintains the arisen investigation of states awakening factor. (MN 141)
Reflection
Practice is not just about abandoning the mental and emotional states that get in the way of a peaceful mind; it has equally to do with encouraging and supporting all the beneficial states. When kindness, generosity, compassion, or wisdom arises, this is a good thing, partly because it encourages further healthy states and partly because it blocks out unhealthy states. Only one state at a time can occupy the mind.

Daily Practice
When you are able to arouse the interest and curiosity that characterize the awakening factor of the investigation of states, see what you can do to maintain or sustain such interest. Mindfulness is a supporting condition, as is energy or relaxed effort. It is a matter of taking interest in the phenomenology of the inner life and inquiring deeply into the texture, not the content, of experience. What does it feel like to be aware of what is actually going on?

Tomorrow: Establishing Mindfulness of Mental Objects and the Fourth Jhāna
One week from today: Restraining Unarisen Unhealthy States

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

Questions?
Visit the Dhamma Wheel orientation page.

Via Daily Dharma: Finding the Right Tone

 In music, technical brilliance by itself may be impressive, but if the tone isn’t true, the music does not resonate, and those who listen soon become bored or restless. The same holds true for meditation. There is a quality in attention, and when you hit it, your practice is alive and awake.

Ken McLeod, “One-Breath Meditation”


CLICK HERE TO READ THE FULL ARTICLE

Via White Crane Institute // Noteworthy

 

Noteworthy
2009 -
On this date a sociologist at an Iranian university presented a study showing high levels of homosexual experiences among the country's population. Iran has strict laws against sex outside marriage and other sexual acts such as masturbation. Adultery and same-sex acts are punishable by death. Startling new research from sociologist Parvaneh Abdul Maleki found that 24% of Iranian women and 16% of Iranian men have had at least one homosexual experience. 73% of men and 26% of women surveyed said they had masturbated.
 
Ms. Maleki presented her findings at the Third Conference on Well-being in the Family and the story was reported in the Iranian press, albeit as a report on sexual deviance in need of treatment. The report also revealed that more than 75% of those who grew up in a conservative religious environment have watched pornography, 86% have had a heterosexual relationship outside of marriage and just over 4% have had Gay or Lesbian relationships. Since Iran's Islamic revolution in 1979, human rights groups claim that between 3,000 and 4,000 people have been executed under Sharia law for the crime of homosexuality. The President of Iran admitted in an interview that there may be "a few" gay people in his country, but attacked homosexuality as destructive to society.
 
In an interview with U.S. current affairs TV program Democracy Now, Mahmoud Ahmadinejad also rejected criticism of the execution of children in Iran. During a visit to the U.S. in 2007 he said in reply to a question posed about homosexuality during his speech at New York's Columbia University: "In Iran we don't have homosexuals like in your country… In Iran we do not have this phenomenon, I don't know who has told you that we have it." In his TV interview he condemned American acceptance of gay people. "It should be of no pride to American society to say they defend something like this," President Ahmadinejad said. "Just because some people want to get votes, they are willing to overlook every morality."

|8|O|8|O|8|O|8|O|8|O|8|O|8|O|8|

Gay Wisdom for Daily Living from White Crane Institute

"With the increasing commodification of gay news, views, and culture by powerful corporate interests, having a strong independent voice in our community is all the more important. White Crane is one of the last brave standouts in this bland new world... a triumph over the looming mediocrity of the mainstream Gay world." - Mark Thompson

Exploring Gay Wisdom & Culture since 1989!
www.whitecraneinstitute.org

|8|O|8|O|8|O|8|O|8|O|8|O|8|O|8|

Via Thich Nhat Hanh foundation

 


The Great Bell Chant (The End Of Suffering)

Friday, January 21, 2022

Via Dhamma Wheel | Right Living: Abstaining from Intoxication

 

RIGHT LIVING
Undertaking the Commitment to Abstain from Intoxication
Intoxication is unhealthy. Refraining from intoxication is healthy. (MN 9) What are the imperfections that defile the mind? Negligence is an imperfection that defiles the mind. Knowing that negligence is an imperfection that defiles the mind, a person abandons it. (MN 7) One practices thus: "Others may become negligent by intoxication, but I will abstain from the negligence of intoxication." (MN 8)

One of the dangers attached to addiction to intoxicants is increased quarreling. (DN 31)
Reflection
Diligence is one of the mental states most highly valued in Buddhist teachings, and negligence, its opposite, is one of the greatest dangers. The argument against intoxication is not the substance itself (alcohol, drugs, and the like) but the state of negligence it invites. The mind is "defiled" or poisoned by these dispositions, and they lead to a host of secondary problems, such as diminishing health and increased quarreling.

Daily Practice
Practice diligence of mind at every opportunity and in any creative way you can. This is not a practice of what you put into your body in the way of food or drink but of how alert, clear, and balanced you can be in your life every day. So many modern activities involve a sort of mental intoxication that makes us negligent in various ways. As a practice, notice what effect different activities have on your mental clarity.

Tomorrow: Maintaining Arisen Healthy States
One week from today: Abstaining from Harming Living Beings

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

Questions?
Visit the Dhamma Wheel orientation page.