Via Thich Nhat Hanh Foundation

 

 

 

Prayer for the New Year

Today, the 31st January 2022 marks the eve of the Lunar New Year, known in Vietnam as “Tet.” This was Thay’s favorite time of the year, as it always marks the coming together of our spiritual family in an intimate and relaxed way with poetry, gentle music, the hanging of simple poetic couplets, and “the fragrance of Zen.” When Thay first ordained and received the novice precepts, his teacher gave him the monastic Dharma name “Phùng Xuân” 逢春 which means "Meeting the Spring." In welcoming Tet this year, we will be honoring Thay’s memory and the spirit of “meeting the warmth of spring” in every moment.

Ashes of our teacher on the altar

As we welcome the new year tonight in our monasteries around the world, we will do as Thay always taught us to do, and present to the Ancestors’ Altar our formal aspiration or “New Year’s Prayer” for the year to come: … Dear Respected Thay, you are a beautiful continuation of spiritual and blood ancestors across the ages, like a lotus in a sea of humanity. In your whole life of practice you have made an infinite contribution towards peace in ourselves and peace in the world. You encourage us to come home to ourselves, to be present for one another, to be as one body, to breathe as one body, and to go together as a river. You bridge differences and fill chasms, and always find the most beautiful gems in each culture and in each faith in order to enrich our path of practice, and inspire in us a direction and a course of action to take so that we can contribute to humanity’s collective wisdom, so that Buddha Maitreya—the Buddha of Love—can manifest each day in the form of a sangha.   Dear Thay, as we end the year, and as your physical body may play hide and seek, we give ourselves permission to grieve, to cry and to remember you. At the same time we come home to the present moment, looking deeply to recognize you in each brother and each sister, each flower bud and new leaf, in each passing cloud and beautiful walking path—in the many wonders of life. Some of us have been your life-long students, some have been to retreats, some have read your books, and some may have never met you but have spent moments enjoying a cup of tea in silence or admiring nature’s beauty with clear eyes—in one way or another, we know you, Thay, and we can recognize you in our very own practice. Read the New Year's Prayer in Full

 

Via Dhamma Wheel | Right Intention: Cultivating Compassion

 

RIGHT INTENTION Cultivating Compassion

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 compassion, for when you develop meditation on compassion, any cruelty will be abandoned. (MN 62)  The function of compassion is not bearing the suffering of others. (Vm 9.94)

Reflection

Compassion is an emotion to be felt, a "trembling of the heart in the presence of suffering." Its opposite emotion, cruelty, can come in strong or very subtle forms and involves the mind being unmoved in the face of suffering. Allowing yourself to be moved by compassion (as opposed to merely bearing or tolerating it) has a gradually transformative effect, softening the hardness of the mind and heart and allowing the habit of compassion to develop.

Daily Practice

Open yourself to the suffering of others. There is no shortage of opportunity for doing this in our world. But instead of noticing a tragic event or an injustice and then moving on to something else, allow your attention to linger on the suffering for a while. Open your mind and body to the unpleasantness of attending to suffering. It is okay to feel the pain of suffering without immediately trying to fix it. We learn and grow from this.

Tomorrow: Refraining from Malicious Speech
One week from today: Cultivating Appreciative Joy

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Questions? Visit the Dhamma Wheel orientation page.

Via Daily Dharma: Finding Yourself in No-Self

 It’s not that there’s no self, because that’s ridiculous. You’re you, and I’m me. But the self doesn’t exist in the way we imagined it does. . . . Try to find it as it really exists, not as you think it should.

“The Zen of Therapy”, Interview with Mark Epstein by James Shaheen

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Via White Crane Institute // Coretta Scott King

 

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Coretta Scott King

2006 -

Coretta Scott King died in Rosarito Beach, Mexico on this day. The great civil-rights activist and tireless supporter of Gay Rights succumbed to complications from a stroke and ovarian cancer. In arguing against a constitutional amendment banning Gay marriage King said, "Gay and Lesbian people have families, and their families should have legal protection, whether by marriage or civil union. A constitutional amendment banning same-sex marriages is a form of gay bashing and it would do nothing at all to protect traditional marriage."

In 2003, she invited the National Gay and Lesbian Task Force to take part in observances of the 40th anniversary of the March on Washington and Martin Luther King's "I Have A Dream" speech. It was the first time that an LGBT rights group had been invited to a major event of the African American community. King said her husband supported the quest for equality by LGBT people and reminded her critics that the 1963 March on Washington was organized by Bayard Rustin, an openly Gay civil rights activist.

 

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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

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Via Dhamma Wheel | Right Mindfulness and Concentration: Establishing Mindfulness of Body and the First Jhāna

 

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)   Breathing in and out, experiencing the whole body …one is just aware, just mindful: "There is body." And one abides not clinging to anything in the world. (MN 10)

Reflection As you sit in formal practice your breath becomes an anchoring object of awareness. Other objects—sounds, thoughts—will intrude on your attention, but the breath is a baseline to which you can return. Notice the texture of the entire breath, from the beginning of the in-breath to the last moment of the out-breath, with steadiness and no interruption. When the mind is attentive like this it is naturally content. Daily Practice See if you can experience contentment while breathing. This means not wanting anything to be different than it is, not having anywhere else to go, not moving your mind beyond the moment but simply meeting each movement of the breath with mindful equanimity. You can feel the experience of the breath permeating your whole body and simply abide without clinging to anything whatsoever.  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 Jhāna practice is not for everyone. Some take to it easily, some find it inaccessible. This is not something for you to succeed or fail at. If you are seriously interested in undertaking these concentration practices, then you should find a qualified teacher and practice in a protected space. Jhāna practice can contribute greatly to your understanding of the teachings, but is not a universal prerequisite. Lots of Buddhists don’t practice jhāna. Daily Practice Without striving for any kind of accomplishment, sit quietly at a dedicated time and place and allow the mind to gradually settle down, sinking through increasing layers of relaxation and calm. When one of the five hindrances arises, just gently let go of it and move the mind away from it. Whenever the mind is able to temporarily free itself of the hindrances, it naturally drops into the absorption of jhāna. 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.

Via Daily Dharma: Let Silence Set

 When you are practicing zazen, do not try to stop your thinking. Let it stop by itself. If something comes into your mind, let it come in, and let it go out. It will not stay long.

Shunryu Suzuki Roshi, “Small Mind, Big Mind”

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Via Fb / TULKU URGYEN RINPOCHE

 

TULKU URGYEN RINPOCHE 

"Shamatha and vipashyana is ultimately indivisible.

Both are naturally included and practiced in Ati Yoga.

The extraordinary shamatha is to resolve and remain in the true emptiness itself. Rather than the mere idea of emptiness, we resolve emptiness in actuality, in direct experience, and remain naturally in that state. The genuine shamatha is not to create anything artificial whatsoever, but to simply remain in the experience of emptiness. Vipashayana means not to deviate from that state."

Thich Nhat Hanh Cremation: Closing Ceremony | 2022 01 29

Via Dhamma Wheel | Right Effort: Restraining Unarisen Unhealthy States

 

RIGHT EFFORT
Restraining Unarisen 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 toward unhealthy states. (MN 19) Here a person rouses the will, makes an effort, stirs up energy, exerts the mind, and strives to restrain the arising of unarisen unhealthy mental states. One restrains the arising of the unarisen hindrance of sluggishness. (MN 141)

Reflection

Sluggishness, also sometimes called sloth and torpor, is one of the five hindrances that prevent the mind from becoming tranquil and alert. Like any natural system, the mind operates best within a certain range, and its effectiveness drops off when there is too much or too little energy. Here we are being encouraged to take what steps we can, such as rest and nutrition, to ensure that the mind is working optimally.

Daily Practice

Explore in your own experience the distinction between tranquility and sluggishness. The mind can get sleepy or lazy or dull, but this is very different from the calm tranquility of a peaceful mind. To be relaxed, you must also be alert. When you start to feel sluggish, take a deep breath or open your eyes wide or do something to stir up energy. Then put that energy to work, paradoxically toward calming the mind.

Tomorrow: Establishing Mindfulness of Body and the First Jhāna
One week from today: Abandoning Arisen Unhealthy States

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Questions? Visit the Dhamma Wheel orientation page.

Via Daily Dharma: Seeing Clearly

 When we begin to feel the benefits of meditation practice, it is like putting on glasses for the first time. Once we learn to sit with the breath, be with the present moment, and create space between ourselves and our thoughts, our lives come into focus, and we awaken to the possibility of something else—the alleviation of suffering.

Jessica Angima, “The High of New Beginnings—and the Joy of What Comes Next”

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Helping Hungry Ghosts | Thich Nhat Hanh (short teaching video)

Thich Nhat Hanh Funeral & Cremation Day 8 | Live from Huế, Vietnam | 202...

Via Tumblr

 

Maintaining a strong grip on the habits ~ Dzongsar Khyentse Rinpoche https://justdharma.com/s/ch8ke  Millions of people in this world are interested in some version of meditation, or yoga, or one of the many so-called spiritual activities that are now so widely marketed. A closer look at why people engage in these practices reveals an aim that has little to do with liberation from delusion, and everything do to with their desperation to escape busy, unhappy lives, and heartfelt longing for a healthy, stress-free, happy life. All of which are romantic illusions. So, where do we find the roots of these illusions? Mainly in our habitual patterns and their related actions. Of course, no one of sound mind imagines any of us would willingly live an illusion. But we are contrary beings, and even though we are convinced we would shun a life built on self-deception, we continue to maintain a strong grip on the habits that are the cause of countless delusions.  – Dzongsar Khyentse Rinpoche  from the book "Not for Happiness: A Guide to the So-Called Preliminary Practices" ISBN: 978-1611800302  -  https://amzn.to/17Vw76H  Dzongsar Khyentse Rinpoche on the web: http://www.siddharthasintent.org/ http://khyentsefoundation.org http://deerpark.in http://lotusoutreach.org http://84000.co http://dzongsar.justdharma.com  Dzongsar Khyentse Rinpoche biography: http://www.rigpawiki.org/index.php?title=Dzongsar_Khyentse_Rinpoche

Via Thubten Kway // FB

 

Via The Mindfulness Summit

 

Via Daily Dharma: Learning by Doing Inbox

 Good instruction and good teaching do not provide explanations. They tell you what to do and, to a certain extent, how to do it, and it is through the doing that you discover how the practice works.

Ken McLeod, “Where the Thinking Stops”

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Via Dhamma Wheel | Right Living: Abstaining from Harming Living Beings

 

RIGHT LIVING
Undertaking the Commitment to Abstain from Harming Living Beings

Harming living beings is unhealthy. Refraining from harming living beings is healthy. (MN 9) Abandoning the harming of living beings, one abstains from harming living beings; with rod and weapon laid aside, gentle and kindly, one abides with compassion toward all living beings. (MN 41) One practices thus: "Others may harm living beings, but I will abstain from the harming of living beings." (MN 8) A layperson is not to engage in the livelihood of trading in weapons. (AN 5.177)

Reflection

Everyone has to earn a living somehow, and all human activities involve some form of harm to others. The Buddha encouraged his followers to abstain from certain trades that do the most harm, including involvement with weapons of warfare. He did not condemn them as morally wrong but pointed out that the harm caused by weapons rebounds on the worker and has a cumulative unhealthy effect on the mind.

Daily Practice

Think about what you do professionally and reflect on how much harm to other beings is intrinsic to the job. If there are ways to mitigate this harm, try to implement changes in how things are done. If you are engaged in a job that is fundamentally harmful, such as making or deploying weapons that are used to kill, then it would contribute to your welfare to look for another line of work.

Tomorrow: Restraining Unarisen Unhealthy States
One week from today: Abstaining from Taking What is Not Given

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Questions? Visit the Dhamma Wheel orientation page.

Via FB // Thubten Kway

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BUDDHA SPEAKS 

 

The Buddha told Ananda, “Today the Tathagata will tell you truly that all those with wisdom are able to achieve enlightenment through the use of examples.

”Ananda, take, for example, my fist: if I didn’t have a hand, I couldn’t make a fist. If you didn’t have eyes, you couldn’t see. If you apply the example of my fist to the case of your eyes, is the idea the same?”

Ananda said, “Yes, World Honored One. Since I can’t see without my eyes, if one applies the example of the Buddha’s fist to the case of your eyes, the idea is the same.”

The Buddha said to Ananda, “You say it is the same, but that is not right. Why? If a person has no hand, his fist is gone forever. But one who is without eyes is not entirely devoid of sight.

”For what reason? Try consulting a blind man on the street: ‘What do you see?’

”Any blind man will certainly answer, ‘Now I see only black in front of my eyes. Nothing else meets my gaze.’

”The meaning is apparent: if he sees blackness in front of him, how could his seeing be considered ‘lost’?”

Ananda said, “The only thing blind people see in front of their eyes is blackness. How can that be seeing?”

The Buddha said to Ananda, “Is there any difference between the blackness seen by blind people, who do not have the use of their eyes, and the blackness seen by someone who has the use of his eyes when he is in a dark room?”

”So it is, World Honored One. Between the two kinds of blackness, that seen by the person in a dark room and that seen by the blind, there is no difference.”

”Ananda, if the person without the use of his eyes who sees only blackness were suddenly to regain his sight and see all kinds of forms, and you say it is his eyes which see, then when the person in a dark room who sees only blackness suddenly sees all kinds of forms because a lamp is lit, you should say it is the lamp which sees.

”If it is a case of the lamp seeing, it would be a lamp endowed with sight - which couldn’t be called a lamp. And if the lamp were to do the seeing, how would you be involved?

”Therefore you should know that while the lamp can reveal the forms, it is the eyes, not the lamp, that do the seeing. And while the eyes can reveal the forms, the seeing-nature comes from the Mind, not the eyes.”

 

***THE SHURANGAMA SUTRA

 

Via FB // DZONGSAR JAMYANG KHYENSTE RINPOCHE

The Self

From time immemorial, we have been addicted to the self.

It is how we identify ourselves.

It is what we love most dearly.

It is also what we hate most fiercely at times.

Its existence is also the thing that we work hardest to try to validate.

Almost everything that we do or think or have, including our spiritual path, is a means to confirm its existence.

It is the self that fears failure and longs for success, fears hell and longs for heaven.

The self loathes suffering and loves the causes of suffering.

It stupidly wages war in the name of peace.

It wishes for enlightenment but detests the path to enlightenment.

It wishes to work as a socialist but lives as a capitalist.

When the self feels lonely, it desires friendship.

Its possessiveness of those it loves manifests in passion that can lead to aggression. Its supposed enemies – such as spiritual paths designed to conquer the ego – are often corrupted and recruited as the self’s ally.

Its skills in playing the game of deception is nearly perfect.

It weaves a cocoon around itself like a silkworm; but unlike a silkworm, it doesn’t know how to find the way out.