A personal blog by a graying (mostly Anglo with light African-American roots) gay left leaning liberal progressive married college-educated Buddhist Baha'i BBC/NPR-listening Professor Emeritus now following the Dharma in Minas Gerais, Brasil.
If you’re involved with relationship with parents or children, instead
of saying, "I can’t do spiritual practices because I have children," you
say, "My children are my spiritual practice." If you’re traveling a
lot, your traveling becomes your yoga.
You start to use your life as your curriculum for coming to God. You use
the things that are on your plate, that are presented to you. So that
relationships, economics, psychodynamics—all of these become grist for
the mill of awakening. They all are part of your curriculum.
MARGOT ADLER,journalist, born (d: 2014); American author, journalist, lecturer, Wiccan priestess, radio journalist and correspondent for National Public Radio (NPR) Adler was born in Little Rock, Arkansas and grew up mostly in New York City. Her grandfather, Alfred Adler, is considered the father of individual psychology.
Adler wroteDrawing Down the Moon: Witches, Druids, Goddess-Worshippers, and Other Pagans in America Today,considered a watershed in American Neopagan circles. The book provided the first comprehensive look at the nature-based religions in the US, and became what was for many the first point of contact with the larger subculture. She was a speaker at the 1986 WinterStar Symposium, from which the Association for Consiousness Exploration produced her lecture tapeFrom Witch to Witch-Doctor: Healers, Therapists and Shamansand the panel discussionThe Magickal Movement: Present and Future(with Isaac Bonewits, Selena Fox, and Robert Anton Wilson).
Her second book,Heretic's Heart: A Journey Through Spirit and Revolution, was published by Beacon Press in 1997. Adler was a Wiccan priestess of the Gardnerian Wicca tradition and a Unitarian Universalist.
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Gay Wisdom for Daily Living from White Crane Institute
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Andrea
Miller on what Thich Nhat Hanh taught her, his inspiring and courageous
life, and how — through us — his wisdom will continue.
In January, I got the email from a colleague: “Thich Nhat Hanh has died.”
On January 23, the casket ceremony was livestreamed with thousands of
people from all over the world watching from their homes. I watched too,
of course.
At Tu Hieu, monastics were gathered, saffron shoulder to shoulder. As
the crowds’ singing swelled and broke, a procession of monks carried
Thay’s body from his hut to the Full Moon Meditation Hall. There he was
lovingly placed in his coffin. Then the coffin was shut tight and
festooned with chrysanthemums, his favorite flower.
I had been right, back in 2013. I never would see Thay again in the same
form—and now none of us will. But we will see Thay again. Even as the
casket ceremony was unfolding, we were seeing him.
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 state, 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 tranquility and concentration awakening factors.
(MN 141)
Reflection
Healthy and
positive mental states arise all the time. The idea is to learn how to
notice them, recognize their value, and make some effort to sustain them
when they arise. This means developing habits that will reinforce
qualities like kindness, generosity, compassion, and truthfulness.
Slowing down, becoming peaceful, and allowing the mind to unify through
focusing is particularly valuable.
Daily Practice
The two factors
of awakening, tranquility and concentration, are considered together
here because of their natural affinity with each other. Finding time to
slow down, stop doing things, and simply allow the mind to become
peaceful and focused is a healthy thing to do. It is not that settling
the mind takes effort, but it takes effort to disengage from normal
business to give the mind time to focus naturally. Once you do it,
you'll see that it’s worth it.
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
Effort
is more important than so-called success because effort is a real
thing. What we call “success” is just the manifestation of our mind’s
ability to categorize things. This is “success.” That is “failure.” Who
says? You says. That’s all. Reality is what it is, beyond all concepts
of success and failure.
Everybody
is looking for something that isn’t available. It’s worse than looking
for a needle in a haystack; at least the needle is there, even though it
is hard to find. But satisfaction and self are both delusions, so how
can they ever be found?
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 indecent exposure of one's person. (DN 31)
Reflection
The arguments
put forward in the early Buddhist texts against intoxication were mostly
practical ones. In this case there is the recognition that when you
lose control of yourself through some form of intoxication, the chances
increase that you will do something foolish or embarrassing that you
will regret later. Better to undertake the commitment to abstain from
the kind of negligence that leads to such behaviors.
Daily Practice
See if, through
introspection, you can discern the point at which intoxication begins
to show up in your experience. If you are a drinker, investigate the
moment between the first and second swig, or the first and second glass,
or whatever point you can notice when the mind begins to get a little
sluggish. If you don’t drink, try the same experiment with some other
form of intoxication. There are many to choose from.
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
