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) Compassion succeeds when it makes cruelty subside. (Vm 9.94)

Reflection

When lovingkindness comes in contact with witnessing the suffering of others, it transforms into compassion. Compassion and cruelty are considered opposite mental states and cannot coexist in the same mind moment: when one is present, the other is absent. This is why it is so important to cultivate compassion as an intentional act, both to make it grow in its own right and to block out all cruelty.

Daily Practice

Allow yourself to be open to the fact that people are suffering. Cultivate the emotion of compassion and allow it to grow. You are training your mind to develop in a particular direction, much like guiding the growth of a plant or a vine. As the process unfolds, the tendency toward compassion will get stronger. As your character gradually evolves in this healthy direction, the tendency—even the ability—to feel cruelty will disappear.

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

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Via Tricycle // The Zen of Emptiness: A Conversation with Kurt Spellmeyer

 

The Zen of Emptiness: A Conversation with Kurt Spellmeyer
Coming up April 29

How can emptiness transform our meditation practice? Join Zen priest Kurt Spellmeyer and Tricycle’s editor-in-chief, James Shaheen, for a conversation on the role of emptiness in Zen Buddhism.

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Via Daily Dharma: Embracing Everything

 Because mind is infinite, it can embrace the universe and still have room left over. Thus, if you understand the truth of nonduality, you can completely embrace everything.

Daehaeng Kun Sunim, “Thinking Big”

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Using the example of Abdu'l-Baha to integrate the Queer population into ...

Via Queerty // George Takei has perfect response to right-wing “grooming” hysteria

 

Via FB // Exposing homophobia and intolerance online

 

Via Dhamma Wheel | Right View: Understanding the Noble Truth of the Origin of Suffering

 

RIGHT VIEW Understanding the Noble Truth of the Origin of Suffering What is the origin of suffering? It is craving, which brings renewal of being, is accompanied by delight and lust, and delights in this and that—that is, craving for sensual pleasures, craving for being, and craving for non-being. (MN 9) When one does not know and see mental objects as they actually are, then one is attached to thoughts. When one is attached, one becomes infatuated, and one’s craving increases. One’s bodily and mental troubles increase, and one experiences bodily and mental suffering. (MN 149)

Reflection Of the six kinds of objects that make up our experience, mental objects are the most challenging to work with. The feeling tones that arise with sensory objects give rise to craving, as we delight in the pleasure and are averse to the pain, but thoughts come with the added challenge of rich content. We can’t help but get drawn into the story and entangled in the plot, at which point our mental troubles usually increase. Daily Practice Practice regarding the mental objects coursing through your mind as thoughts and thoughts only. See if you can focus on their arising and passing away as a series of events occurring in the mind, without getting drawn into the content of the thoughts. Never mind, in other words, what the thought is about, but regard it simply as a passing mental phenomenon to be treated much like the passing physical sensations of the body.  Tomorrow: Cultivating Compassion One week from today: Understanding the Noble Truth of the Cessation of Suffering  Share your thoughts and join the conversation on social media #DhammaWheel Questions? Visit the Dhamma Wheel orientation page.

Via LGBTQ Nation // It is illegal to be LGBTQ in these countries

In 71 countries, being queer makes you a criminal. In 11 of them, the punishment is death. 

 

 

Via Daily Dharma: The Poetry of the Unknown

 We are able to see the unknown only when we go beyond time. That is why the poetry that comes from this unknown territory cannot but be wild, fresh, and alive, like a leaping carp.

Ok-koo Kang Grosjean, “Like a Leaping Carp”

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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)   When standing, one is aware: “I am standing”… One is just aware, just mindful, “there is body.” And one abides not clinging to anything in the world. (MN 10)

Reflection

Mindfulness can be practiced in any position. Sitting and walking are the most familiar positions, but you can also practice standing or lying down. It is simply a matter of “establishing the presence of mindfulness” in the same way you do in sitting practice. Notice the same emphasis on being just aware, just mindful of the bodily sensations without mental elaboration. Can you stand to practice without clinging to anything in the world?

Daily Practice

When you find yourself having to stand in place for any length of time, such as waiting in line or watching an event, take the opportunity to practice mindfulness. Turn your attention inward, to the flow of your direct experience, and notice, for example, all the micro-adjustments made by your body to maintain balance. This in itself can become a compelling practice, as you notice how much is going on that you normally overlook.

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

Absorption practice begins by finding the sweet spot in the center of the mind, the place where there is neither too much energy (restlessness) nor too little (sluggishness), neither wanting (sense desire) nor non-wanting (ill will) something or anything. When these hindrances, along with doubt, are abandoned temporarily, the mind naturally settles down into a state of tranquil alertness and equanimity.

Daily Practice

Sit quietly and comfortably in a peaceful place and allow everything swirling around in your mind and body to gradually settle down. Like dust settling in the air or particulates settling in water, there is nothing to force or make happen. Patience will be rewarded by the experience of deeper and deeper modes of peacefulness, clarity, and stability of mind. Don’t try to measure anything; just let it all be what it is.

Tomorrow: Understanding the Noble Truth of the Origin of Suffering
One week from today: Establishing Mindfulness of Feeling and Abiding in the Second Jhāna

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Via Ram Dass - Love Serve Remember Foundation // Words of Wisdom - April 24, 2022 💌

 

Part of what I see as tools for transformation has to do with honoring what you are as an instrument for transformation – and that has to do with the mind and the heart and the skills.    Hearing what in my business would be called your unique dharma, or your unique manifestation in the game. Also, then learning how to do it as 'the Bhagavad Gita' says, by not being identified with being the actor behind what you are doing, and not being attached to the fruits of the actions. Doing it free of those things, where you’re doing it because it’s your part in the dance…    “I’ll do what I can to relieve suffering. I’ll do what I can to preserve the environment, sustainably. I’ll do what I can to bring about justice to the world.”    Whether there is justice or the environment gets sustained, or there is an end to suffering, that is not really my business. It would be chutzpah and presumption for me to think it was. There are just too many variables involved in that. I learned from the East the idea of doing impeccable dharma. That is, doing your thing as well as you can. I mean, when I give lectures or write a book or do whatever I do, or sit with a dying person… the game is to do that as cleanly and as fully consciously, and as equanimous as I can.    The next part of this is how it comes out. This is about identification with yourself as the actor because if you’re identifying as an actor, like most activists, you burn out immediately because you’re working, and then there’s more to do and you’re working harder and harder. You end up feeling exhausted and burned out.    It’s creating space where you can do the actions without getting trapped in being the actor. Just like your heart is beating – but you’re not beating your heart.  - Ram Dass

Via Daily Dharma: Recognizing Patterns

Each time you meet an old emotional pattern with presence, your awakening to truth can deepen. There’s less identification with the self in the story and more ability to rest in the awareness that is witnessing what’s happening.

Tara Brach, “Finding True Refuge”

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Via Daily Dharma: Choosing Embodiment

 We’ve been running away from our collective heartbreak for centuries and centuries. We have to choose to be embodied; we have to choose to touch into and metabolize that brokenheartedness.

Interview with Lama Rod Owens by Nina Herzog, “A Love Song to My Anger”

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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 to 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 all five unarisen hindrances. (MN 141)

Reflection

Having gone through each of the five hindrances one at a time, we now regard them as a group. At all times, and in no particular order, we want to become sensitive to the harmful effects of sense desire, ill will, restlessness, sluggishness, and doubt, and to work actively to restrain their arising. With the development of certain skills, we can position ourselves wisely so that the conditions that feed these unhealthy states will diminish.

Daily Practice

Cultivate the habit of being sensitive to the five hindrances throughout all activities of daily life. If some particular activity tends to make you restless, like drinking a lot of coffee, you might think about cutting down. If interacting with a particular person provokes your ill will, you might think about seeing them less. It is just a matter of knowing what conditions trigger unhealthy states and working to diminish them.

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

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