Via Daily Dharma: Practice with Mistakes

 As long as we realize and admit our mistakes, let them go, and make corrections immediately, that is practice.

Master Sheng-Yen, “How to Be Faultless”

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Via White Crane Institute // DOG DAYS

 

Noteworthy

2018 -

According to The Old Farmer’s Almanac today marks the beginning of the DOG DAYS most commonly experienced in the months of July and August, which typically observe the warmest summer temperatures. In the Southern hemisphere, they typically occur in January and February, in the midst of the austral summer. The Almanac lists the traditional period of the Dog Days as the forty days beginning July 3rd and ending August 11th, coinciding with the ancient heliacal (at sunrise) rising of the Dog Star, Sirius. These are the days of the year with the least rainfall in the Northern Hemisphere.

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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 Mind and the Third Jhāna

RIGHT MINDFULNESS
Establishing Mindfulness of Mind

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 the mind is uplifted, one is aware: “The mind is uplifted”. . . One is just aware, just mindful: “There is mind.” And one abides not clinging to anything in the world. (MN 10)

Reflection

An uplifted mind is one made more noble by the presence of an ennobling mental factor or combination of factors. Buddhist psychology measures the mind in moments that quickly come and go, so a mind that is uplifted in one moment by kindness, for example, might be the opposite the very next moment if ill will or selfishness shows up. Among other things, mindfulness involves noticing the quality of the mind moment by moment.

Daily Practice

Closely examine your mind—not the content of your mind but the quality of your mind. By quality we mean whether it has healthy mental factors like kindness, generosity, and wisdom. Many mind moments do not have such uplifting factors, but many of them do, and it is important to recognize your own good qualities when they are present. This allows you to not only appreciate your good qualities but also encourage their arising in the future.

RIGHT CONCENTRATION Approaching and Abiding in the Third Phase of Absorption (3rd Jhāna)

With the fading away of joy, one abides in equanimity; mindful and fully aware, still feeling pleasure with the body, one enters upon and abides in the third phase of absorption, on account of which noble ones announce: “One has a pleasant abiding who has equanimity and is mindful.” (MN 4) One practices: “I shall breathe in experiencing mental formations;” one practices: “I shall breathe out experiencing mental formations.” This is how concentration by mindfulness of breathing is developed and cultivated,  so that it is of great fruit and great benefit. (A 54.8)

Tomorrow: Understanding the Noble Truth of the Way to the Cessation of Suffering
One week from today: Establishing Mindfulness of Mental Objects and the Fourth Jhāna

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Questions? Visit the Dhamma Wheel orientation page.

 

Via Ram Dass - Love Serve Remember Foundation // Words of Wisdom - July 3, 2022 💌

 

 

When people say, “What should I do with my life?” the more interesting question is, “How do I cultivate the quietness of my being, where ‘what I should do with my life’ will become apparent?”

Don’t be afraid of making mistakes. The journey is constant, between listening to the inner voice and making the choice to take an action. The minute you make a decision, if you feel it is disharmonious with some other plane of existence, you must go back inside again. The art form of continually emptying to hear freshly. Imagine being in a relationship where the two people are meeting each other anew all the time. Imagine how freeing it would be for you.

- Ram Dass -

 

A Metta Bhavana 

• Que eu seja feliz; 
• Que todos os seres sejam felizes 
• Que eu não sofra; 
• Que todos os seres não sofram 
• Que eu encontre as verdadeiras causas da felicidade;  
• Que todos os seres encontrem as verdadeiras causas da felicidade 
• Que eu supere as causas do sofrimento; 
• Que todos os seres superem as causas do sofrimento 
• Que eu supere toda ignorância, todo carma negativo e todas as negatividades; 
• Que todos os seres superem toda ignorância, todo carma negativo e todas as negatividades 
• Que eu tenha lucidez;  
• Que todos os seres tenham lucidez 
• Que eu tenha a capacidade de trazer benefício aos seres;  
• Que todos os seres tenham a capacidade de trazer benefício aos seres 
• Que eu encontre nisso a minha felicidade.  
• Que todos os seres encontrem nisso a sua felicidade 

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Via Terra // Metta Bhavana: conheça a meditação do amor incondicional: Aprenda a propagar compaixão e amor por meio da meditação

Como fazer a meditação

Encontre um local sem ruídos que você possa ficar confortável para começar a meditação. Não há uma posição correta do corpo, assim, escolha ficar sentado(a) ou deitado(a) de acordo com as suas necessidades.

Comece respirando profundamente para relaxar a cabeça e o corpo. Procure se concentrar em um único pensamento positivo ou em um ponto fixo. Dessa forma, o fluxo de pensamentos ficará mais calmo e você conseguirá manter o foco na meditação por mais tempo.

O Metta Bhavana contém oito frases que não precisam ser faladas na mesma sequência, mas devem ser ditas com calma e, principalmente, sinceridade. Ao proferir uma frase, sinta dentro de você qual é a essência dela. Tente compreender o significado para melhor transmitir a verdade por trás das palavras.

1. Que eu seja feliz;
2. Que eu não sofra;
3. Que eu encontre as verdadeiras causas da felicidade;
4. Que eu supere as causas do sofrimento;
5. Que eu supere toda ignorância, carma negativo e negatividades;
6. Que eu tenha lucidez;
7. Que eu tenha a capacidade de trazer benefício aos seres;
8. Que eu encontre nisso a sua felicidade.
   

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Maitri Bhavana Practice

The cultivation of benevolence (mettā bhāvanā) is a popular form of Buddhist meditation. It is a part of the four immeasurables in Brahmavihara (divine abidings) meditation. Metta as 'compassion meditation' is often practiced in Asia by broadcast chanting, wherein monks chant for the laity.

 

Maitrī means benevolence, loving-kindness, friendliness, amity, good will, and active interest in others. It is the first of the four sublime states and one of the ten pāramīs of the Theravāda school of Buddhism. The cultivation of benevolence is a popular form of Buddhist meditation. Wikipedia

 

English: Loving-kindness, benevolence

Pali: mettā

Sanskrit: मैत्री; (IAST: maitrī)

Thai: เมตตา; (RTGS: metta)

Maitrī - Wikipedia

Via Dhamma Wheel | Right Effort: Developing Unarisen Healthy States

 

RIGHT EFFORT
Developing Unarisen 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 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 develop the arising of unarisen healthy mental states. One develops the unarisen investigation-of-states awakening factor. (MN 141)

Reflection

The second of the seven factors of awakening is called the investigation of states, and this refers to a quality of curiosity and interest that naturally arises when we become mindful, or fully aware, of our own mental and emotional states. Anything looked at closely enough becomes interesting, even fascinating. Like any mental factor though, this quality of investigation usually requires some effort to arouse and sustain.

Daily Practice

Make a point of taking an interest in things, even subtle aspects of your own experience. If your ear is itching, zoom in on that sensation and investigate it carefully: What does the itch feel like exactly? If you feel hurt by something said to you, take the time to see how that hurt actually manifests in your mind and body. By cultivating the quality of this awakening factor, the investigation of states, you build self-understanding.

Tomorrow: Establishing Mindfulness of Mind and Abiding in the Third Jhāna
One week from today: Maintaining Arisen Healthy States

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Questions? Visit the Dhamma Wheel orientation page.

Via Daily Dharma: Discovering Our Ancestors

 Part of our task is to discover how all our ancestors inform our lives–and the same holds true for all forms of life, for we have been shaped not only by human ancestors but also by the environments in which they lived.

Joan Halifax, “Giving Birth to Ancestors”

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Via The Sacramento Bee

 

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Via Facebook // Christian Pastor and Author John Pavlovitz

 From a nationally known and highly respected Christian pastor and author. Get ready for a Mic drop of TRUTH. Tom Chari Karen FA Deb Phil Leonard Dave.  Christian Pastor and Author John Pavlovitz:

“Dear White Evangelicals,

I need to tell you something: People have had it with you. They’re done. They want nothing to do with you any longer, and here’s why: They see your hypocrisy, your inconsistency, your incredibly selective mercy, and your thinly veiled supremacy.

For eight years they watched you relentlessly demonize a black President; a man faithfully married for 26 years; a doting father and husband without a hint of moral scandal or the slightest whiff of infidelity. They watched you deny his personal faith convictions, argue his birthplace, and assail his character—all without cause or evidence.

They saw you brandish Scriptures to malign him and use the laziest of racial stereotypes in criticizing him. And through it all, White Evangelicals—you never once suggested that God placed him where he was, you never publicly offered prayers for him and his family, you never welcomed him to your Christian Universities, you never gave him the benefit of the doubt in any instance, you never spoke of offering him forgiveness or mercy, your evangelists never publicly thanked God for his leadership, your pastors never took to the pulpit to offer solidarity with him, you never made any effort to affirm his humanity or show the love of Jesus to him in any quantifiable measure.

You violently opposed him at every single turn—without offering a single ounce of the grace you claim as the heart of your faith tradition. You jettisoned Jesus as you dispensed damnation on him.

And yet you give carte blanche to a white Republican man so riddled with depravity, so littered with extramarital affairs, so unapologetically vile, with such a vast resume of moral filth—that the mind boggles.

And the change in you is unmistakable. It has been an astonishing conversion to behold: a being born again.

With him, you suddenly find religion. With him, you’re now willing to offer full absolution. With him, all is forgiven without repentance or admission. With him, you’re suddenly able to see some invisible, deeply buried heart. With him, sin has become unimportant, and compassion no longer a requirement. With him, you see only Providence.

And White Evangelicals, all those people who have had it with you—they see it all clearly. They recognize the toxic source of your inconsistency.

They see that pigmentation and party are your sole deities. They see that you aren’t interested in perpetuating the love of God or emulating the heart of Jesus. They see that you aren’t burdened to love the least, or to be agents of compassion, or to care for your Muslim, gay, African, female, or poor neighbors as yourself.

They see that all you’re really interested in doing is making a God in your own ivory image and demanding that the world bow down to it. They recognize this all about white, Republican Jesus—not dark-skinned Jesus of Nazareth.

And I know you don’t realize it, but you’re digging your own grave these days; the grave of your very faith tradition.

Your willingness to align yourself with cruelty is a costly marriage. Yes, you’ve gained a Supreme Court seat, a few months with the Presidency as a mouthpiece, and the cheap high of temporary power—but you’ve lost a whole lot more.

You’ve lost an audience with millions of wise, decent, good-hearted, faithful people with eyes to see this ugliness. You’ve lost any moral high ground or spiritual authority with a generation. You’ve lost any semblance of Christlikeness. You’ve lost the plot. And most of all you’ve lost your soul.

I know it’s likely you’ll dismiss these words. The fact that you’ve even made your bed with such malevolence, shows how far gone you are and how insulated you are from the reality in front of you. But I had to at least try to reach you. It’s what Jesus would do.”

John Pavlovitz

(Christian pastor and author)

Dhamma Wheel | Right Living: Abstaining from Misbehaving Among Sensual Pleasures

 

RIGHT LIVING
Undertaking the Commitment to Abstain from Misbehaving Among Sensual Pleasures 

Sensual misconduct is unhealthy. Refraining from sensual misconduct is healthy. (MN 9) Abandoning sensual misconduct, one abstains from misbehaving among sensual pleasures. (MN 41) One practices thus: “Others may engage in sensual misconduct, but I will abstain from sensual misconduct.” (MN 8) Sounds cognizable by the ear are of two kinds: those to be cultivated and those not to be cultivated. Such sounds as cause, in one who cultivates them, unhealthy states to increase and healthy states to diminish, such sounds are not to be cultivated. But such sounds as cause, in one who cultivates them, unhealthy states to diminish and healthy states to increase, such sounds are to be cultivated. (MN 114)

Reflection

Notice that nothing is being said here about the sound itself; the focus is on the reaction that hearing the sound has on the person who hears it. Your mind, along with its accumulated emotional habits, filters whatever comes in through the senses and gives rise to a range of responses. The precept concerning sensual indulgence has to do with abstaining from certain unhealthy responses, not from the objects themselves.

Daily Practice

Practice acting as a guardian of your sense doors. Like a sentry at the gate, be aware of what sounds present themselves to pass within and take care to admit only those that bring out your best. It is okay to filter out words and other sounds that are disturbing and cause distress. This does not mean hiding from life’s realities; rather it is about taking some control over what comes in and then goes on in your mind.

Tomorrow: Developing Unarisen Healthy States
One week from today: Abstaining from Intoxication

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Questions? Visit the Dhamma Wheel orientation page.

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