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.
Friday, September 30, 2022
Via Dhamma Wheel | Right Living: Abstaining from Intoxication
Undertaking the Commitment to Abstain from Intoxication
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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. |
Via Daily Dharma: Use Doubt as Fuel
If
those doubts come up, fine. Don’t deny that they are there. Throw those
into your practice. Let that be the fuel to nourish doing.
Elihu Genmyo Smith, “Do Your Best”
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Thursday, September 29, 2022
[GBF] Sunday's talk with Sean Feit Oakes
Don’t let the wind blow you over
- Numbered Discourses 8.5
- 1. Love
Worldly Conditions (1st)
“Mendicants, the eight worldly conditions revolve around the world, and the world revolves around the eight worldly conditions. What eight? Gain and loss, fame and disgrace, blame and praise, pleasure and pain. These eight worldly conditions revolve around the world, and the world revolves around these eight worldly conditions.
Gain and loss, fame and disgrace,blame and praise, and pleasure and pain.These qualities among people are impermanent,transient, and perishable.
A clever and mindful person knows these things,seeing that they’re perishable.Desirable things don’t disturb their mind,nor are they repelled by the undesirable.
Both favoring and opposingare cleared and ended, they are no more.Knowing the stainless, sorrowless state,they who have gone beyond rebirth understand rightly.”
- Numbered Discourses 8.6
- 1. Love
Worldly Conditions (2nd)
“Mendicants, the eight worldly conditions revolve around the world, and the world revolves around the eight worldly conditions. What eight? Gain and loss, fame and disgrace, blame and praise, pleasure and pain. These eight worldly conditions revolve around the world, and the world revolves around these eight worldly conditions.
An uneducated ordinary person encounters gain and loss, fame and disgrace, blame and praise, and pleasure and pain. And so does an educated noble disciple. What, then, is the difference between an ordinary uneducated person and an educated noble disciple?”
“Our teachings are rooted in the Buddha. He is our guide and our refuge. Sir, may the Buddha himself please clarify the meaning of this. The mendicants will listen and remember it.”
“Well then, mendicants, listen and pay close attention, I will speak.”
“Yes, sir,” they replied. The Buddha said this:
“Mendicants, an uneducated ordinary person encounters gain. They don’t reflect: ‘I’ve encountered this gain. It’s impermanent, suffering, and perishable.’ They don’t truly understand it. They encounter loss … fame … disgrace … blame … praise … pleasure … pain. They don’t reflect: ‘I’ve encountered this pain. It’s impermanent, suffering, and perishable.’ They don’t truly understand it.
So gain and loss, fame and disgrace, blame and praise, and pleasure and pain occupy their mind. They favor gain and oppose loss. They favor fame and oppose disgrace. They favor praise and oppose blame. They favor pleasure and oppose pain. Being so full of favoring and opposing, they’re not freed from rebirth, old age, and death, from sorrow, lamentation, pain, sadness, and distress. They’re not freed from suffering, I say.
An educated noble disciple encounters gain. They reflect: ‘I’ve encountered this gain. It’s impermanent, suffering, and perishable.’ They truly understand it. They encounter loss … fame … disgrace … blame … praise … pleasure … pain. They reflect: ‘I’ve encountered this pain. It’s impermanent, suffering, and perishable.’ They truly understand it.
So gain and loss, fame and disgrace, blame and praise, and pleasure and pain don’t occupy their mind. They don’t favor gain or oppose loss. They don’t favor fame or oppose disgrace. They don’t favor praise or oppose blame. They don’t favor pleasure or oppose pain. Having given up favoring and opposing, they’re freed from rebirth, old age, and death, from sorrow, lamentation, pain, sadness, and distress. They’re freed from suffering, I say. This is the difference between an educated noble disciple and an uneducated ordinary person.
Gain and loss, fame and disgrace,blame and praise, and pleasure and pain.These qualities among people are impermanent,transient, and perishable.
A clever and mindful person knows these things,seeing that they’re perishable.Desirable things don’t disturb their mind,nor are they repelled by the undesirable.
Both favoring and opposingare cleared and ended, they are no more.Knowing the stainless, sorrowless state,they who have gone beyond rebirth understand rightly
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Via Dhamma Wheel | Right Action: Reflecting upon Social Action
Reflecting Upon Social Action
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One week from today: Reflecting upon Bodily Action
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Via Daily Dharma: Expanding Our Identity
Recognizing
that we are not separate from the rest of the biosphere brings a deep
sense that the whole earth is our body and an aspiration to live out the
implications of such realization.
David Loy, “In Search of the Sacred”
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Wednesday, September 28, 2022
Via Daily Dharma: Awakening Is in the In-Between
Awakening
arises in times of vulnerability and awkwardness between, before, and
after where prior identities are canceled and anything is possible and
nothing certain.
Lin Jensen, “Molting”
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Via Dhamma Wheel | Right Speech: Refraining from Frivolous Speech
Refraining from Frivolous Speech
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One week from today: Refraining from False Speech
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Via Ram Dass - Love Serve Remember Foundation // Words of Wisdom - September 28, 2022 💌
“My challenge to you as fellow pilgrims on the journey, is to cultivate the stability of living on two planes of consciousness simultaneously—as Christ said, ‘In the world but not of the world,’ to be fully passionately involved in life and also be totally equanimous and centered. This is not an either/or, it’s a both/and.”
- Ram Dass -
Upland Hills Ecological Awareness Center February 15-16th 1997
Tuesday, September 27, 2022
Via Dhamma Wheel | Right Intention: Cultivating Equanimity
Cultivating Equanimity
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One week from today: Cultivating Lovingkindness
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Questions? Visit the Dhamma Wheel orientation page.
Via Daily Dharma: What Is Spiritual Growth?
Spiritual growth is a fine-tuning of our ear to the needs of our heart.
Rodney King, “Undivided Mind”
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Monday, September 26, 2022
Via Ram Dass - Love Serve Remember Foundation // Words of Wisdom - September 25, 2022 💌
"After being back to India for a few years and doing my practices, I began to see that I was not going to really be free until I had embraced life—that I couldn’t be a renunciate and get away with it. I couldn’t just keep getting high, I had to become free. And free meant I had to engage the world."
Ram Dass
Via Dhamma Wheel | Right View: Understanding the Noble Truth of the Way to the Cessation of Suffering
Understanding the Noble Truth of the Way to the Cessation of Suffering
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One week from today: Understanding the Noble Truth of Suffering
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Questions? Visit the Dhamma Wheel orientation page.
Via Daily Dharma: Meditation Is an Access Point
The
human body is already and always abiding in the meditative state, the
domain of awakening—and we are just trying to gain entry.
Reginald Ray, “Tapping into the Body for Radical Change and Transformation”
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