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

 

RIGHT VIEW Understanding the Noble Truth of the Cessation of Suffering What is the cessation of suffering? It is the remainderless fading away and ceasing, the giving up, relinquishing, letting go, and rejecting of craving. (MN 9) When one knows and sees visual forms as they actually are, then one is not attached to visual forms. When one abides unattached, one is not infatuated, and one’s craving is abandoned. One’s bodily and mental troubles are abandoned, and one experiences bodily and mental well-being. (MN 149)

Reflection The third noble truth declares that once suffering has been identified (the first noble truth) and its origin has been discovered (the second noble truth), it is possible to bring that suffering to an end. This is the great promise of the Buddhist path: that any time we are experiencing suffering, we can reverse or neutralize it with insight and practices that loosen the specific craving that causes the particular instance of suffering. Daily Practice Let's begin with focusing on the sphere of visual experience. So many of the things we see give rise to impulses of attachment, infatuation, and craving. When we want what we see, that visual object becomes the trigger for a brief episode of suffering. Notice, however, that this impulse to crave what we see need not have irresistible power over us. Practice noting the craving, then letting go of it. Notice the ensuing sense of well-being.  Tomorrow: Cultivating Appreciative Joy One week from today: Understanding the Noble Truth of the Way to the Cessation of Suffering Share your thoughts and join the conversation on social media #DhammaWheel Questions? Visit the Dhamma Wheel orientation page.

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Via Daily Dharma: Cultivating Connection

 Genuine connection can be like a rainbow—to go charging at it, or even to grasp at it, can make it dissolve. Cheerful patience is essential.

Mindy Newman and Kaia Fischer, “Making Our Way Together”

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Via FB

 

Mr. Natural

 

Via Buddhist Global Relief

 

 

 

All of us at Buddhist Global Relief wish to express our deepest gratitude to each of you who participated in our 2022 Buddhist Action to Feed the Hungry season. Hundreds of BGR supporters contributed their time, fundraised, donated, and shared in our online Dharma gathering, held on October 29. The event was a poignant tribute to the impact of our community’s compassion and generosity.

“Compassion means taking action,” Insight Meditation Society co-founder Joseph Goldstein said in his Dharma talk at the gathering. “This is what Buddhist Global Relief is doing so effectively, and so successfully in the world, that it’s just a tremendous inspiration for me and for many others.”

Joseph was joined by a program of eminent Buddhist teachers including Konjun Gaelyn Godwin, abbot of the Houston Zen Center; Bhante Buddharakkhita, founder and abbot of the Uganda Buddhist Center; Ven. Lekshe Tsomo, founder of the Jamyang Foundation; Rev. Kiyonobu Kuwahara, of Berkeley Buddhist Temple; Raimund Hopf, founder of Mitgefühl in Aktion; Bhante Saranapala, founder of Canada: A Mindful and Kind Nation; Ayyā Dhammadīpā, founder of the Dassanāya Buddhist Community; and BGR founder Ven. Bhikkhu Bodhi.

Through these talks, and through presentations from BGR partners Amrita Basu of Building Bridges India, Genevieve Waltcher of Lotus Outreach International, and David Palmer of the Joan Rose Foundation, we were invited to reflect on the qualities of our hearts that allow us to be open to seeing and being present with suffering, and to celebrate the joy that arises from taking action to respond to that suffering. 

We at BGR are grateful to everyone who joined us in this beautiful gathering and to all of our supporters around the globe who make our work possible. Together, we are creating a more compassionate world.

It is not too late to contribute to BGR’s “Creating a More Compassionate World” fundraising season. To view the recording of our October 29 event, visit our website.

Thank you for your generous support of BGR and those whom we serve.

 

 

View the recording of our October 29 event

Come together in the work of conscientious compassion at: buddhistglobalrelief.org

 

Via Tricycle // Metta and Karuna

 

 

Metta and Karuna: Two Heart Practices to Cultivate in Meditation and Daily Life
With Devin Berry

Devin Berry, a meditation teacher and cofounder of Deep Time Liberation, considers how Buddhist practices of the heart can support both everyday life and social transformation.

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TIBETAN FLUTE MUSIC + OM CHANTING @432Hz ❯ Mantra Meditation Music

Via Tricycle // Perspectives on Buddhism and Human Flourishing

 

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December 10, 2022

Perspectives on Buddhism and Human Flourishing
 

For thousands of years, philosophers and sages have debated the ultimate aim of human life and proposed pathways to living a life of freedom, peace, and fulfillment. For the Buddha, the goal was nirvana, or awakening—complete liberation from the suffering of samsara. For Greek philosophers like Aristotle, the purpose of our lives was eudaimonia, human flourishing or living well. 

In today’s world, what does it mean to live a good life? How can we live well—and navigate the path to awakening—in times of existential and ecological crisis? Tricycle’s October virtual event series, Living Well in Difficult Times, brings together leading Buddhist teachers and writers to explore the building blocks of a life well lived, from emotional well-being to right livelihood to spiritual friendship. 

If you missed the live series in October, don’t worry—the full set of video conversations is now available on Tricycle Online Courses! 

For just $40, enjoy events including: 

• Cultivating unconditional joy with James Baraz and Sylvia Boorstein 
• Stephen Batchelor: An ethics of uncertainty: ancient perspectives on living well in times of crisis 
• Right livelihood in times of economic instability with David Nichtern 
• Healing collective trauma and caring for one another with Kaira Jewel Lingo 
• Tibetan Medicine perspectives on emotional well-being with Dr. Nida Chenagtsang and Dr. Caroline van Damme

Enjoy the full series now »
 

Also this week:

• Aging confronts us directly with the reality of impermanence. Join us Dec. 15 for a conversation with Lewis Richmond and Douglas Penick on aging as a spiritual practice. 
• This month’s Film Club pick, Descending the Mountain, explores the question: What happens when you give psychedelics to experienced Zen meditators? 
• Discover the power of metta and karuna, two heart practices to cultivate in meditation and daily life, in our December Dharma Talk series with meditation teacher Devin Berry. 
• Kimberly Brown, meditation teacher and author of Navigating Grief and Loss, offers concrete tools for becoming a better friend to yourself through the grieving process. 

Via Them // Our 23 Favorite LGBTQ+ Movies of 202

 

Most Powerful KUNDALINI MANTRAS | Must Listen for Easing Stress & Anxiety.

Edmund White

 

Via Daily Dharma: Getting Wise About Pain

 The difference between an unwise person and a wise person lies in how they respond to pain, not in whether or not they achieve an absence of pain.

Vidyamala Burch, “A Gateway to Freedom”

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Via Emergence Magazine // Radical Technologies in Times of Crisis

 

INTERVIEW An Ecological Technology An Interview with James Bridle “We live inside this myth of technological superiority that is predicated in large part on the separation of ourselves from the environment, as though those are two entirely separate things.” High technology is by turns heralded as our future salvation and condemned as our inevitable downfall. Whatever its fate, we understand computers to be inseparable from our modern way of life. But what else might become possible as we open to technologies that reach beyond our own intellect? In this expansive interview, writer, artist, and technologist James Bridle seeks to widen our thinking beyond humancentric ways of knowing. In questioning our fundamental assumptions about intelligence, they explore how radical technological models can decentralize power and become portals into deeper relationship with the living world.  LISTEN TO INTERVIEW

Via Dhamma Wheel | Right Mindfulness and Concentration: Establishing Mindfulness of Feeling and the Second Jhāna

 

RIGHT MINDFULNESS Establishing Mindfulness of Feeling 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 feeling a pleasant feeling, one is aware: "Feeling a pleasant feeling." . . . One is just aware, just mindful: "There is feeling." And one abides not clinging to anything in the world. (MN 10)

Reflection The second basis on which mindfulness is established is feeling tone. This does not refer to our emotional life—feelings of affection or anger or dismay—but rather to the valence of feeling as pleasant or unpleasant or neutral (not obviously pleasant or unpleasant). The practice is to sit down deliberately for some time—even five minutes, if that is all you can manage—and simply notice pleasant and unpleasant sensations as they occur. Daily Practice As with mindfulness of breathing, the attitude with which you are aware of feeling tone is of great importance. The text is guiding us to be fully aware of a painful feeling, for example, without analyzing it or wishing it was not happening. Simply notice it as a brief episode of a particular feeling tone, without clinging in any way either to its going away if it is painful or to its coming again if it is pleasant. Just be aware of it. RIGHT CONCENTRATION Approaching and Abiding in the Second Phase of Absorption (2nd Jhāna) With the stilling of applied and sustained thought, one enters upon and abides in the second phase of absorption, which brings inner clarity and singleness of mind, without applied thought and sustained thought but with joy and the pleasure born of concentration. (MN 4) Reflection The teachings around right concentration have to do with four phases of absorption, also known as jhānas. When the mind rests steadily on a single object of attention—which is quite difficult to do at first—it gradually disentangles itself from the various hindrances and becomes unified, peaceful, and stable. With this comes inner clarity and the dropping away of the internal use of language. Daily Practice You will know when you have entered into absorption of the jhānas because the state is accompanied at first by a great deal of physical and mental pleasure. The physical pleasure is described as being fundamentally different from any sensual gratification, and the mental pleasure comes naturally when the mind is free of the hindrances (phase one) and when it becomes concentrated or one-pointed (phase two). Tomorrow: Understanding the Noble Truth of the Cessation of Suffering One week from today: Establishing Mindfulness of Mind and Abiding in the Third Jhāna Share your thoughts and join the conversation on social media #DhammaWheel Questions? Visit the Dhamma Wheel orientation page.

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© 2022 Tricycle Foundation 89 5th Ave, New York, NY 10003

From The New Yorker

 

Via Ram Dass - Love Serve Remember Foundation // Words of Wisdom - December 11, 2022 💌

 

You are loved just for being who you are, just for existing. You don’t have to do anything to earn it. Your shortcomings, your lack of self-esteem, physical perfection, or social and economic success – none of that matters. No one can take this love away from you, and it will always be here. 

- Ram Dass -