Via Dhamma Wheel | Right Intention: Cultivating Equanimity

 

RIGHT INTENTION Cultivating Equanimity 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 equanimity, for when you develop meditation on equanimity, all aversion is abandoned. (MN 62)  The function of equanimity is to see equality in beings. (Vm 9.93) Having heard a sound with the ear, one is neither glad-minded nor sad-minded but abides with equanimity, mindful and fully aware. (AN 6.1)

Reflection Equanimity is the active ingredient in mindfulness practice. Here we see it as the fourth of the brahma-viharas. Equanimity means an evenly balanced mind, like a plate on a stick that inclines neither toward nor away from an object of experience. It is the midpoint between greed (attraction) and hatred (aversion), and is therefore a state in which the mind can be free from the influence of both. Daily Practice As we cycle through the senses, we are encouraged here to work with the sense modality of sound. So often we reach for the sounds that we like and make us feel good, and avoid or recoil from the sounds that we don’t like and make us feel bad. At this basic level of sensory input, can you practice being mindful and fully aware of a sound without either favoring or opposing it? Try to let the sound be what it is, without relating it to yourself and your preferences. Tomorrow: Refraining from Frivolous Speech One week from today: Cultivating Lovingkindness 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: Letting the “I” Go

With each session of silence the fog lifts a bit more, until one day the ego “I,” with its insistent look-at-me voice, drops away, revealing the true self afloat in a vast blue sky.

Joan Duncan Oliver, “The Sound of Silence”

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Via Tricycle Meditation Month: Day 17

 

The Highest Level of Samadhi By Venerable Master Hsuan Hua

In the Surangama Sutra, or the Sutra of the Indestructible, the Buddha shows his cousin Ananda how to turn the attention of his sense-faculties inward in order to achieve samadhi. Read translation and commentary from the sutra here.

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Via Dhamma Wheel | Right View: The Noble Truth of the Way to the Cessation of Suffering

 

RIGHT VIEW Understanding the Noble Truth of the Way to the Cessation of Suffering And what is the way leading to the cessation of suffering? It is just this noble eightfold path: that is, right view, right intention, right speech, right action, right living, right effort, right mindfulness, right concentration. (MN 9) It happens that a fully awakened Buddha arises in the world, endowed with wisdom and impeccable behavior. Having realized awakening himself, he teaches the Dhamma, lovely in the beginning, middle, and end, and demonstrates a purified spiritual life. The Dhamma taught by the Buddha is heard by people, who gain trust in the Buddha and his teaching. (DN 2)

Reflection After the first three noble truths have pointed out the existence of suffering, identified its cause as craving, and attested that craving can be ended, the fourth noble truth focuses on the treatment plan to follow in order to cure suffering. The eightfold path is an integrated path of gradually purifying behavior in the world, developing the mind through meditation, and understanding the nature of things more clearly.  Daily Practice This path is a call to adventure, an invitation to undertake the process of gradual transformation that will carry anyone from a condition of affliction, moderate or grave, to one of greater happiness and well-being. It starts with hearing the teachings and having just enough trust to take your first steps and begin putting those teachings into practice. The path calls for many small steps taken carefully and mindfully. Tomorrow: Cultivating Equanimity One week from today: Understanding the Noble Truth 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: Leap Fully into Life

 We can complacently watch life from the sidelines, or we can risk our pride, our ideas, and whatever else we use to separate ourselves from others and leap fully into our life.

Michael Wenger, “Entering the Lotus”

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Via The Tricycle Community // Meditation Month: Day 14

 

Why Samadhi Can Be an Achilles Heel for So Many Practitioners
By Christina Feldman 

As you develop a meditation practice, be patient with yourself, says Christina Feldman. Cultivating samadhi–this quality of inner collectedness, calm, and stillness–is a lifelong project.

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Via Oh My - George

 

Hi friends, Another George has been in the news lately. His name is George Santos, and he's a pathological liar just elected to Congress. I created this petition because while there are very few things Democrats and Republicans can agree on, one of them should be that someone who has lied about everything in his life—his education, his jobs, his marriage, his finances, even being a college champion volleyball player, say what?—has no business being in Congress.  When pressed by reporters, George Santos recently said, "If 142 people ask me to resign, I'll resign." So I'm thinking, let's hit him with tens of thousands demanding just that. Are you in? I know we need two-thirds of Congress to agree, and that's a tall order in a narrowly divided House. But if we don't demand it, we'll never get it. So I'm asking not just Democrats but independents and Republicans to sign this petition, too. Take a stand against con artists and liars. Send George Santos back to New York, or even better, back to Brazil to face criminal charges for check fraud. Yeah, that's a thing, too.   CLICK GEORGE SANTOS’S SMUG FACE to sign the petition! George Takei

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Music

11 Albums by LGBTQ+ Musicians We’re Excited to Listen to in 2023

From Kelela to Rebecca Black to 100 gecs, this year is shaping up to be a wild sonic ride.

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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 devoid of desire, one is aware: "The mind is devoid of desire." One is just aware, just mindful: "There is mind." And one abides not clinging to anything in the world. (MN 10)

Reflection The mind is merely aware of an object, either a sensory or mental object, much like a mirror reflecting accurately whatever comes before it. Emotional states, such as desire, co-arise every moment and flood the mind, often distorting or coloring what is seen, heard, felt, or cognized. Sometimes desire is present, sometimes it is not. Here we are being encouraged to notice when it is not.  Daily Practice Our emotional life flickers moment by moment as quickly as our mental life does, and the stream of consciousness is permeated by a stream of attitudes, intentions, and views. By noticing when desire is present and absent, we learn to recognize that it is just a passing state that sometimes occurs and sometimes does not. Practice "not clinging to anything in the world," including the presence or absence of sensory desire. 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) Reflection Remember that jhāna practice is not something that can be undertaken lightly or sporadically and usually requires the protected conditions of a retreat center and the guidance of an experienced teacher. The jhānas are mentioned a lot in the early texts and form the core discussion of right concentration. But mostly we just hear the standard formula repeated in various contexts without much detail on how to practice. Daily Practice The transition from the second to the third phase of absorption has to do with the mellowing of joy, which is an almost effervescent energetic upwelling of pleasant bodily sensation into an experience of mental and emotional equanimity. The body still experiences pleasure, but the mind settles into an even and balanced awareness of the pleasant feeling tone that is not attached to it in any way. 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 Share your thoughts and join the conversation on social media #DhammaWheel Questions? Visit the Dhamma Wheel orientation page.

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Via Tricycle // A Storehouse of Feelings

A Storehouse of Feelings
By Sarah Fleming

Classical Indian texts contain 177 words describing different types of feelings—a rich linguistic storehouse that sheds light on Buddhism’s intricate examination of human emotion.

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Via Daily Dharma: Silent Awareness

 Attend closely with sharp mindfulness when one thought ends and before another begins—there! That is silent awareness! It may be only momentary at first, but as you recognize that fleeting silence, you become accustomed to it; the silence lasts longer. 

Ajahn Brahm, “Stepping Towards Enlightenment”

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