Via White Crane Institute // Parinirvana Day, or Nirvana Day

 

Noteworthy

Buddha

2023 -

Parinirvana Day, or Nirvana Day is a Mahayana Buddhist holiday celebrated in East Asia. By some it is celebrated on 8^th of February, but by most on 15^th of February. It celebrates the day when the Buddha achieved Parinirvana, or complete Nirvana, upon the death of his physical body.

---

|8|O|8|O|8|O|8|O|8|O|8|O|8|O|8|

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

|8|O|8|O|8|O|8|O|8|O|8|O|8|O|8|

Via Ram Dass - Love Serve Remember Foundation \\ Words of Wisdom - February 8, 2023 💌

 
 

We can take our lives exactly as they are in this moment. It is a fallacy to think that we're necessarily going to get closer to God by changing the form of our lives, by leaving so-and-so, or changing our jobs, or moving, or whatever...by giving up our stereos, or cutting off our hair, or growing our hair, or shaving our beards, or...It isn't the form of the game; it's the nature of the being that fulfills the form. If I'm a lawyer, I can continue being a lawyer. I merely use being a lawyer as a way of coming to God.

- Ram Dass -

Via Dhamma Wheel | Right Intention: Cultivating Appreciative Joy

 

TRICYCLE      COURSE CATALOG      SUPPORT      DONATE

RIGHT INTENTION Cultivating Appreciative Joy 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 appreciative joy, for when you develop meditation on appreciative joy, any discontent will be abandoned. (MN 62)  The function of appreciative joy is being unenvious. (Vm 9.95)

Reflection The reason for working so consistently with intention and for developing healthy intentions like appreciative joy is to clear the mind of toxic states like envy and discontent. When you are able to feel good about the good fortune of others, you cannot at the same time feel bad about it. Just as suffering is the trigger of compassion, seeing people do well and be healthy gains access to joy. Daily Practice Look around you at any time of day and notice things that are going well for yourself and for other people. We are often habituated to seeing the fault in things. Try deliberately to go in the other direction and be aware of positive situations and events. Then allow yourself to feel gently joyful about them. There is a lot that is going well in our world, and it is a worthy practice to take notice of these things and allow them to bring joy. Tomorrow: Refraining from Harsh Speech One week from today: Cultivating Equanimity Share your thoughts and join the conversation on social media #DhammaWheel Questions? Visit the Dhamma Wheel orientation page.

Tricycle is a nonprofit and relies on your support to keep its wheels turning. Donate »

© 2023 Tricycle Foundation 89 5th Ave, New York, NY 10003

Via Tricycle // Making Friends with Death

 

Making Friends with Death
By Wes Nisker

Without death there is no life—and this alone is reason enough to practice making death our friend, writes author and Buddhist practitioner Wes Nisker. Read more »

Via Daily Dharma: Cultivate a Beginner’s Mind

Cultivate your beginner’s mind. Be willing not to be an expert. Be willing not to know. Not knowing is nearest. Not knowing is most intimate.

Zenkei Blanche Hartman, “The Zen of Not Knowing”

CLICK HERE TO READ THE FULL ARTICLE

Via White Crane Institute // JONATHAN, SON OF SAUL

 This Day in Gay History

February 07

Born

David and Jonathan [Pierre et Gilles, 2005]

1046 BCE -

JONATHAN, SON OF SAUL, born; OK...there was no "February"in 1046 BCE. And no one knows exactly when the biblical Jonathan was born, either. But since no one of any particular importance to Gay history was born on February 7, let’s just assign it to this sweet young man, whose present in Holy Writ has always been an embarrassment to fundamentalist preachers everywhere?

The love of Jonathan for David, a love so deep that he foreswore his father out of loyalty to his beloved, has provided literature with both a powerful trope for male love and one of the most oft-quoted lines of Scripture, spoken by David at the death of his friend: “My brother, Jonathan, thy love to me was wonderful, passing the love of women” (2 Samuel 1:26). Attempts to explain away this line are among the most dazzling examples of sophistry, ingeniousness, and wrong-headed mumbo-jumbo in 2,000 years of biblical exegesis. But we know what it means, don’t we?

8|O|8|O|8|O|8|O|8|O|8|O|8|O|8|

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

|8|O|8|O|8|O|8|O|8|O|8|O|8|O|8|

 

Via JMG // Graham: All Churches Should Require Anti-LGBTQ Vow

 

Via Dhamma Wheel | Right View: 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 perceives odors as they actually are, then one is not attached to odors. 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 Suffering arises and falls away moment by moment, just like everything else. Suffering is not an abstract characteristic of the world but is manifest in thousands of little ways every day. Any time you feel afflicted by suffering, you can inquire into what it is that you want to be other than it is and then relinquish your hold on that episode of wanting. Desires and discontents come up but need not rule us. Just let go of them, one by one. Daily Practice As we move through each of the senses in order, today we work with odors and the sense of smell. Next time you smell something offensive, and you catch yourself automatically recoiling from it, try instead to bring an attitude of equanimity to the experience. Notice that you can disengage from aversion to the smell if you choose to do so and then continue to smell the odor without attachment or aversion. 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.

Tricycle is a nonprofit and relies on your support to keep its wheels turning. Donate »

© 2023 Tricycle Foundation 89 5th Ave, New York, NY 10003

Via Daily Dharma: Color Everything With Intention

 Rather than making a few heroic or virtuous gestures or taking on some righteous cause, the idea is to have a quality of awareness, gentleness, and benefit to others color everything you do.

Judy Lief, “Train Your Mind: All activities should be done with one intention”

CLICK HERE TO READ THE FULL ARTICLE

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 neither-pleasant-nor-painful feeling, one is aware: "Feeling a neither-pleasant-nor-painful feeling" … one is just aware, just mindful: "There is feeling." And one abides not clinging to anything in the world. (MN 10)

Reflection Pleasant and painful feelings are apparent enough, but the third kind of feeling, one that is neither pleasant nor painful but neutral, can be harder to detect. Some say most feeling is neutral, and only a few feelings are obviously pleasant or painful. Others say that most feelings are either pleasant or painful, only appearing neutral with insufficient attention, and that with greater discernment they will resolve into pleasant or painful. Try out both points of view and decide for yourself. Daily Practice Feeling tone is a component of every mind moment. While breathing in and out, notice the changing textures of feeling throughout the body. Feelings are fleeting, numerous, and varied. It is against the backdrop of pleasant and painful feelings that you can begin to notice feelings like tingling, perhaps, that don't register as obviously pleasant or unpleasant yet still make up the strands of experience.  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 has inner clarity and singleness of mind, without applied thought and sustained thought, with joy and the pleasure born of concentration. (MN 4) Reflection Trying to attain these stages as some form of accomplishment is actually antithetical to the states of mind accessed by jhāna. One of the reasons the jhānas have not been emphasized in western meditation circles until recently is precisely because of the danger inherent in the striving or comparing mind. Never mind stage one, two, three, or four—just sit quietly and allow the contentment of the tranquil mind to formlessly arise.  Daily Practice As you sit quietly and your mind becomes increasingly calm and stable, it is natural for the pleasant sensations that arise from the mind being free of the hindrances to gradually morph into the pleasant sensations that come simply from the mind being focused. This unified tranquility is actually a natural state for the mind, which is much more at home in serenity than it is in our hectic, multitasking life. 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.

Tricycle is a nonprofit and relies on your support to keep its wheels turning. Donate »

© 2023 Tricycle Foundation 89 5th Ave, New York, NY 10003