Via Dhamma Wheel | Right Living: Abstaining from Intoxication

 

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RIGHT LIVING Undertaking the Commitment to Abstain from Intoxication Intoxication is unhealthy. Refraining from intoxication is healthy. (MN 9) What are the imperfections that defile the mind? Negligence is an imperfection that defiles the mind. Knowing that negligence is an imperfection that defiles the mind, a person abandons it. (MN 7) One practices thus: "Others may become negligent by intoxication, but I will abstain from the negligence of intoxication." (MN 8) One of the dangers attached to addiction to intoxicants is liability to sickness. (DN 31)

Reflection Ever practical and down-to-earth, the Buddha does not moralize about intoxication but points out its practical dangers. Intoxication is anything that evokes negligence, and negligence can mean anything that prevents you from seeing clearly. This is unhealthy, not just in the physical sense but also in mental and emotional ways. Becoming more sensitized to the various obstacles to our own diligence is a valuable practice. Daily Practice Find something you tend to get intoxicated by—it need not be alcohol or drugs, but can be ordinary things like coffee or sugar, the news or other media, or emotions like sadness, self-pity, or envy—and look more closely at your relationship to it. In what ways might the negligence and lack of clarity involved in that intoxication contribute to sickness, whether it be a physical sickness or a less tangible mental or emotional affliction? 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.

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Via Daily Dharma: Accepting What’s There

We can aspire for a release from pain, but we bring kindness and compassion to whatever is happening. We accept what’s there, without contention.

Sebene Selassie, “Belonging in the Body”

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Via DailyChatt

Death, Inside the Bones’

Chile

World-renowned Chilean poet and Nobel Prize laureate Pablo Neruda died of poisoning just days after the 1973 coup that brought General Augusto Pinochet to power, according to a recent forensic report that challenges the state’s long-held position about the writer’s death as having been “natural”, Quartz reported.

An international forensic team delivered the report to a top Chilean judge this week after examining bone and tooth samples from Neruda’s exhumed body.

Neruda’s nephew Rodolfo Reyes shared some of the details of the report, saying that scientists found clostridium botulinum while examining Neruda’s remains, a neurotoxin they said caused the poet’s death.

He added that the findings validate what he has been saying for 50 years – that his uncle was poisoned in a hospital shortly after the coup that removed socialist President Salvador Allende, NPR added.

The report – which will become available to the public next month – challenges the official version that Neruda died of prostate cancer. There have been suggestions that Pinochet poisoned Neruda – an ally of Allende – to prevent a political challenge from the left-wing writer, a critic and member of the communist party.

Public pressure over the cause of death increased in 2011 when the writer’s driver publicly recounted Neruda telling him that he had been injected with a foreign substance into his stomach just hours before his death.

Neruda’s relatives are hoping to open a criminal investigation into his death, which observers say would make him one of more than 40,000 political dissidents who were brutally tortured and murdered during Pinochet’s tenure.

Via FB // Ram Dass

 

Via Dhamma Wheel | Right Action: Reflecting upon Social Action

 

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RIGHT ACTION Reflecting Upon Social Action However the seed is planted, in that way the fruit is gathered. Good things come from doing good deeds, bad things come from doing bad deeds. (SN 11.10) What is the purpose of a mirror? For the purpose of reflection. So too social action is to be done with repeated reflection. (MN 61) One reflects thus: "Others may act in unhealthy ways; I shall refrain from acting in unhealthy ways." (MN 8) One lives with companions in concord, with mutual appreciation, without disputing, blending like milk and water, viewing each other with kindly eyes. One practices thus: "I maintain bodily acts of lovingkindness toward my companions both openly and privately." (MN 31)

Reflection So much of what we think, say, and do affects the people around us. It is important to bring awareness and care to our social interactions. When we “view each other with kindly eyes,” it is natural and easy to be thoughtful. It is often the little things we do that have a big effect on maintaining harmony among friends, family, and co-workers. Daily Practice One simple way to practice living with others in harmony is to do kindly acts for them from time to time. Today, actively look for ways to do little things with the intention of pleasing someone. And don’t necessarily feel the need for such deeds to be acknowledged. Much value comes from performing acts of kindness in private. Take it up as a challenge—finding creative ways to do something nice for someone, even in secret. Tomorrow: Abstaining from Intoxication One week from today: Reflecting upon Bodily Action 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: Loneliness Isn’t About Being Alone

 Loneliness is the feeling that one is not complete alone. What if it turns out nothing is missing at all? What if nothing changes when another person is near?

Sallie Jiko Tisdale, “How to Be Alone”

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Via Daily Dharma: Loneliness Isn’t About Being Alone

 Loneliness is the feeling that one is not complete alone. What if it turns out nothing is missing at all? What if nothing changes when another person is near?

Sallie Jiko Tisdale, “How to Be Alone”

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Via Ram Dass, Love Serve Remember

 

 

 

“How do I know the difference between mind chatter (ego) and the quiet voice within? What part of me do I trust?”

Ram Dass: People who are very enamored with their intellect don’t trust that inner space.

They don’t know how to tune to it. They just haven’t noticed its existence, because they were so busy thinking about everything.

There’s very little you can say to somebody who’s going through that because it isn’t real to them. It doesn’t exist. You can remind them of moments they’ve been out of their mind, because once you have acknowledged the existence of that other plane of reality, in which you know that wisdom exists, then immediately all the moments when you had it in life, that you treated as irrelevant or as error, or as, “I was out of my mind,” suddenly become real to you, and you start to trust that dimension more.

But what happens is the minute you’re in an anxious moment, you go into your mind and try to think your way out of it again. Then you just feel the harshness of it, while the intuitive wisdom has a kind of flow with things. It has a soft way of being in the universe, not a harshness. Even a firmness is soft. Yeah, it’s a tricky one to talk about...

Via Daily Dharma: The Act of Love

 At the heart of radical presence is simply the act of love. Loving ourselves, loving others, and allowing that love to be deeply manifested in the world in a real clear way.  

Lama Rod Owens, “Teachings for Uncertain Times: Recognizing Our Intersectionality”

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Via Dhamma Wheel | Right Action: Reflecting upon Social Action

 

RIGHT ACTION Reflecting Upon Social Action However the seed is planted, in that way the fruit is gathered. Good things come from doing good deeds, bad things come from doing bad deeds. (SN 11.10) What is the purpose of a mirror? For the purpose of reflection. So too social action is to be done with repeated reflection: (MN 61) One reflects thus: "A person who thinks in hurtful ways is displeasing and disagreeable to me. If I were to think in hurtful ways, I would be displeasing and disagreeable to others. Therefore, I will undertake a commitment to not think in hurtful ways." (MN 15)

Reflection Bodily and verbal actions have obvious effects on others, but in Buddhist teachings even what you think can affect the world around you in significant ways. Every thought plants a seed, and the fruits—both good and bad—can emerge in unexpected ways to do harm or to bring about benefit. This is why it is so important to look inward, using the mirror of mindfulness practice to see and refine the quality of your thoughts and attitudes. Daily Practice It is easy to condemn other people who do not think like us. But we know how it feels to be condemned by others for thinking the way we do. This antagonistic cycle can be broken by having enough empathy to look at things from another’s point of view and to even make a practice of it. Instead of thinking about how other people should change, try as an exercise looking for ways you can change. Learn from others how not to be. Tomorrow: Abstaining from Intoxication One week from today: Reflecting upon Bodily Action Share your thoughts and join the conversation on social media #DhammaWheel Questions? Visit the Dhamma Wheel orientation page.

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Via Dhamma Wheel | Right Speech: Refraining from Frivolous Speech

 

RIGHT SPEECH Refraining from Frivolous Speech Frivolous speech is unhealthy. Refraining from frivolous speech is healthy. (MN 9) Abandoning frivolous speech, one refrains from frivolous speech. One speaks at the right time, speaks only what is fact, and speaks about what is good. One speaks what is worthy of being overheard, words that are reasonable, moderate, and beneficial. (DN 1) One practices thus: "Others may speak frivolously, but I shall abstain from frivolous speech." (MN 8) When a person commits an offense of some kind, you should not hurry to reprove them but rather consider whether or not to speak. If you will not be troubled, the other person will be hurt, and you can help them emerge from what is unhealthy and establish them in what is healthy—then it is proper to speak. It is a trifle that they will be hurt compared with the value of helping establish them in what is healthy. (MN 103)

Reflection So many of our speech patterns are habitual and unfold automatically. The practice of right speech gives us an opportunity to notice this, because we are bringing greater awareness to the action of speaking. It also enables us to change our habitual patterns because it gives us time to respond differently. The ability to pause and reflect before responding is particularly important when in the presence of offensive speech. Daily Practice The next time you feel offended by something someone says to you, slow down enough to not react automatically and to take some time to consider whether or not to speak. Not every putdown requires a comeback. The critical factor in the analysis above is whether or not what you say will make a difference. It is okay to hurt someone’s feelings if you "can help them emerge from what is unhealthy" and get on a better track. Tomorrow: Reflecting upon Social Action One week from today: Refraining from False Speech Share your thoughts and join the conversation on social media #DhammaWheel Questions? Visit the Dhamma Wheel orientation page.

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