Via Dhamma Wheel | Right Mindfulness and Concentration: Establishing Mindfulness of Mental Objects and the Fourth Jhāna

 

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RIGHT MINDFULNESS Establishing Mindfulness of Mental Objects 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 restlessness is internally present, one is aware: "Restlessness is present for me." When restlessness is not present, one is aware: "Restlessness is not present for me." When the arising of unarisen restlessness occurs, one is aware of that. And when the abandoning of arisen restlessness occurs, one is aware of that … One is just aware, just mindful: "There is a mental object." And one abides not clinging to anything in the world. (MN 10)

Reflection As we move into practicing with the fourth foundation of mindfulness, mindfulness of mental objects, the instructions become somewhat more detailed. The first section goes through each of the five hindrances and invites us to notice not only whether they are present or not but also how they arise in the mind. The teaching also points out that each hindrance can be abandoned once it has arisen. Observing this is important. Daily Practice Sometimes when you are sitting in meditation you will notice that the mind is restless. That’s okay; just notice it. And other times the mind will be calm and without restlessness. Notice this as well. Once familiar with these two modes, you can look more closely at the transition from one state to the other—watching the arising and passing away of restlessness. It is just a mental factor that comes and goes. Looking carefully, you’ll see that. RIGHT CONCENTRATION Approaching and Abiding in the Fourth Phase of Absorption (4th Jhāna) With the abandoning of pleasure and pain, and with the previous disappearance of joy and grief, one enters upon and abides in the fourth phase of absorption, which has neither-pain-nor-pleasure and purity of mindfulness due to equanimity. The concentrated mind is thus purified, bright, unblemished, rid of imperfection, malleable, wieldy, steady, and attained to imperturbability. (MN 4) When one sees oneself purified of all these unhealthy states and thus liberated from them, gladness is born. When one is glad, joy is born; in one who is joyful, the body becomes tranquil; one whose body is tranquil feels pleasure; in one who feels pleasure, the mind becomes concentrated. (MN 40) Reflection Concentration is not something we do to the mind, but is something we allow the mind to do. The mind would naturally be far more concentrated than it usually is if we could just stop interfering with it. The states of restlessness, sluggishness, sense desire, ill will, and doubt act as obstacles or hindrances preventing the mind from reaching a natural state of great tranquility, clarity, unity, and strength. Daily Practice Once you are able to experience this particular kind of pleasure, the pleasure born of freedom, gladness, and joy, it is only a small step to develop a deep and stable concentration. The pleasure morphs into equanimity and allows for a profound seeing of things as they actually are, without distortion. Approach concentration in your practice in this way, as uncovering a natural state of mind. Tomorrow: Understanding the Noble Truth of Suffering One week from today:  Establishing Mindfulness of Body and Abiding in the First Jhāna 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: Each Sit Is New

 One of the hardest things to remember about practice is that we’ve truly never before experienced this moment.

Alex Tzelnic, “How to Resist the Comfort of Repetition”

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Via Ram Dass - Love Serve Remember Foundation // Words of Wisdom - February 19, 2023 💌

 

One part of getting free, free into the soul or the witness, is the ability to stand back a little bit because now you are identified with being the witness rather than being the player, and thus you can see the play more clearly. 

- Ram Dass -

Via Dhamma Wheel | Right Mindfulness and Concentration: Establishing Mindfulness of Mental Objects and the Fourth Jhāna

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RIGHT MINDFULNESS Establishing Mindfulness of Mental Objects 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 sluggishness is internally present, one is aware: "Sluggishness is present for me." When sluggishness is not present, one is aware: "Sluggishness is not present for me." When the arising of unarisen sluggishness occurs—one  is aware of that. And when the abandoning of arisen sluggishness occurs—one is aware of that . . . One is just aware, just mindful: "There is a mental object." And one abides not clinging to anything in the world. (MN 10)

Reflection Formal practice involves sitting down deliberately for a stretch of time and committing to being aware of all that unfolds in your experience. At its best this is an enterprise of great contentment, even though it requires effort to maintain an ardent and wakeful mind. Even if all you are noticing is that your mind is getting sluggish and you need to generate some energy, it is valuable that you can see that. Daily Practice As we practice becoming aware of the five hindrances in succession, we come to working with sluggishness. Like all the other hindrances, this is just a mental state that is inherently impermanent and that comes and goes under different conditions. When you notice a lethargy of mind, just be aware of it. This is just what is happening now. But notice also that it goes away and that you can help it go away by abandoning it. RIGHT CONCENTRATION Approaching and Abiding in the Fourth Phase of Absorption (4th Jhāna) With the abandoning of pleasure and pain, and with the previous disappearance of joy and grief, one enters upon and abides in the fourth phase of absorption, which has neither-pain-nor-pleasure and purity of mindfulness due to equanimity. The concentrated mind is thus purified, bright, unblemished, rid of imperfection, malleable, wieldy, steady, and attained to imperturbability. (MN 4) Reflection Equanimity is the attitude and emotional state that is truly transformative. Being able to be entirely neutral while at the same time being fully aware is a special state of mind to be cherished. Neutral is sometimes regarded as a negative word, suggesting disinterest or detachment, but that is not at all how it is used in the Buddhist tradition. Rather it is the pinnacle of the developed mind, the state to which the jhāna practice delivers us. Daily Practice See if you can work with these descriptions of the mind as a living practice. Can you feel what it is like for the mind to be "bright"? Can you relate to how the texts are using words like "unblemished" and "rid of imperfection" not to judge the mind harshly but to appreciate its capacity for luminosity? Can you sit tranquilly in equanimity and feel the mind as "malleable"and "wieldy," imperturbable in the face of any experience? Tomorrow: Understanding the Noble Truth of Suffering One week from today: Establishing Mindfulness of Body and Abiding in the First Jhāna 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: Navigating the Karmic Stream

 While I did not set in motion the karmic stream, it’s nonetheless up to me as to how I negotiate its currents. I can go with the current, swim against it, or seek a shoreline, but the currents and eddies of the stream are forever shifting and leave me no option but to continually decide what to do. 

Tricycle, “Ten Thousand Miles”

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Via Tricycle // A Practical Guide to the Zen Precepts

 

Support Tricycle with a donation » February 18, 2023 A Practical Guide to the Zen Precepts When she was first learning the Zen precepts, Nancy Mujo Baker found that they were often taught in a way that was abstract and difficult to grasp, drawing on concepts like suchness, emptiness, and enlightenment without explaining what they really mean or how we can live them in our daily lives.  When she became a lay preceptor herself many years later, Baker, a Zen teacher and philosophy professor, came to explore the precepts in a much deeper way. Around the same time, she was undergoing a deep inquiry into the work of the 13th-century Zen priest Eihei Dogen, which greatly enriched her understanding of the precepts.  Inspired by Dogen’s work, Baker believes that working with the precepts can be a way of becoming whole human beings—which means compassionately embracing the parts of ourselves that we tend to reject. In her new book, Opening to Oneness: A Practical and Philosophical Guide to the Zen Precepts, Baker offers simple exercises for lovingly acknowledging the stealer, liar, and killer within each of us so that the precepts may be naturally expressed through us.  On the latest episode of the Tricycle Talks podcast, Baker joins Tricycle’s editor-in-chief, James Shaheen, to discuss the importance of cultivating self-compassion, Dogen’s commentary on the precepts, and her approach to working with the precepts to reveal our innate buddhanature. This podcast is sponsored by St John's College.   Listen to the full episode now »   Also this week: What did the Buddha mean when he spoke of the absence of self (anatta)? Join Theravada monk Thanissaro Bhikkhu for a conversation on the not-self teachings on February 27. Sign up now. Discover the power of spacious, non-conceptual awareness with insight meditation teacher Martin Aylward in his upcoming workshop, Finding Freedom in the Unknown. Joseph Goldstein, Sharon Salzberg, Jack Kornfield, and other early community members share stories of IMS’s early days in Inside Insight: The Founding Story. Go beyond distraction and find practical ways to focus the mind with Bodhi Courses teacher Shaila Catherine’s new Dharma Talk series. A Practical Guide to the Zen Precepts With Nancy Mujo Baker The Zen precepts aren’t just a list of rules and regulations. According to Nancy Mujo Baker, they are a practical way of revealing our inherent buddhanature. Listen now »

Via White Crane Institute // AUDRE LORDE

 

Black, Lesbian, Mother, Warrior, Poet Audre Lorde 1934 - AUDRE LORDE, American poet born, (d: 1992); In her own words, she was a "black, Lesbian, mother, warrior, poet". In 1954, she spent a pivotal year as a student at the National University of Mexico, a period described by Lorde as a time of affirmation and renewal because she confirmed her identity on personal and artistic levels as a Lesbian and poet. On her return to New York, Lorde went to college, worked as a librarian, continued writing, and became an active participant in the gay culture of Greenwich Village. Lorde furthered her education at Columbia University, earning a master’s degree in library science in 1961. During this time she also worked as a librarian at Mount Vernon Public Library and married attorney Edwin Rollins; they later divorced in 1970 after having two children, Elizabeth and Jonathan. In 1966, Lorde became head librarian at Town School Library in New York City where she remained until 1968. Lorde’s poetry was published regularly during the 1960s: in Langston Hughes's 1962 New Negro Poets, USA; in several foreign anthologies; and in black literary magazines. During this time she was politically active in the civil rights, antiwar, and feminist movements. Her first volume of poetry, The First Cities (1968), was published by the Poet's Press and edited by Diane di Prima, a former classmate and friend from Hunter College High School. Dudley Randall, a poet and critic, asserted in his review of the book that "[Lorde] does not wave a black flag, but her blackness is there, implicit, in the bone." Lorde's second volume, Cables to Rage (1970), which was mainly written during her tenure at  Tougaloo College in Mississippi, addresses themes of love, betrayal, childbirth, and the complexities of raising children. It is particularly noteworthy for the poem "Martha", in which Lorde poetically confirms her sexuality: "we shall love each other here if ever at all." Later books continued her political aims in Lesbian and Gay Rights and feminism. In 1980, Audre Lorde, Barbara Smith and several other lesbians co-founded Kitchen Table: Women of Color Press, the first U.S. publisher for women of color. Lorde was named State Poet of New York from 1991 to 1992. Lorde took the name Gamba Adisa, which means "Warrior: She Who Makes Her Meaning Known," in an African naming ceremony before she died.

|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 Dhamma Wheel | Right Effort: Maintaining Arisen Healthy States

 

RIGHT EFFORT Maintaining Arisen Healthy States Whatever a person frequently thinks about and ponders, that will become the inclination of their mind. If one frequently thinks about and ponders healthy states, one has abandoned unhealthy states to cultivate healthy states, and then one’s mind inclines to healthy states. (MN 19) Here a person rouses the will, makes an effort, stirs up energy, exerts the mind, and strives to maintain arisen healthy mental states. One maintains the arisen energy awakening factor. (MN 141)

Reflection Although it is not acknowledged as much as it could be, much of what goes on in our mind is healthy and beneficial and is helping us along the path of clarification. There are a lot of good people in the world who care for one another, respect one another, and wish each other well. It is important to acknowledge and maintain these beneficial states, which is done by feeding them energy. Daily Practice Next time you are feeling good in an unselfish way, perhaps thinking well of and wishing the best for the people around you, see how long you can sustain the experience. Just as your mind is likely to wander in meditation despite your efforts to keep your attention on your breath, there are all sorts of ways the good will you are feeling might waver or diminish, but the practice here is to give it the energy it needs to keep unfolding. See how long you can keep  up thinking well of people. Tomorrow: Establishing Mindfulness of Mental Objects and the Fourth Jhāna One week from today: Restraining Unarisen Unhealthy States 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: Mind as Mirror

 Your mind is like a mirror, reflecting everything without discrimination. If you have wisdom, you can control the kind of reflection that you allow into the mirror of your mind. If you totally ignore what is happening in your mind, it will reflect whatever garbage it encounters.

Lama Thubten Yeshe, “Your Mind Is Your Religion”

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