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

 

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RIGHT VIEW Understanding the Noble Truth of the Origin of Suffering What is the origin of suffering? It is craving, which brings renewal of being, is accompanied by delight and lust, and delights in this and that; that is, craving for sensual pleasures, craving for being, and craving for non-being. (MN 9) When one does not know and understand flavors as they actually are, then one is attached to flavors. When one is attached, one becomes infatuated, and one’s craving increases. One’s bodily and mental troubles increase, and one experiences bodily and mental suffering. (MN 149)

Reflection Working systematically through the six different sense modalities, here we come to working with the flavors discernible by the tongue that give rise to moments of “tasting.” Here too we can easily get caught by wanting or craving some experiences of taste over others. A moment of suffering is born when we dislike the taste of something we are eating, or when we like something so much that we want to eat it again and again. Daily Practice See if you can get free for just a moment from the reflex to pursue pleasure and avoid displeasure. Try taking a few bites of something you traditionally don’t like and see if you can regard tasting it as simply a different experience. Try taking one bite and not another of something you really like and investigate that too as an experience. In this exercise you practice equanimity: tasting something without getting entangled in it. Tomorrow: Cultivating Compassion One week from today: Understanding the Noble Truth of 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: No Thing to See

 When the mind recognizes itself, there is no thing to see there. It’s just wide open.

Tsoknyi Rinpoche, “Dissolving the Confusion”

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Via Dhamma Wheel | Right Mindfulness and Concentration: Establishing Mindfulness of Body and the First Jhāna

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RIGHT MINDFULNESS Establishing Mindfulness of Body 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)   Breathing in and out, tranquilizing bodily activities … one is just aware, just mindful: "There is a body." And one abides not clinging to anything in the world. (MN 10)

Reflection Sunday is a good day to get in the habit of spending some time in mindful meditation. When the quality of mind called mindfulness is nurtured and developed, the mind inclines toward contentment, as this passage points out. This might even be a good definition of mindfulness: feeling content with whatever is happening by not wanting it to be anything other than it is. Daily Practice The text that teaches meditation begins with learning to breathe in and out, long and short, mindfully, but here it shifts with a more intentional directive. The instruction is to "tranquilize"—calm or relax—the breathing and all bodily activity. In other words, we are now not simply being aware of what is happening but also trying to direct our experience toward deeper and deeper states of calm. With each breath, relax. RIGHT CONCENTRATION Approaching and Abiding in the First Phase of Absorption (1st Jhāna) Having abandoned the five hindrances, imperfections of the mind that weaken wisdom, quite secluded from sensual pleasures, secluded from unwholesome states, one enters and abides in the first phase of absorption, which is accompanied by applied thought and sustained thought, with joy and the pleasure born of seclusion. (MN 4) Reflection We dedicate Sundays to practicing mindfulness and concentration. Concentration practice involves focusing the mind on a single object, such as the breath, and returning attention to this focal point whenever it wanders off (which it will surely do often). All forms of meditation involve some level of concentration, so it is a good thing to practice. Daily Practice Formal concentration practice, involving absorption (Pali: jhāna) in four defined stages, requires more time and sustained effort than occasional practice generally allows and would benefit from careful instruction by a qualified teacher. You may begin on your own, however, simply by practicing to abandon the five hindrances, since jhāna practice only really begins when these temporarily cease to arise. Tomorrow: Understanding the Noble Truth of the Origin Suffering One week from today:  Establishing Mindfulness of Feeling and Abiding in the Second 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: How to Be Faultless

 It is possible to feel that one has no faults. Why? Because after discovering that one’s ideas and behaviors are imperfect, if one always immediately corrects them, this is maintaining a state of faultlessness.

Master Sheng-Yen, “How to Be Faultless”

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Via [GBF] A Talk from the Archive: Wes Nisker

A recording from the archive dating back 2 decades has just been added to the website: 

The 3 Marks of Existence and The Path of Meditation - Wes Nisker

DESCRIPTION:

The Buddha outlined the '3 Characteristics of Existence' as Impermanence, Unsatisfactoriness, and Non-Self (or anatta).
In this talk, Wes shares how these are foundational to the path of meditation.

Highlights include:

• The concept of “Radical Impermanence”
• The Tibetan appreciation for our precious existence as human beings.
• How non-self stems from the interdependence with everything,
• That our consciousness is the consciousness of the Universe.
• That human beings are the only creatures that can see ourselves in context.
• Mindfulness is a non-interfering awareness, a clear knowing.
• Freud's view that our personality can be viewed as a pet.

______________
Wes Nisker, the co-founder and editor of the international Buddhist journal Inquiring Minds, has practiced Vipassana meditation for 30 years. He is the author of "Buddha's Nature: Evolution as a Guide to Enlightenment," "Crazy Wisdom: A Romp Through the Philosophies of East and West," and "The Buddha, the Big Bang, and the Baby Boom: The Spiritual Experiments of My Generation."

In addition to leading a regular sitting group in Berkeley, he teaches classes in meditation and philosophy at Spirit Rock and at other locations around the country.
Learn more at https://wesnisker.com/

Via Daily Dharma: Directing Your Effort

The effort isn’t in trying to stop the mind but in paying attention in a receptive way to what’s actually happening. 

Mark Van Buren, “Accept Whatever the Mind Is Doing”

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Via Dhamma Wheel | Right Effort: Restraining Unarisen Unhealthy States

 

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RIGHT EFFORT Restraining Unarisen Unhealthy States Whatever a person frequently thinks and ponders, that will become the inclination of their mind. If one frequently thinks about and ponders unhealthy states, one has abandoned healthy states to cultivate unhealthy states, and then one’s mind inclines to unhealthy states. (MN 19) Here a person rouses the will, makes an effort, stirs up energy, exerts the mind, and strives to restrain the arising of unarisen unhealthy mental states. One restrains the arising of the unarisen hindrance of restlessness. (MN 141)

Reflection It should not surprise us to hear that a person gradually becomes what they practice being. If you complain a lot about all the things you are discontented with, you will become a more discontented person and more inclined to further discontent. This works in a positive direction also, allowing us to develop healthy mental habits, but this passage focuses on protecting ourselves from our own toxic qualities of mind. Daily Practice This passage begins the process of walking us through the five hindrances, qualities of mind that inhibit mental clarity and contribute to suffering. The first of these is restlessness, a quality of mind that is active in some moments and dormant in others. Here we are told to practice the states of mind, primarily calm and tranquility, that prevent restlessness from arising. A calm mind is a healthy mind; practice calming the mind often. Tomorrow: Establishing Mindfulness of Body and Abiding in the First Jhāna One week from today: Abandoning Arisen Unhealthy States Share your thoughts and join the conversation on social media #DhammaWheel Questions? Visit the Dhamma Wheel orientation page.

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