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

 

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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) One perfects their ethical behavior by abandoning the taking of life, dwelling without taking life, with rod and weapon laid aside, gentle and kindly, and with compassion for all living beings. (DN 2)

Reflection The first and perhaps most important of the basic ethical precepts is committing yourself to the practice of harmlessness. This means not only no deliberate killing but also refraining from any kind of assault against living beings. The phrase used above literally means “laying down the stick” and broadly speaking is construed as not only abandoning any overt acts of violence but also softening the heart internally with kindness and compassion. Daily Practice How can you bring more harmlessness to your daily life? It  is an emotional attitude more than anything else. It involves seeing things through the eyes of other beings and recognizing that they do not want and do not deserve to be assaulted. Begin by brushing insects away rather than killing them, slowing down to avoid animals on the road, and in every way increasing your sensitivity to the inherent value of life.  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: Building a Mental Tool Belt

 Sometimes we have to use diplomacy or deflection to work with our wily mind. Sometimes we have to be our own cheerleaders, other times tough taskmasters. The most important thing is to watch and respond.

Vanessa Zuisei Goddard, “Switching Off Unskillful Thoughts”

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Via Dhamma Wheel | Right Mindfulness and Concentration: Establishing Mindfulness of Mind and the Third Jhāna

 

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

Reflection Mindfulness can be established and sustained by focusing on the quality of consciousness itself. Consciousness is colored in every moment by subtle or obvious emotional tones, in particular by various forms of greed, hatred, and delusion. These states are toxic, but the mind is often free of them for fleeting moments. Here we are invited to notice when the mind is free from hatred in its many forms.     Daily Practice Aversion is a quality of mind that comes and goes. Sometimes we are annoyed at something, and sometimes we are not. Sometimes we hate something and wish it would go away, and sometimes we do not. This is a practice of noticing the flickering moods of the mind, of becoming aware of the emotional strands that arise in the mind and then vanish. In particular, notice when your mind is free of any trace of aversion. 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) 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 Pleasure is as natural and inevitable a part of human experience as pain, and like pain it is not to be feared or avoided. The challenge is to not be carried away by either, and to abide with both with equanimity. The unhealthy pursuit of pleasure can lead to all sorts of problems, but there are some cases, like this one, when pleasure is an ally. There is a healthy pleasure that comes simply from the experience of a tranquil body. Daily Practice Pleasure can be a gateway leading from tranquility to concentration. Allow yourself to feel how pleasant it is to be calm. Temporarily free from the rush of restlessness, and not, for the moment, driven by all kinds of pressures to do and accomplish things, take some time to allow yourself to fully feel the deep pleasure of a calm and tranquil moment. This is the pleasure of being, not doing. 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 Daily Dharma: Facing Our Truth

My own capacity for evil is a truth that I have to face squarely. When I see it and acknowledge it, practice becomes real. It becomes a matter of life and death. Only then do I appreciate how attention, compassion, and faith really are the three doors to freedom.

Ken McLeod, “Taking and Sending in Difficult Times”

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Via Ram Dass - Love Serve Remember Foundation // Words of Wisdom - March 12, 2023 💌

 
 

Do what you can on this plane to relieve suffering by working on yourself to be an instrument for the cessation of suffering. To me, that's what the emerging game is all about.

- Ram Dass -

Via LGBTQ Nation / Anything’s better than hell: How queer Iranians & anti-LGBTQ+ rebels became part of the same uprising

 

Via Dhamma Wheel | Right Effort: Developing Unarisen Healthy States

 

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RIGHT EFFORT Developing Unarisen 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 develop the arising of unarisen healthy mental states. One develops the unarisen joy-awakening factor. (MN 141)

Reflection Happiness is a skill that can be learned, and it can be practiced again and again as a living presence. We are all capable of experiencing happy and healthy states of mind, but sometimes we need to remember to experience them as a conscious and deliberate act. At any point, we can in principle draw out of a pool of latent tendencies the active manifestation of a positive state such as joy, thus waking it up and bringing it to life.  Daily Practice Try the exercise of deliberately cultivating joy as an active and present state of mind. This does not mean pretending to be joyful as a kind of false overlay to feelings that are not joyful. It means consciously developing actual joy and allowing it to replace whatever other feeling might be in the mind at the moment. Joy is accessible; it is just a matter of remembering to get in touch with it as a living emotion. Tomorrow: Establishing Mindfulness of Mind and Abiding in the Third Jhāna One week from today: Maintaining Arisen Healthy States Share your thoughts and join the conversation on social media #DhammaWheel Questions? Visit the Dhamma Wheel orientation page.

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