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

 

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RIGHT VIEW Understanding the Noble Truth of Suffering When people have met with suffering and become victims of suffering, they come to me and ask me about the noble truth of suffering. Being asked, I explain to them the noble truth of suffering. (MN 77) What is suffering? (MN 9) Sorrow and lamentation are suffering: the sorrow, sorrowing, sorrowfulness, inner sorrow, inner sorriness of one who has encountered some misfortune or is affected by some painful state. (MN 9)

Reflection The first noble truth, the truth of suffering, is described in some detail in these texts. Here the experience of loss and sorrow is highlighted. Elsewhere we might be able to make a distinction between sorrow as a form of mental pain and suffering as a state of emotional affliction, but here we are simply directed to the universal human experience of the pain of loss or misfortune. It hurts a lot to lose someone you love.  Daily Practice The truth of suffering is not meant to encourage us to wallow in our afflictions, but it does not let us try to escape them through some kind of denial. The first noble truth is a starting point. Only when the suffering is acknowledged can the healing begin. Look at some aspect of your own suffering with courage and without fear and decide that you can and will undertake a path to heal the pain by understanding it and letting it go. Tomorrow: Cultivating Lovingkindness One week from today: Understanding the Noble Truth of the Origin 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: Going Beyond Old Habits

 Our capacity to meet and dissolve habits is awakened and sustained by applying active capacities to “go beyond”—generosity, ethical conduct, patient endurance, diligence, contemplative cultivation, and discerning wisdom.

Steven D. Goodman, “The Spiritual Work of a Worldly Life”

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Via Sobre Budismo // Instruções sobre a Prática de Meditação Shamata

Instruções sobre a Prática de Meditação Shamata

As instruções a seguir são sobre a prática de shamata baseadas nos ensinamentos de Padmasambhava e foram extraídas do site Chagdud Gonpa Brasil.

Em primeiro lugar, as preliminares

Contemple os Quatro Pensamentos que Transformam a Mente:

1. O nascimento humano precioso
2. A impermanência e a morte
3. O carma, a lei de causa e efeito
4. O sofrimento nos ciclos da existência condicionada

Esses ensinamentos podem ser lidos no livro Portões da Prática Budista de Chagdud Rinpoche e Comentários sobre a Prática de Ngondro, de Chagdud Khadro. As contemplações combinadas com o descansar da mente são, em si, um treinamento em Shamata.

Tome refúgio e estabeleça a Boditchita com fé e devoção nas Três Joias, o Buda, o Darma e a Sangha

Desenvolva a Boditchita, a intenção iluminada, pensando: trabalharei continuamente para o bem dos seres sencientes, que foram todos minhas mães em vidas prévias. Para consumar essa intenção, atingirei a iluminação e, para tanto, treinarei minha mente na concentração meditativa de Shamata, o calmo permanecer.

Em segundo lugar, a prática principal

Aquiete a Mente através das Três Posturas

Corpo
Abstenha-se de:

1. Toda atividade mundana
2. Atividades religiosas que requeiram movimento como prostrações e a contagem das contas de seu mala
3. Todo e qualquer movimento corporal

Sente em uma boa postura de meditação, como a postura de sete pontos de Vairotchana, ou pelo menos mantenha suas costas retas e os olhos em uma posição adequada e abertos, mas com o olhar dirigido para baixo.

Fala
Abstenha-se de:

1. Toda conversa comum
2. Discussões religiosas
3. Recitação de mantras e de liturgias

Mente
Abstenha-se:

1. Pensamentos negativos
2. Pensamentos positivos
3. Insights intelectuais que surgem no contexto da prática de Mahamudra ou de Dzogtchen

O Calmo Permanecer com Concentração em um Objeto Externo
Olhe para baixo, na altura do nariz, em direção ao objeto que é o foco de sua concentração, quer seja uma sílaba semente, uma pedra, uma pequena estátua, ou, na verdade, qualquer objeto pequeno. Preste atenção no objeto sem distração, evitando a percepção visual de outros objetos. Permita que sua mente descanse em concentração profunda no objeto. Se sua atenção se desviar, gentilmente retome o foco e descanse naturalmente.
O Calmo Permanecer com Concentração em um Objeto Visualizado

A Esfera Branca
Mantendo os olhos abertos, com o olhar dirigido para baixo, visualize uma pequena esfera branca (sânsc. bindu; tib. tigle) de luz em sua testa, entre as sobrancelhas. A esfera é vazia, mas luminosa, brilhante, cintilante como um arco-íris. Preste atenção nela, mas permaneça relaxado da forma mais natural possível.

A Esfera vermelha
Mantendo os olhos abertos, com o olhar dirigido para baixo, visualize seu corpo como sendo transparente e oco, uma cápsula de luz, clara e vazia. Dentro desta forma pura de seu corpo, no chacra do coração, visualize uma esfera de luz vermelha do tamanho da chama de uma vela. Assim como uma chama ardente, a esfera vermelha tem reflexos de luz azul. Preste atenção nela, permanecendo relaxado e natural.

Em terceiro lugar, a conclusão

Finalizando a sessão
Relaxe o foco no objeto e simplesmente descanse a mente. Ela é aberta, alerta e natural. Quando pensamentos começarem a surgir, dirija-os para a dedicação.

Dedicação
Você pode usar qualquer prece genérica de dedicação, inclusive a dedicação da Prática Concisa de Tara. O mérito e a sabedoria da meditação são oferecidos a todos os seres, para que encontrem alívio das emoções aflitivas e da confusão da existência condicionada e para que conheçam o espaço de pureza e de lucidez, que é sua própria natureza búdica.

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Via Daily Dharma: The Impermanence of Thoughts

No matter how many times we’ve thought that thought in the past, the very fact that we can shift to another thought reminds us it’s not permanent.

Shaila Catherine, “Beyond Distraction: Your Virtues Are Stronger Than Your Defilements”

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

 

 

I'm explicitly making my life a teaching by expressing the lessons I've learned so it becomes a map for other people. Everybody's life can be like that if they choose to make it so, choosing to reflect on what they've been through and share it with others.

- Ram Dass -

Via Dhamma Wheel | Right Effort: Maintaining Arisen Healthy States

 

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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 joy-awakening factor. (MN 141)

Reflection Last week we looked at abandoning unhealthy states that have arisen in the mind, and this week we are doing the opposite: practicing to maintain the good states of mind that have come up. If we are feeling generous or kind, or are being truthful, that is a good thing and should be supported. The word translated here as “maintain” also has the sense of guarding or protecting healthy emotions and healthy thoughts. Daily Practice All kinds of positive states arise and pass away naturally in the mind. The practice here is to notice that and to support, reinforce, and sustain positive states. If you say something nice to someone, say it again or say it to another person. If you give something to someone in an act of generosity, acknowledge that giving to others is good for you and look for opportunities to give again and again in different ways. Tomorrow: Establishing Mindfulness of Mental Objects and Abiding in 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: The Eternal Now

You are always entering through the doorway of this very moment. There is no retreat. No heading for the exits. Just a continual “going in” to this eternal now.

Gary Thorp, “Crossing the Threshold”

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Via Daily Dharma: Balancing Care and Nonattachment

 Bringing order to clutter, I begin to see, is not just about putting my spices in alphabetical order. It’s about balancing the twin poles of spiritual life: cherishing life and holding it sacred, while knowing that it will pass away. It’s about learning to care for the things and people that are precious to me—and, when it’s time, freely letting them go.

Anne Cushman, “Clearing Clutter”

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Via Dhamma Wheel | Right Speech: Refraining from Frivolous Speech

 

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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, one should not hurry to reprove them but rather should consider whether or not to speak. If you will 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 you will be troubled and they will be hurt compared with the value of helping establish them in what is healthy. (MN 103)

Reflection The teachings on right speech are encouraging us to take the matter of communication more seriously than we often do. Often a lot of chattering is not conveying anything important, and it has a tendency to be distracting, making us less attentive. Speaking carefully about what is true and good brings greater value to our speech and renders it more worthy of being overheard. Daily Practice The example offered in this passage suggests that we should not jump to reprimand someone when they have committed some small offense. Pausing to consider whether to speak up breaks the momentum of a quick, reflexive reaction. It may turn out to be appropriate to speak, but the key issue is whether it would be helpful to do so. Note that whether speaking up would be troublesome or might hurt the other person is a trifle in comparison to the benefit of “helping establish them in what is healthy.” 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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