Via Dhamma Wheel | Right Speech: Refraining from Harsh Speech

 

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RIGHT SPEECH Refraining from Harsh Speech Harsh speech is unhealthy. Refraining from harsh speech is healthy. (MN 9) Abandoning harsh speech, one refrains from harsh speech. One speaks words that are gentle, pleasing to the ear, and affectionate, words that go to the heart, are courteous, and are agreeable to many. (DN 1) One practices thus: “Others may speak harshly, but I shall abstain from harsh speech.” (MN 8) When one speaks hurriedly, one’s body grows tired and one’s mind becomes excited, one’s voice is strained and one’s throat becomes hoarse, and the speech of one who speaks hurriedly is indistinct and hard to understand. (MN 139)

Reflection This is a simple and straightforward suggestion for how to speak more effectively. Hurried speech is a form of harsh speech and is to be abandoned whenever possible. When you look, you can see how strained people can get when they rush their words, and you know what this feels like when you do it. Speedy action of body, speech, or mind supports restlessness, while taking your time is conducive to calming body and mind.  Daily Practice Put this guideline for right speech into action today and see what effect it has on your mind and body and on the people with whom you speak. Slow down your speech. Take your time to say what you mean with care. See if you can craft words that “go to the heart” rather than speaking harshly. Notice also when the speech of others is indistinct or hard to understand, and learn from this the effect of your own speech. Tomorrow: Reflecting upon Mental Action One week from today: Refraining from Frivolous Speech 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: Creating Fertile Ground for Insight

 A curious, connected mind is poised for insight. This is also the mind that is in awe of this fathomless universe, that can read patterns, make choices, play with language, and use concepts while knowing that the map is not the territory.

Elizabeth Mattis Namgyel, “Finding Freedom”

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Via LGBTQ Nation Daily Brief // 7 LGBTQ+ athletes who came out & changed the game

 

Via Ram Dass - Love Serve Remember Foundation //Words of Wisdom - May 3, 2023 💌

 

"When I look back on the suffering in my life, this may sound really strange, but I see it now as a gift. I would have never asked for it for a second. I hated it while it was happening and I protested as loudly as I could, but suffering happened anyway. Now, in retrospect I see the way in which it deepened my being immeasurably." 

- Ram Dass -

The GOP Is In A Death Spiral | George Takei’s Oh Myyy

RIP Dear Gordon Lightfoot // Seven Island Suite

 

Seven islands to the high side of the bay, 'cross the bay
To the sunset through the blue light of a fiery autumn haze
We went walking on the high side of the bay on a chilly morn
And we saw how leaves had fallen on the beds where trees were born
Any man in his right mind could not fail to be made aware
Any woman with a gift of wisdom would not seek her answers there

Seven islands to the high side of the bay if you're looking west
To the sunset you can see it, all in fiery autumn dress
Anytime would be the right time to come up to your bed of boughs
Anybody with a wish to wander could not fail but to be aroused

Living high in the city, guess you think it's a pretty good way
You get to learn but when you get burned you got nothing to say
You seem to think because you got chicken to go you're in luck
Fortune will not find you in your mansion or your truck
Brothers will desert you when you're down and shit out of luck

Look around at the morning, guess you're doing the best you can
Surely you know that when you go nobody gives you a hand
Think of the air you're breathing in, think of the time you waste
Think of the right and wrong and consider the frown on your face

It's time you tried living on the high side of the bay, you need a rest
Any woman or a man with a wish to fade away could be so blessed
Fortune will not find you in your mansion turned to gold
Brothers will desert you when your nights turn long and cold

If you feel it you better believe it, you're gonna see it, so you really
know
It is rising like a feather, dipping and dancing from below
There's a new wave that is breaking in the wake of a passing ship
Every nation's gonna be shaken, put it together, don't let it slip

It's time you tried living on the high side of the bay, you need a rest
Any man or a woman with a wish to fade away could be so blessed

Seven islands to the high side of the bay, 'cross the bay
To the sunset through the blue light of a fiery autumn haze
To the sunset through the blue light of a fiery autumn haze

Via Dhamma Wheel | Right Intention: Cultivating Appreciative Joy

 

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RIGHT INTENTION Cultivating Appreciative Joy Whatever you intend, whatever you plan, and whatever you have a tendency toward, that will become the basis upon which your mind is established. (SN 12.40) Develop meditation on appreciative joy, for when you develop meditation on appreciative joy, any discontent will be abandoned. (MN 62)  Appreciative joy succeeds when it makes discontent subside. (Vm 9.95)

Reflection The third brahma-vihara, appreciative joy, is not mere joy. It is the gladness that arises when you witness or contemplate the good fortune and happiness of another being. It is a celebration of all that is good in the world, an appreciation of healthy enjoyment itself. If you allow yourself to experience this often, your mind will naturally incline toward this state. It is impossible to feel any discontent when you genuinely feel good about others. Daily Practice This is a practice the world needs greatly, and it is deeply healing to the wounded heart. Living beings abide together in such profound interdependence that when relationships are fused with appreciative joy rather than discontent, the entire system becomes healthier. Practice celebrating the good things you see around you every day and use appreciative joy as a powerful antidote whenever you feel discontent. Tomorrow: Refraining from Harsh Speech One week from today: Cultivating Equanimity 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 Natural Response to Insight

 Through repeated practice, we see that all phenomena have a beginning, a middle, and an end, and then letting go occurs as a natural response of a mind that understands the way things really are.

Ayya Santacitta, “Slow Down, Take Your Seat”

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

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RIGHT VIEW Understanding the Noble Truth of the Cessation of Suffering What is the cessation of suffering? It is the remainderless fading away and ceasing, the giving up, relinquishing, letting go, and rejecting of craving. (MN 9) When one knows and sees thoughts as they actually are, then one is not attached to thoughts. When one abides unattached, one is not infatuated, and one’s craving is abandoned. One’s bodily and mental troubles are abandoned, and one experiences bodily and mental well-being. (MN 149)

Reflection Since suffering is caused by craving, the cessation of craving brings about the end of suffering. We have seen how this works for each of the sense modalities, and now we turn to the mind as the sixth pathway of experience. We are attached to certain thoughts—usually the ones that feel good—and we struggle against others, which results in a lot of mental troubles. We gain well-being by letting go of both forms of craving. Daily Practice Right view can be a practice in itself, a practice of gaining insight into the nature of our experience. Seeing thoughts as they actually are, as arising and passing conditioned events, helps us get free of attachment to them. Thoughts are not wrong, but we suffer in direct proportion to our infatuation with them. Craving can be relinquished, if only for a moment. Abandon bodily and mental troubles and get free—if only for a moment.  Tomorrow: Cultivating Appreciative Joy One week from today: Understanding the Noble Truth of the Way to 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: A Question of Faith

Awakening the enlightened mind may not be a question of self-improvement, which is never-ending; it may be a question of faith, which is always available right now.

Hannah Tennant-Moore, “Buddhism’s Higher Power”

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Via White Crane Institute // BELTANE

 

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2022 -

Today is BELTANE. This festival officially begins at moonrise on May Day Eve, and marks the beginning of the third quarter or second half of the ancient Celtic year. It is celebrated as an early pastoral festival accompanying the first turning of the herds out to wild pasture.

The rituals were held to promote fertility. The cattle were driven between the Belfires to protect them from ills. Contact with the fire was interpreted as symbolic contact with the sun. In early Celtic times, the druids kindled the Beltane fires with specific incantations. Later the Christian church took over the Beltane observances, a service was held in the church, followed by a procession to the fields or hills, where the priest kindled the fire. A rowan branch is hung over the house fire on May Day to preserve the fire itself from bewitchment (the house fire being symbolic of the luck of the house).

This is a holiday of Union — both between the Goddess and the God and between man and woman. Handfastings (Pagan marriages) are traditional at this time. It is a time of fertility and harvest, the time for reaping the wealth from the seeds that we have sown. Celebrations include braiding of one's hair (to honour the union of man and woman and Goddess and God), circling the Maypole for fertility and jumping the Beltane fire for luck. Beltane is one of the Major Sabbats of the Wiccan religion.

Those who observe this holiday celebrate sexuality, something seen as holy and intrinsic to humans and they celebrate life and the unity which fosters it. The myths of Beltane state that the young God has blossomed into manhood, and the Goddess takes him on as her lover. Together, they learn the secrets of the sexual and the sensual, and through their union, all life begins.

May Day has long been marked with feasts and rituals. May poles, supremely phallic symbols, were the focal point of old English village rituals. Many people arose at dawn to gather flowers and green branches from the fields and gardens, using them to decorate the village Maypoles. The insertion of the May-pole into the hole in the earth is symbolic of this erotic theme.

The May Queen (and often King) is chosen from among the young people, and they go singing from door to door throughout the town carrying flowers or the May tree, soliciting donations for merrymaking in return for the "blessing of May". This is symbolic of bestowing and sharing of the new creative power that is stirring in the world. As the kids go from door to door, the May Bride often sings to the effect that those who give will get of nature's bounty through the year.

In parts of France, some jilted youth will lie in a field on May Day and pretend to sleep. If any village girl is willing to marry him, she goes and wakes him with a kiss; the pair then goes to the village inn together and lead the dance which announces their engagement. The boy is called "the betrothed of May."

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Gay Wisdom for Daily Living from White Crane Institute

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www.whitecraneinstitute.org

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