Via Dhamma Wheel | Right Intention: Cultivating Equanimity

 

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RIGHT INTENTION Cultivating Equanimity 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 equanimity, for when you develop meditation on equanimity, all aversion is abandoned. (MN 62)  Equanimity fails when it produces the ordinary indifference of the uninformed. (Vm 9.96) Having thought a mental object with the mind, one is neither glad-minded nor sad-minded but abides with equanimity, mindful and fully aware. (AN 6.1)

Reflection Equanimity is often confounded with indifference or detachment, but this is far from accurate. These two are mild forms of aversion in which a person chooses to push their interest away from an object or deliberately remove awareness from attending to what is present. Equanimity is the opposite of these, engaging the object with heightened awareness but without being pulled by attraction or pushed away by aversion.  Daily Practice See if you can cultivate the attitude of equanimity, so important to the practice of mindfulness, as a refined state of mind. Equanimity is not a lack of interest but a state of heightened curiosity. It does not mean that you don’t care about something but that your caring about it is not driven by likes and dislikes. As you regard the thoughts flowing through your mind, abide with equanimity, mindful and fully aware. Tomorrow: Refraining from Frivolous Speech One week from today: Cultivating Lovingkindness 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: Restrict Choice for Greater Freedom

 How do you increase your capacity in paying attention? By eliminating all choice. One posture. One object. Rest right there. No choice. And, as all of us know, it’s not easy.

Ken McLeod, “Freedom and Choice”

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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: 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 false speech. (DN 2)

Reflection The traditional path toward the cessation of suffering works on many fronts simultaneously, integrating healthy modes of living with practices for mental development and the slow but steady growth of understanding. In this passage the importance of telling the truth is emphasized as a crucial form of ethical behavior. Developing the wisdom of right view is built on a foundation of truthfulness. Daily Practice Practice telling the truth. Refrain from stretching it, bending it, obscuring it, avoiding it, shading it, and all the other ways we have learned to handle the truth that are other than entirely straightforward. You may notice that this is actually quite difficult, since we regularly speak falsely in little ways. Try being absolutely scrupulous about saying what is accurate and not intended to mislead anyone in any way. 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: The Power of Our Focus

 If you continually focus on everything that’s going wrong, all you’re going to do is gather more evidence for why that’s correct. And then when you do encounter something that actually might be more neutral or even good, it doesn’t even enter your awareness.

Emma Varvaloucas, “An Antidote to Doomscrolling” 

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A Fascinating Explanation Of Chakras & Our Unseen Bodies | Vigyan Bhairav | Gurudev

 

THIS Is What Happens When YOU DIE! | Gurudev

 

What Happens After We Die? - Swami Medhananda

 

Via Ram Dass - Love Serve Remember Foundation // Words of Wisdom - May 7, 2023 💌

 
 

"Your ego is a set of thoughts that define your universe. It’s like a familiar room built of thoughts; you see the universe through its windows. You are secure in it, but to the extent that you are afraid to venture outside, it has become a prison. Your ego has you conned. You believe you need its specific thoughts to survive. The ego controls you through your fear of loss of identity. To give up these thoughts, it seems, would annihilate you, and so you cling to them.

There is an alternative. You needn’t destroy the ego to escape its tyranny. You can keep this familiar room to use as you wish, and you can be free to come and go. First you need to know that you are infinitely more than the ego room by which you define yourself. Once you know this, you have the power to change the ego from prison to home base."

- Ram Dass -

Via Daily Dharma: Sparking Joy

 It is often the times when we are forced to feel intensely—times of grief, sorrow, or physical pain—that catapult us into feeling joy. That is why we often hear people say they are grateful for the losses or difficulties they have encountered. They are grateful because the shock forced them into an intimacy with life that had been hidden from them.

Roshi Pat Enkyo O’Hara, “Simple Joy”

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

Reflection There are moments in meditation practice when one stumbles upon a “sweet spot” and the mind becomes clear, if only for a moment. When the mind is not too restless and not too sluggish, not drawn toward or away from whatever is happening, for a moment it seems to emerge from confusion. It is good to acknowledge such moments and abide in them "ardent, fully aware, mindful." It is good to feel content. Daily Practice As you sit quietly today for ten or twenty or sixty minutes—or maybe, since it’s Sunday, for much longer—notice the flow of events in your field of experience with heightened awareness. Many different factors arise and pass away, all impermanent. We forget sometimes that confusion too is impermanent; we are not always in its thrall. Notice the times when the mind gets free of confusion and knows and sees things as they are. 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) Reflection Remember that jhāna practice is not something that can be undertaken lightly or sporadically and usually requires the protected conditions of a retreat center and the guidance of an experienced teacher. The jhānas are mentioned a lot in the early texts, and form the core discussion of right concentration. But mostly we just hear the standard formula repeated in various contexts, without much detail on how to practice. Daily Practice The transition from the second to the third phase of absorption has to do with the mellowing of joy, which is an almost effervescent energetic upwelling of pleasant bodily sensation into the experience of mental and emotional equanimity. The body still experiences pleasure, but the mind settles into an even and balanced awareness of the pleasant feeling tone that is not attached to it in any way. Tomorrow: Understanding the Noble Truth of the Way to the Cessation of Suffering One week from today: Establishing Mindfulness of Mental Objects and Abiding in 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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