Via Daily Dharma: Recognizing Your Reflection

 If you’ve never seen your image before, looking in a mirror you’d think you were gazing through a window, encountering someone altogether independent of you. But a mirror, like the mind, is reflective—it only shows you yourself.

Chagdud Tulku Rinpoche, “Prayer: Chagdud Tulku Rinpoche”

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Via Dhamma Wheel | Right Action: Reflecting upon Social Action

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RIGHT ACTION Reflecting Upon Social Action However the seed is planted, in that way the fruit is gathered. Good things come from doing good deeds, bad things come from doing bad deeds. (SN 11.10) What is the purpose of a mirror? For the purpose of reflection. So too social action is to be done with repeated reflection. (MN 61) One reflects thus: “Others may think in unhealthy ways; I shall refrain from thinking in unhealthy ways.” (MN 8) One lives with companions in concord, with mutual appreciation, without disputing, blending like milk and water, viewing each other with kindly eyes. One practices thus: “I maintain mental acts of lovingkindness toward my companions both openly and privately.” (MN 31)

Reflection The mental state of actively caring about someone and wishing them well is not to be taken for granted but is something to remind yourself of and practice doing often. The more seeds of kindness you plant, even with your thoughts alone, the more healthy fruit of goodwill and love you will reap. When these thoughts spill over into words and deeds expressing lovingkindness, all the better. Daily Practice Take on the task of consciously forming thoughts of lovingkindness toward your friends, family, and associates. Don’t just assume, “Of course I care for them,” but form an intention of goodwill toward them regularly and deliberately. This is the difference between your lovingkindness being just an idea and being an emotion that actively expresses itself in your heart on a consistent basis. Tomorrow: Abstaining from Intoxication One week from today: Reflecting upon Bodily Action 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: Realizing Emptiness as Love

 The fullness of the spiritual path is the understanding that love, that compassion, is the expression of emptiness. These are not two separate things; one is an attribute of the other.

Joseph Goldstein, “Love as the Expression of Emptiness”

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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) An authentic person is one who, even when asked, does not reveal the faults of others—and still less does not do so when not asked. When asked, however, and obliged to reply to questions, one speaks of other’s faults hesitatingly and not in detail. (AN 4.73)

Reflection Refraining from focusing on the faults of others is not meant to hide the truth but is a way to practice non-harming and non-violence in your communications. Refrain from unnecessary speech that is driven by ill will, jealousy, or resentment. This only brings out and reinforces your own unhealthy tendencies, and it often causes harm. By abstaining from avoidable critical pronouncements, you develop better speech habits. Daily Practice Take a break from criticizing people today. Notice when the impulse to do so comes up and choose instead to refrain from saying what is on your mind. See what it feels like to be able to monitor your speech, understand when it is unhelpful, and hold back from letting it loose. If you do this often, you will be retraining your habits of speech and will gradually develop new, healthier patterns of communication. 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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Via Ram Dass - Love Serve Remember Foundation // Words of Wisdom - May 10, 2023 💌

 

"You go from using the spiritual journey in the service of your psychodynamics to using your psychodynamics in the service of your spiritual journey."

- Ram Dass -

Via Daily Dharma: Analyzing Our Assumptions

 To not take things for granted is the essence of Buddhist spiritual practice.

C. W. Huntington, “Seeing Things as They Are”

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Via George Takei

Tragically, mass shootings have become such a prevalent part of American life that The FBI even released a PSA on how to survive one.

The video serves as a harrowing recreation of a shooting at a bar while also providing essential instructions for anyone caught in such a scenario.

The sad thing, of course, is that we live in a country where this video ever had to be made. And that one of our political parties has no interest in doing anything about it.

[GBF] TALK: 'Indra's Net and Our Interconnectedness' - Lien Shutt

Listen at https://gaybuddhist.org/podcast/lien-shutt/

Rev. Liên Shutt shares thoughts on how to 'be with' suffering, such as the harm brought about by climate change.

Liên shares an approach to reframing the 4 Noble Truths as a restorative model to suffering and harm reduction. She describes the Eight-fold Path in terms that are actionable and active rather than passive.

Reframing our view in more holistic terms, we can consider Indra's Net described in the Flower Ornamental sutra. It is a representation of the cosmos, similar to an infinitely large spider's web, with each living being represented as a multi-faceted jewel at the intersections of the threads, thus connected to and also reflecting all of the other jewels.

Often we over-emphasize the individual jewels and ignore the net of interconnectedness. A jewel may shine so brightly that it obscures the other jewels, or use up so many resources that it swells and weighs down the net itself, perhaps even to the point of breaking. Focusing on the net of interconnectedness rather than the individuals, we can look at how we can restore the connections between us and the well-being of the collective.
______________

 
Liên Shutt (she/they) is a priest lineage holder in the Shunryu Suzuki tradition. Born to a Buddhist family in Vietnam, she received her meditation training in the Insight and Soto Zen traditions in the U.S., Japan, Thailand, and Vietnam. She was a founding member of the Buddhists of Color in 1998 and currently is the guiding teacher of Access to Zen, an inclusive, anti-oppression sangha and non-profit in the SF Bay Area. She lives on Ohlone land, currently called San Francisco, with her partner, exploring waterways and forests as often as they can. 

 

Visit AccessToZen.org for ways to connect and practice together.

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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