Wednesday, May 17, 2023

Via Dhamma Wheel | Right Speech: Refraining from False Speech

 



RIGHT SPEECH
Refraining from False Speech
False speech is unhealthy. Refraining from false speech is healthy. (MN 9) Abandoning false speech, one dwells refraining from false speech, a truth-speaker, one to be relied on, trustworthy, dependable, not a deceiver of the world. One does not in full awareness speak falsehood for one’s own ends or for another’s ends or for some trifling worldly end. (DN 1) One practices thus: “Others may speak falsely, but I shall abstain from false speech.” (MN 8)

When one knows covert speech to be untrue, incorrect, and unbeneficial, one should on no account utter it. (MN 139)
Reflection
This text makes a distinction between overt and covert speech—that which is open and public and that which is whispered in private. The point is that all false speech is harmful, even if it is uttered covertly, even if nobody else hears it, and even if it is only in your thoughts. The act of speaking falsely injures the speaker, regardless of whether or not the words are spoken aloud and heard by others.

Daily Practice
Practice always being truthful, not only when you speak openly but also in all your private conversations. Take it even farther and speak only what is true, correct, and beneficial when you're talking to yourself or going over in your mind what you would like to say to someone, even if you remain silent. The act of false speech itself causes harm to the speaker; it is not just the effect of the words on other people.

Tomorrow: Reflecting upon Bodily Action
One week from today: Refraining from Malicious Speech

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Via Daily Dharma: Tending to Ourselves

When we are happy, healthy, safe, and at ease, we can model those qualities for others as well as make choices and take action from a place of sanity and lovingkindness.

Cyndi Lee, “May I Be Happy”


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Via White Crane Institute // THE WONDERFUL WIZARD OF OZ

 

Noteworthy
First edition The Wizard of Oz
1900 -

THE WONDERFUL WIZARD OF OZ, first published on this date, is an American children's novel written by author L. Frank Baum and illustrated by W. W. Denslow. The first novel in the Oz series, the story chronicles the adventures of a young Kansas farm girl named Dorothy in the magical Land of Oz after she and her pet dog Toto are swept away from their home by a tornado. Upon her arrival in Oz, she learns she cannot return home until she has destroyed the Wicked Witch of the West.

The book was first published in the United States on May 17, 1900 by the George M. Hill Company. In January 1901, the publishing company completed printing the first edition, a total of 10,000 copies, which quickly sold out. It had sold three million copies by the time it entered the public domain in 1956. It was often reprinted under the title The Wizard of Oz, which is the title of the successful 1902 Broadway musical adaptation as well as the popular 1939 live-action film.

Many of the characters, props, and ideas in the novel were drawn from Baum's personal life and experiences. Baum held different jobs, moved a lot, and was exposed to many people, so the inspiration for the story could have been taken from many different aspects of his life. In the introduction to the story, Baum writes that "it aspires to being a modernized fairy tale, in which the wonderment and joy are retained and the heart-aches and nightmares are left out."

The ground-breaking success of both the original 1900 novel and the 1902 Broadway musical prompted Baum to write thirteen additional Oz books which serve as official sequels to the first story. Over a century later, the book is one of the best-known stories in American literature, and the Library of Congress has declared the work to be "America's greatest and best-loved homegrown fairytale."

 

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Gay Wisdom for Daily Living from White Crane Institute

"With the increasing commodification of gay news, views, and culture by powerful corporate interests, having a strong independent voice in our community is all the more important. White Crane is one of the last brave standouts in this bland new world... a triumph over the looming mediocrity of the mainstream Gay world." - Mark Thompson

Exploring Gay Wisdom & Culture since 1989!
www.whitecraneinstitute.org

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Via Ram Dass - Love Serve Remember Foundation // Words of Wisdom - May 17, 2023 💌


 

"Being peacefully in relationship to everything made me realize that my happiness isn't based on the situation being 'this way' or 'that way' - my happiness is one that embraces my sadness. My love is one that embraces my hate." 

- Ram Dass -

 

 

Tuesday, May 16, 2023

Via Dhamma Wheel | Right Intention: Cultivating Lovingkindness

 


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RIGHT INTENTION
Cultivating Lovingkindness
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 lovingkindness, for when you develop meditation on lovingkindness, all ill will will be abandoned. (MN 62) 

Lovingkindness fails when it produces sentimentality. (Vm 9.93)
Reflection
Believe it or not, lovingkindness is impersonal by nature. The feeling of care for another is not dependent on the specific qualities of that person but can be directed to anyone and everyone. This is what makes lovingkindness unsentimental. You don’t love only if the person is a family member or a friend. And you don’t love difficult people only if they deserve it or you have forgiven them. Lovingkindness rises above the personal. 

Daily Practice
See if you can discern, in your own experience, the difference between a feeling of lovingkindness that is laced with a sense of self and one that is not. See if you can sense the difference between the love you have for someone dear to you and the universal lovingkindness you cultivate while doing mettā practice. Personal connections are sentimental in a good sense, while lovingkindness transcends the personal.

Tomorrow: Refraining from False Speech
One week from today: Cultivating Compassion

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Questions?
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© 2023 Tricycle Foundation
89 5th Ave, New York, NY 10003

 

 

Via Tricycle Talks: Living at the Edge of Chaos

 

Tricycle Talks: Living at the Edge of Chaos
With Neil Theise

Neil Theise is a professor of pathology at the NYU Grossman School of Medicine, practicing Zen Buddhist, and author of the new book Notes on Complexity: A Scientific Theory of Connection, Consciousness, and Being. In this episode of the Tricycle Talks podcast, Theise joins Tricycle’s editor-in-chief, James Shaheen, to discuss his journey to Buddhism, what it means to live at the edge of chaos, and how complexity theory can help us navigate the unpredictability of our everyday lives.

Listen to the full episode here »

Via Daily Dharma: Appreciating What Is

 The most ideal landscape is the one that is.

Lynn Crawford, “Broken Gold”


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Monday, May 15, 2023

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)

Mental pain is suffering. Mental pain, mental discomfort, painful, uncomfortable feeling born of mental contact. (MN 9)
Reflection
Under normal circumstances it is okay to make excursions into the realm of mental pain, as long as you are reinforced with the power of mindful equanimity. (Do not do this, however, if you are suffering from serious trauma.) When sitting just be aware, “I am sitting.” When walking just be aware, “I am walking.” And when experiencing mental pain simply be aware, “I am experiencing mental pain.” Equanimity makes suffering bearable.

Daily Practice
Losing someone you love really hurts. Feel the mental pain of that loss without elaborating a story around it. Feel the pain and nothing else. Being emotionally injured by someone really hurts. Feel in your body how that hurt manifests: tightness in the chest? Heat? Pain hurts, but it is ultimately just a passing sensation. Equanimity allows us to open to pain without being overwhelmed by suffering.

Tomorrow: Cultivating Lovingkindness
One week from today: Understanding the Noble Truth of the Origin of Suffering

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Questions?
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Via Daily Dharma: It Starts with Intention

As long as our intentions of dharma practice remain untransformed, we only settle for more of the suffering of samsara, for life in the same old cage.

Lama Jampa Thaye, “Parting from the Four Attachments”


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