Via Dhamma Wheel | Right Living: Abstaining from Harming Living Beings

 

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RIGHT LIVING Undertaking the Commitment to Abstain from Harming Living Beings Harming living beings is unhealthy. Refraining from harming living beings is healthy. (MN 9) Abandoning the harming of living beings, one abstains from harming living beings; with rod and weapon laid aside, gentle and kindly, one abides compassionate to all living beings. (M 41) One practices thus: “Others may harm living beings, but I will abstain from the harming of living beings.” (MN 8) A layperson is not to engage in the livelihood of trading in poison. (AN 5.177)

Reflection The guideline calling for laypeople to earn their livelihood in ways that do not inflict harm on themselves or others can be taken literally, as in not producing or deploying pesticides, but the scope of what is meant by poison can be expanded beyond a physical substance to include a wide range of mental toxins as well. For example, trading in misinformation or prejudice, or conducting all sorts of unethical enterprises could also be considered toxic. Daily Practice Take stock of what you do for a living and inquire into how much harm it may cause. If the answer is “none” then take joy in that and carry on. But if your profession causes harm, even from subtle toxic activity, be aware of that and do what you can to diminish the harm. It is a blessing to engage in a harmless profession and even more of a blessing to do work that actively contributes to the welfare of others. Tomorrow: Restraining Unarisen Unhealthy States One week from today: Abstaining from Taking What is Not Given 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 Value of Reverence

 If you have no spirit of reverence, you will make no progress. Why? Because when your practice improves, you will reflect: ‘I did better in my meditation just now,’ and by so thinking fall back to the lowest level of ignorance owing to the consequent inflation of your devilish ‘I’!

John Blofeld, “A Spirit of Reverence”

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Via White Crane Institute // from Raisin in the Sun

 

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Today's Gay Wisdom

2007 -

TODAY'S GAY WISDOM

From Lorraine Hansberry:

"The oppressed are by their nature ... forever in ferment and agitation against their condition and what they understand to be their oppressors. If not by overt rebellion or revolution, then in the thousand and one ways they will devise with and without consciousness to alter their condition." Lorraine Hansberry

"I wish to live because life has within it that which is good, that which is beautiful and that which is love. Therefore, since I have known all of these things, I have found them to be reason enough and—I wish to live. Moreover, because this is so, I wish others to live for generations and generations and generations."

"We only revert back to mystical ideas - which includes most contemporary orthodox religious views, in my opinion - because we simply are confronted with some things we don't yet understand."

"There is always something left to love. And if you ain't learned that, you ain't learned nothing. Have you cried for that boy today? I don't mean for yourself and for the family 'cause we lost the money. I mean for him; what he's been through and what it done to him. Child, when do you think is the time to love somebody the most; when they done good and made things easy for everybody? Well then, you ain't through learning -- because that ain't the time at all. It's when he's at his lowest and can't believe in hisself 'cause the world done whipped him so. When you starts measuring somebody, measure him right child, measure him right. Make sure you done taken into account what hills and valleys he come through before he got to wherever he is. [from Raisin in the Sun]"

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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 FB // THINLEY NORBU RINPOCHE

 

THINLEY NORBU RINPOCHE 

I have spent the greater part of my life in the East and so have always been involved in Eastern social customs, which are very rigid and restrictive. I have also been involved in the tradition of Dharma, which is also in its own way quite rigorous. 

Some of the people I met in the West were involved in Dharma and some were not. I found that a lot of the people not involved in Dharma are simple people with very good minds. I also found that some Westerners practicing Dharma are actually being harmed by it — their minds are deteriorating. 

A lot of people I met who are not involved in Dharma are very direct and straightforward, without many thoughts, doubts, or worries. 

Many people involved in Dharma, on the other hand, have a lot of doubts and worries and are not exactly straightforward. This made me think that perhaps in some ways it’s better not to practice Dharma. 

Buddha Shakyamuni said that the source of all Dharma is directness, and in my experience people who know nothing of Dharma often tend to be very direct. Having learned a great deal about Dharma, people tend to become involved in the artificiality of mental fiction and so become much less direct. The teachings of Dharma have in fact taken them away from Dharma.

*** ECHOES - The Boudhanath Teachings THINLEY NORBU - Translated by William Koblensky - SHAMBHALA Publications Boulder · 2016

**I read this in the 80s but it kept coming up in my mind. Thanks to Lizeta Lozuraityte for bringing this up again.

Va FB

 

Joseph Campbell From The Power of Myth

 

"The problem in middle life, when the body has reached its climax of power and begins to decline, is to identify yourself, not with the body, which is falling away, but with the consciousness of which it is a vehicle. This is something I learned from myths. What am I? Am I the bulb that carries the light? Or am I the light of which the bulb is a vehicle?

One of the psychological problems in growing old is the fear of death. People resist the door of death. But this body is a vehicle of consciousness, and if you can identify with the consciousness, you can watch this body go like an old car. There goes the fender, there goes the tire, one thing after another— but it’s predictable. And then, gradually, the whole thing drops off, and consciousness, rejoins consciousness. It is no longer in this particular environment."

 

~Joseph Campbell

From The Power of Myth

 

https://jcf.org/.../joseph-campbell-and-the-power-of.../

Via Dhamma Wheel | Right Action: Reflecting upon Bodily Action

 

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RIGHT ACTION Reflecting Upon Bodily 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 bodily action is to be done with repeated reflection. (MN 61) When you wish to do an action with the body, reflect upon that same bodily action thus: “Would this action I wish to do with the body lead to both my own affliction and the affliction of another?” If, upon reflection, you know that it would, then do not do it; if you know that it would not, then proceed. (MN 61)

Reflection Not only is it wise to think before you speak, it is also important to think before you act. Another way of putting this is to act consciously instead of automatically, from habit. Conscious action is mindful action, and there is no activity that can't be done mindfully rather than mindlessly. Every action is accompanied by an intention, and this practice trains us to pay attention to this aspect of experience. Daily Practice Try going through your day as if you are holding a mirror up to yourself in your mind and you are able to see what you're thinking and reflect what you're about to do. Take that extra moment to be aware of yourself, aware of your actions, and aware of their impact on the world around you. This practice involves bringing mindful awareness to intention—to the impulse to act—in the moment before you follow through into action. Tomorrow: Abstaining from Harming Living Beings One week from today: Reflecting upon Verbal 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: Believing in All-Encompassing Love

 We must encounter Great Love. We must begin to believe in the possibility of something that sees us exactly as we are, with all our deep flaws and ugliness, and that accepts us just the same.

Satya Robyn, “Meeting Shame with Compassion: A Pure Land Antidote”

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Via Buddhist Geeks // The First Evolving Truth (May 23, 2023)

A Public Dharma Experiment

We’re hosting a live virtual event, and we’d love to see you there. Join us for The First Evolving Truth, May 23, 2023 at 3:00 PM EST, with Vince & Emily Horn.

This event is offered freely by the Buddhist Geeks Network, all are welcome!

Register soon because space is limited.

 

Via Dhamma Wheel | Right Speech: Refraining from False Speech

 

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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 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: 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 -