Tuesday, June 6, 2023

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) 

The purpose of equanimity is warding off attachment. (Vm 9.97) When a person seeing a form with the eye is not attached to pleasing forms and not repelled by unpleasing forms, they have established mindfulness and dwell with an unlimited mind. For a person whose mindfulness is developed and practiced, the eye does not struggle to reach pleasing forms, and unpleasing forms are not considered repulsive. (SN 35.274)
Reflection
Equanimity is the antidote to aversion. Just as we can develop an aversive tendency through practice and habit, we can develop equanimity as a primary character trait and latent tendency. We can practice this at the level of primary sensory contact, such as described here using visual information. Practice just seeing what is there, without attachment or aversion; gaze upon your visual sphere with equanimity.

Daily Practice
When you are looking at something using your eyes, notice when this is accompanied by a subtle “I don’t like this” or “This is not good.” When you are aware of this happening, try replacing the aversion with an attitude of equanimity: “This is the way this is. I don’t need to judge it or disapprove of it. Let it be.” In this way the eye is not struggling against unpleasing forms and is thus not attached to their being different than they are. 

Tomorrow: Refraining from Frivolous Speech
One week from today: Cultivating Lovingkindness

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Via Daily Dharma: Clear Faith

 Clear faith blooms when we recognize in another the possibility of living a free, happy, peaceful life, and this recognition compels us to look for a way to get there ourselves.

Vanessa Zuisei Goddard, “Good Enough Faith”


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Via White Crane Institute // THOMAS MANN

 This Day in Gay History

June 06

Born
Nobel Laureate Thomas Mann
1875 -
THOMAS MANN, German writer, Nobel Prize laureate (d. 1955); a German novelist, short story writer, social critic, philanthropist, essayist, and 1929 Nobel Prize laureate, known for his series of highly symbolic and ironic epic novels and mid-length stories, noted for their insight into the psychology of the artist and intellectual.
His analysis and critique of the European and German soul used modernized German and Biblical stories, as well as the ideas of Goethe, Nietzsche and Schopenhauer.
 
Mann's diaries, unsealed in 1975, tell of his struggles with his sexuality, which found reflection in his works, most prominently through the obsession of the elderly Aschenbach for the 14-year-old Polish boy Tadzio in the novella Death in Venice (Der Tod in Venedig, 1912).
 
Anthony Heilbut's biography Thomas Mann: Eros and Literature (1997) was widely acclaimed for uncovering the centrality of Mann's sexuality to his oeuvre. Gilbert Adair's work The Real Tadzio describes how, in the summer of 1911, Mann had been staying at the Grand Hôtel des Bains in Venice with his wife and brother when he became enraptured by the angelic figure of Władysław Moes, an 11-year-old Polish boy. Considered a classic of homoerotic passion (if unconsummated) Death in Venice has been made into a film and an opera. Blamed sarcastically by Mann’s old enemy, Alfred Kerr, to have ‘made pederasty acceptable to the cultivated middle classes’, it has been pivotal to introducing the discourse of same-sex desire to the common culture.
 
Mann himself described his feelings for young violinist and painter Paul Ehrenberg as the "central experience of my heart." Despite the homoerotic overtones in his writing, Mann chose to marry and have children; two of his children, Klaus, also a writer, who committed suicide in 1949, and Erika, an actress and writer who died in 1969 and who was married to W.H. Auden for 34 years, were also Gay. His works also present other sexual themes, such as incest in The Blood of the Walsungs (Wälsungenblut) and The Holy Sinner (Der Erwählte).
 
 

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Gay Wisdom for Daily Living from White Crane Institute

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Monday, June 5, 2023

The Stomach-Churning Things Nazis Did To Gay Men

Via Ram Dass - Love Serve Remember Foundation // Words of Wisdom - June 4, 2023 💌

 
 

"When you stand back far enough, all of your life experiences, independent of what they are, are all learning experiences. From a human point of view, you do your best to optimize pleasure, happiness, all the nice things in life. From your soul’s point of view you take what comes down the pike. So from the soul’s perspective, you work to get what you want and then if you don’t, ‘Ah, so, I’ll work with what I’ve got."

- Ram Dass -




[GBF] New Talk: Meeting the Fragility and Vulnerability of Life - Devin Berry

How do we respond when we witness suffering?
 
In this talk, Devin Berry reflects on passages from the Dhammapada related to compassion for others and ourselves in the face of dukkha.

He shares that the Buddha described compassion as "the trembling of the heart in response to suffering."

Especially in marginalized communities, we practice to create a refuge of belonging, which requires opening our heart. However, the habit of seeing those we encounter as 'other' can constrain our willingness to actively respond with care. Compassion requires a willingness to lean into suffering and be touched.
______________
 
Devin Berry is an Insight Meditation Society guiding teacher. A meditator since 1999, his practice is primarily informed by the metta and vipassana teachings of the Insight Meditation tradition. He has undertaken many periods of silent long-term retreat practice. Devin is committed to the personal and collective liberation of marginalized communities knowing that through the integration of reflection and insight, clarity and wisdom give rise to wise action. Devin was mentored by Larry Yang, Lyn Fine, Joseph Goldstein, Carol Wilson and Andrea Fella. He lives in New England and the Bay Area and teaches nationally. 

Listen to the full talk here: https://gaybuddhist.org/podcast/devin-berry/
--
Enjoy 750+ free recorded dharma talks at www.gaybuddhist.org/podcast/

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: that is, 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 misbehavior among sensual pleasures . . . (DN 2)
Reflection
This is by now a familiar theme for us, the focus on refining ethical behavior and abandoning actions driven by sensual pleasures. The path to the cessation of suffering can be followed only by observing the ethical precepts, and the precept guarding against inappropriate sexuality is as important as the others. Remember: sensuality can include a much wider range of interpretations than the merely sexual.

Daily Practice
Reflect honestly on your own behavior, especially the extent to which it may or may not be entangled in sensual desire. Sensuality is a sensitive and challenging topic, and it often seems there is an extra charge around matters of sexuality. This text is inviting you to look openly at ways leading to the end of suffering and in particular to look for ways in which a different perspective on sensuality might help reduce some kinds of suffering.

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

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Via Daily Dharma: Patience Is Peace

 

Patience gives you joy in the process of awakening. Without patience, you may find yourself at war with your own forgetfulness or reactivity.

Tara Brach, “Finding True Refuge”


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Sunday, June 4, 2023

Via Daily Dharma: Routine Paired with Vision

 The key to development along the Buddhist path is repetitive routine guided by inspirational vision.

Venerable Bhikkhu Bodhi, “Vision and Routine”


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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 not uplifted, one is aware: “The mind is not uplifted.”. . . One is just aware, just mindful: “There is mind. “And one abides not clinging to anything in the world. (MN 10)
Reflection
The word uplifted in the original text carries a sense of both greater and loftier. Applying that to mind states, we might think of some states as more open or spacious than others, because they are more expanded in scope, encompassing a wider view. Or we might think of some states as more ethically refined than others; kindness, for example, is more “uplifted” than selfishness.

Daily Practice
As you sit in meditation and observe mental states arise and pass away in your consciousness, notice their quality. Notice in particular when your mind feels contracted; see what that feels like exactly. Notice also when the mental states that are present are ignoble or less than uplifted. You are just noticing, not judging. Abide mindful and fully aware of these states, "not clinging to anything."


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)

One practices: "I shall breathe in experiencing the whole body"; one practices: "I shall breathe out experiencing the whole body." This is how concentration by mindfulness of breathing is developed and cultivated so that it is of great fruit and great benefit. (SN 54.8)

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.



Tricycle is a nonprofit and relies on your support to keep its wheels turning.
 

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

Via White Crane Institute // Tiananmen Square

 

Noteworthy
Tianamen Square 1989
1989 -

The killing around Tiananmen Square started soon after midnight. It was a different army from the unarmed one which had tried to enter the square on Friday night and failed. This one was told to kill, and the soldiers with their AK- 47 automatic rifles and the armoured personnel carriers with their machine guns opened fire indiscriminately, in the air, directly at the huge crowds, at small groups, everywhere.

Lined up in rows across the Avenue of Eternal Peace, they advanced slowly, shooting all the while, then they would halt and kneel and fire directly into the crowd. They did the same at the southern end of the square by Zhengyang Gate. When both ends of the square were cleared, they switched off the lights and encircled the thousands of students who had crowded together on the Revolutionary Heroes' monument. Dawn broke and riot police moved in with truncheons. Everyone expected the army. But no one expected such ferocity, such armor, such numbers. There were more than 100,000 soldiers. It is unknown to this day how many demonstrators were killed in the square.


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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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Saturday, June 3, 2023