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)  The near enemy of loving kindness is attachment. (Vm 9.98)

Reflection Attachment is called a near enemy of lovingkindness because it can seem like kindness while actually being very distinct from it. Think of the person who “loves” their partner so much that they must control their loved one and prevent them from having other friends. In popular culture attachment is often seen as a demonstration of lovingkindness, but in Buddhist thought the two are very different: one is healthy and the other not.  Daily Practice See if you can practice lovingkindness without attachment. This involves caring deeply for the well-being of another but on their own terms and not in ways that are bound up with your own agenda or sense of self. Remember the phrase found in the Metta Sutta: “May all beings be happy in themselves!” Attachment always includes some measure of self-interest, while true lovingkindness is entirely free of this. Tomorrow: Refraining from False Speech One week from today: Cultivating Compassion 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 Wisdom of Discomfort

 

The Wisdom of Discomfort

The practice of seeing clearly is what finally moves us toward kindness. Seeing, again and again, the infinite variety of traps we create for seducing the mind into struggle, we feel compassion for ourselves. And then, quite naturally, we feel compassion for everyone else. Sylvia Boorstein, “The Wisdom of Discomfort” CLICK HERE TO READ THE FULL ARTICLE

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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) Association with the unpleasant is suffering. Whenever one has unwanted, disliked, unpleasant objects of sight, sound, smell, taste, tangibles or mind, or whenever one encounters ill wishers, wishers of harm, of discomfort, of insecurity, with whom they have concourse, intercourse, connection, union—this too is suffering. (MN 9)

Reflection One obvious form of suffering is having to deal with things that are unpleasant and that we don’t like. This can take the shape of sensual inputs, such as horrible visual images, annoying sounds, foul flavors and odors, and painful physical sensations, and it can include mental images and thoughts that are repugnant. Notice also that the text mentions people who are difficult and even hostile as sources of suffering. Daily Practice Just as it is inevitable that you will experience painful sensations in your body from time to time, it is equally inevitable that you will come into contact with people who are unfriendly and even wish you ill. This is an opportunity for practice. It is a chance to respond to such people with caution, yes, but also with equanimity, at least, and perhaps even with kindness. Do not allow the ill will of others to provoke ill will in yourself. Tomorrow: Cultivating Lovingkindness One week from today: Understanding the Noble Truth of the Origin 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: Recognizing Suffering

 

Recognizing Suffering

If you are genuinely able to have compassion toward all sentient beings without exception, then this means that you are also able to recognize the suffering of all sentient beings all the time. Constance Kassor, “The Discomfort of Compassion“ CLICK HERE TO READ THE FULL ARTICLE

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Via Dhamma Wheel | Right Mindfulness and Concentration: Establishing Mindfulness of Mental Objects and the Fourth Jhāna

 

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RIGHT MINDFULNESS Establishing Mindfulness of Mental Objects 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 energy-awakening factor is internally present, one is aware: “Energy is present for me.” When energy is not present, one is aware: “Energy is not present for me.” When the arising of unarisen energy occurs, one  is aware of that. And when the development and fulfillment of the arisen energy-awakening factor occurs, one is aware of that . . . One is just aware, just mindful: “There is a mental object.” And one abides not clinging to anything in the world. (MN 10)

Reflection Energy is a mental factor, like so many others, that arises and passes away in the mind from one moment to another. We all know what it feels like to have too little energy and to give it a boost to accomplish a task, and what it feels like to have too much energy and to try to calm down using relaxation exercises. One way of practicing mindfulness of mental objects is to learn to look at and develop this awakening factor. Daily Practice See if you can gain an intuitive understanding of what the energy factor feels like in your own direct experience. Do this by noticing when it is present and when it is absent. Like isolating a muscle in the body for strengthening exercises, see if you can identify and strengthen the means of deliberately increasing or decreasing mental energy. This is an awakening factor because it is a crucial tool for developing the mind toward awakening. RIGHT CONCENTRATION Approaching and Abiding in the Fourth Phase of Absorption (4th Jhāna) With the abandoning of pleasure and pain, and with the previous disappearance of joy and grief, one enters upon and abides in the fourth phase of absorption, which has neither-pain-nor-pleasure and purity of mindfulness due to equanimity. The concentrated mind is thus purified, bright, unblemished, rid of imperfection, malleable, wieldy, steady, and attained to imperturbability. (MN 4) One practices: “I shall breathe in tranquilizing mental formations;” one practices: “I shall breathe out tranquilizing mental formations.” 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  Suffering One week from today: Establishing Mindfulness of Body and Abiding in the First Jhāna 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 Words of Wisdom - July 9, 2023 💌

 

"When we first understand there’s a journey, a path, we tend to get somewhat hysterical. We want to sell it to everybody, change everybody, and whichever path we buy first, we try to convert everybody to it. The zeal is based on our lack of faith, 'cause we’re not sure of what we’re doing, so we figure if we convince everybody else... But we’re all kind of moving into a new space, we’re sort of finished with the first wild hysteria, and we’re settling down into the humdrum process of living out our incarnation as consciously as we know how to do. If in the course it turns out this is your last round to get enlightened, fine. If not, that’s the way it is. Nothing you can do about it. You can’t bulldoze anybody to beat the system – you are the system. The desire to beat the system is part of it." - Ram Dass -