Saturday, February 17, 2024

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Via Daily Dharma: The Poisons of Anger and Fear

 

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The Poisons of Anger and Fear

When I forget my true nature I’m not able to see the humanity of others and I begin to meet anger with anger and fear with fear. When we’re not paying attention, these poisons can lead us to unhappiness and suffering. Just on the other side is this great possibility of liberation and freedom.

Leslie Booker, “Guidelines for an Ethical Life”


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On Wanting to Sound Good
By Satya Robyn
Writer, psychotherapist, and environmental activist Satya Robyn on how everything around us has the opportunity and the capacity to appear in the form of the Buddha, including our furry friends. 
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Via Dhamma Wheel | Right Effort: Maintaining Arisen Healthy States

 


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RIGHT EFFORT
Maintaining Arisen Healthy States
Whatever a person frequently thinks about and ponders, that will become the inclination of their mind. If one frequently thinks about and ponders healthy states, one has abandoned unhealthy states to cultivate healthy states, and then one’s mind inclines to healthy states. (MN 19)

Here a person rouses the will, makes an effort, stirs up energy, exerts the mind, and strives to maintain arisen healthy mental states. One maintains the arisen energy awakening factor. (MN 141)
Reflection
Although it is not acknowledged as much as it could be, much of what goes on in our mind is healthy and beneficial and is helping us along the path of clarification. There are a lot of good people in the world who care for one another, respect one another, and wish each other well. It is important to acknowledge and maintain these beneficial states, which is done by feeding them energy.

Daily Practice
Next time you are feeling good in an unselfish way, perhaps thinking well of and wishing the best for the people around you, see how long you can sustain the experience. Just as your mind is likely to wander in meditation despite your efforts to keep your attention on your breath, there are all sorts of ways the good will you are feeling might waver or diminish, but the practice here is to give it the energy it needs to keep unfolding. See how long you can keep  up thinking well of people.

Tomorrow: Establishing Mindfulness of Mental Objects and the Fourth Jhāna
One week from today: Restraining Unarisen Unhealthy States

Share your thoughts and join the conversation on social media
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Questions?
Visit the Dhamma Wheel orientation page.



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Via Good News from LGBTQNation // A historic week worldwide for same-sex marriage

 

Lesbian couple makes history in Nepal as first to have their marriage recognized by government

Lesbian couple makes history in Nepal as first to have their marriage recognized by government


Love wasn't limited to Valentine's Day this week.

Greece legalized same-sex marriage, the first Orthodox country to say they do. Even Volkswagen got in on the action with a wedding-themed Super Bowl ad.

While we're on the topic... Did you know that Mildred Loving & W.E.B. Du Bois paved the way for marriage equality?

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Via Tricycle -- A Doorway to Skillful Action

 

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February 17, 2024

A Doorway to Skillful Action
 
What is equanimity? How do we access it? And how can it help us confront the difficult realities of the current moment? 

Tibetan teacher Lama Karma describes equanimity as “a space of freedom that’s not polarized, but also not asleep.” He goes on to describe that “equanimity is the capacity to stand in the middle and to see without bias. When we can see in this way, instead of being pigeonholed into a particular view, a vast spectrum of possibility opens.”

When we reach this place of openness, we can respond to the world, no matter the circumstances, with skill and compassion. According to Lama Karma, this is what the Dharma is all about—opening our perspectives beyond constructs we create, and seeing beyond to insight, the basis of freedom.

Learn more about equanimity and enjoy a guided practice to help you access it in this month’s Dharma Talk.
 
 

Friday, February 16, 2024

Via Dhamma Wheel | Right Living: Abstaining from Intoxication



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RIGHT LIVING
Undertaking the Commitment to Abstain from Intoxication
Intoxication is unhealthy. Refraining from intoxication is healthy. (MN 9) What are the imperfections that defile the mind? Negligence is an imperfection that defiles the mind. Knowing that negligence is an imperfection that defiles the mind, a person abandons it. (MN 7) One practices thus: "Others may become negligent by intoxication, but I will abstain from the negligence of intoxication." (MN 8)

One of the dangers attached to addiction to intoxicants is liability to sickness. (DN 31)
Reflection
Ever practical and down-to-earth, the Buddha does not moralize about intoxication but points out its practical dangers. Intoxication is anything that evokes negligence, and negligence can mean anything that prevents you from seeing clearly. This is unhealthy, not just in the physical sense but also in mental and emotional ways. Becoming more sensitized to the various obstacles to our own diligence is a valuable practice.

Daily Practice
Find something you tend to get intoxicated by—it need not be alcohol or drugs, but can be ordinary things like coffee or sugar, the news or other media, or emotions like sadness, self-pity, or envy—and look more closely at your relationship to it. In what ways might the negligence and lack of clarity involved in that intoxication contribute to sickness, whether it be a physical sickness or a less tangible mental or emotional affliction?

Tomorrow: Maintaining Arisen Healthy States
One week from today: Abstaining from Harming Living Beings

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.

© 2024 Tricycle Foundation
89 5th Ave, New York, NY 10003

Via Daily Dharma: Who Is Outraged?

 

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Who Is Outraged?

Buddhism offers a skillful means for relieving feelings of outrage, by shifting the perspective from how outraged one feels to the question of who feels outraged.

Mark Epstein, “Are We All Hungry Ghosts?”


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