A personal blog by a graying (mostly Anglo with light African-American roots) gay left leaning liberal progressive married college-educated Buddhist Baha'i BBC/NPR-listening Professor Emeritus now following the Dharma in Minas Gerais, Brasil.
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)
Such speech as you know to be true and correct but unbeneficial, and
which is welcome and agreeable to others—do not utter such speech. (MN
58)
Reflection
Speaking
truthfully is a habit that can be learned, even if we have previously
learned the habit of speaking untruthfully. It is a matter of bringing
full awareness to your speech and its consequences. Often there may
appear to be a short-term benefit from speaking falsely, but the Buddha
is pointing out the long-term harm that false speech does to your
character. In the long run the lack of integrity is unhealthy.
Daily Practice
This passage is
urging us to speak only when what we say is likely to have a beneficial
effect on another person or on the situation at hand. It is not enough
to say things that are agreeable to others, even if they are true.
Flattery, for example, might have an unbeneficial effect on someone by
inflating their sense of themselves. Practice speaking only those words
that are going to be helpful.
Tomorrow: Reflecting upon Bodily Action One week from today: Refraining from Malicious Speech
Share your thoughts and join the conversation on social media #DhammaWheel
Turn
to that place in you that knows you are angry. What knows you are angry
is itself not angry. Connect with that part of you and let the spirit
of awakened compassion come into you.
On Love, Loss, and Feeling at Home in the World Interview with Lorrie Moore by Ann Tashi Slater
In
her latest novel, ‘I Am Homeless if This Is Not My Home,’ American
writer, critic, and essayist Lorrie Moore takes a meditative look at
love and death, passion and grief, and the bardo states that exist there
within.
Whatever you intend,
whatever you plan, and whatever you have a tendency toward, that will
become the basis on 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 manifestation of lovingkindness is the removal of annoyance. (Vm 9.93)
Reflection
Only one
experience occurs at a time. Each one replaces the one before it and is
itself replaced by the next. This happens in rapid succession as the
stream of consciousness flows on. It feels like a continuous event, much
as the still images displayed rapidly in a movie theater merge into a
flowing story, but in fact, each mind moment is organized around a
single object, with a single emotional response.
Daily Practice
This means that
when you are feeling kindly or benevolent toward a particular person or
in a particular situation, you cannot at the same time feel ill will or
anger or annoyance. The beauty of lovingkindness is that it replaces
negative emotions in the mind. Next time you feel even slightly annoyed
by someone or something, try conjuring up an attitude of kindness toward
something and watch the annoyance disappear.
Tomorrow: Refraining from False Speech One week from today: Cultivating Compassion
Share your thoughts and join the conversation on social media #DhammaWheel
Grief
is an expression of the loss of something meaningful, which means I
had, at least for a time, the opportunity to experience love—true, real,
meaningful, heartfelt love.
It’s Not Too Late Rebecca Solnit in Conversation with James Shaheen and Sharon Salzberg
Rebeca
Solnit is determined to change the narrative of despair in the face of
the climate crisis. In this piece, Solnit explores the dangers of
hyperindividualism, the spiritual power of renunciation, and why she
believes that beauty is an essential piece of activist work.
An intimate portrayal of illness, spiritual care, and letting go, Review
follows three people with terminal illness and their reflections on
life and spiritual explorations before death. Subscribers can stream the
film on Tricycle’s Film Club all month long.