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.
RIGHT EFFORT Restraining Unarisen Unhealthy States
Whatever a person frequently
thinks and ponders, that will become the inclination of their mind. If
one frequently thinks about and ponders unhealthy states, one has
abandoned healthy states to cultivate unhealthy states, and then one’s
mind inclines to unhealthy states. (MN 19)
Here a person rouses the will, makes an effort, stirs up energy, exerts
the mind, and strives to restrain the arising of unarisen unhealthy
mental states. One restrains the arising of the unarisen hindrance of
restlessness. (MN 141)
Reflection
It should not
surprise us to hear that a person gradually becomes what they practice
being. If you complain a lot about all the things you are discontented
with, you will become a more discontented person and more inclined to
further discontent. This works in a positive direction also, allowing us
to develop healthy mental habits, but this passage focuses on
protecting ourselves from our own toxic qualities of mind.
Daily Practice
This passage
begins the process of walking us through the five hindrances, qualities
of mind that inhibit mental clarity and contribute to suffering. The
first of these is restlessness, a quality of mind that is active in some
moments and dormant in others. Here we are told to practice the states
of mind, primarily calm and tranquility, that prevent restlessness from
arising. A calm mind is a healthy mind; practice calming the mind often.
Tomorrow: Establishing Mindfulness of Body and Abiding in the First Jhāna One week from today: Abandoning Arisen Unhealthy States
Share your thoughts and join the conversation on social media #DhammaWheel
There
can be no love without attention. In cultivating attention, we’re
cultivating a possibility for intention and a possibility for
connection. Connection is all about love.
Los cinco obstáculos: La mala voluntad By Vanessa Zuisei Goddard
Vanessa
Zuisei Goddard explica que el remedio principal para la mala voluntad
es permitir que el agua se calme, que nuestra visión sea expansiva, y lo
hacemos dirigiendo sabiamente nuestra atención hacia la bondad amorosa (metta) y cultivándola cuidadosamente.
NATIONAL PUBLIC RADIOis founded in the United States.
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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
The traditional date for the publication of the GUTENBERG BIBLE, the first Western book printed from movable type thus transforming what had been an apocryphal transcription and imprecise oral tradition into rigid stone.
While the Gutenberg Bible helped introduce printing to the West, the process was already well established in other parts of the world. Chinese artisans were pressing ink onto paper as early as the second century A.D., and by the 800s, they had produced full-length books using wooden block printing. Movable type also first surfaced in the Far East. Sometime around the mid-11th century, a Chinese alchemist named Pi Sheng developed a system of individual character types made from a mixture of baked clay and glue. Metal movable type was later used in Korea to create the “Jikji,” a collection of Zen Buddhist teachings. The Jikji was first published in 1377, some 75 years before Johannes Gutenberg began churning out his Bibles in Mainz, Germany.
By studying the size of Gutenberg’s paper supply, historians have estimated that he produced around 180 copies of his Bible during the early 1450s. That may seem miniscule, but at the time there were probably only around 30,000 books in all of Europe. The splash that Gutenberg’s Bibles made is evident in a letter the future Pope Pius II wrote to Cardinal Carvajal in Rome. In it, he raves that the Bibles are “exceedingly clean and correct in their script, and without error, such as Your Excellency could read effortlessly without glasses.”
Most Gutenberg Bibles contained 1,286 pages bound in two volumes, yet almost no two are exactly alike. Of the 180 copies, some 135 were printed on paper, while the rest were made using vellum, a parchment made from calfskin. Due to the volumes’ considerable heft, it has been estimated that some 170 calfskins were needed to produce just one Gutenberg Bible from vellum.
Out of some 180 original printed copies of the Gutenberg Bible, 49 still exist in library, university and museum collections. Less than half are complete, and some only consist of a single volume or even a few scattered pages. Germany stakes the claim to the most Gutenberg Bibles with 14, while the United States has 10, three of which are owned by the Morgan Library and Museum in Manhattan. The last sale of a complete Gutenberg Bible took place in 1978, when a copy went for a cool $2.2 million. A lone volume later sold for $5.4 million in 1987, and experts now estimate a complete copy could fetch upwards of $35 million at auction.
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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
We’re
not only Buddhas fully free from attachment and suffering—we’re also
humans fully free to get attached, to experience personal love, and to
suffer. What great freedom is this!
Santiago Santai Jiménez, “Free from Suffering and Free to Suffer”
