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 MINDFULNESS Establishing Mindfulness of Feeling
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 feeling a bodily pleasant feeling, one is aware: Feeling a
bodily pleasant feeling … one is just aware, just mindful: "There is
feeling." And one abides not clinging to anything in the world. (MN 10)
Reflection
In every mind
moment, consciousness takes a single, particular object to be aware of,
and a particular feeling tone coarises with that moment of
consciousness. While knowing the object, we also know whether it feels
good or bad, or has a feeling tone that is not obviously one or the
other. This sensation becomes a focus point for establishing the
presence of mindfulness. Just be aware of that feeling tone, arising and
passing.
Daily Practice
In this passage
we are focusing only on pleasant bodily feeling tones. Yes, we are
allowed to experience pleasure and even to focus on it exclusively. As
you sit in meditation, notice what feels good in your body. Even if
there is discomfort in some parts of the body, there will also be
comfort in other parts. Seek out the pleasure in your bodily experience,
noticing its texture and how it changes, arising and passing away.
RIGHT CONCENTRATION Approaching and Abiding in the Second Phase of Absorption (2nd Jhāna)
With the stilling of applied and
sustained thought, one enters upon and abides in the second phase of
absorption, which has inner clarity and singleness of mind, without
applied thought and sustained thought, with joy and the pleasure born of
concentration. (MN 4)
When one sees oneself purified of all these unhealthy states and thus liberated from them, gladness is born. When one is glad, joy is born; in one who is joyful, the body becomes tranquil; one whose body is tranquil feels pleasure; in one who feels pleasure, the mind becomes concentrated. (MN 40)
Reflection
When the mind
is temporarily free of afflicted states, it enters upon a natural path
towards concentration. Whether or not you practice the jhānas, some
degree of focus is an essential part of meditation practice, and this
passage describes how you can gently follow the process of relaxing into
concentration.
Daily Practice
See if you can
tread the path of gladness, leading to joy, leading to peace. This is
not the enthusiastic joy of winning the lottery or dancing at a wedding,
but is a more subtle and deeper joy that comes from gladness, from a
softening of the mind in response to its being free for some time from
restlessness, sluggishness, sense desire, ill will, and doubt. Subtract,
as you sit, and see if you can refrain from adding anything.
Tomorrow: Understanding the Noble Truth of the Cessation of Suffering One week from today: Establishing Mindfulness of Mind and Abiding in the Third Jhāna
Share your thoughts and join the conversation on social media #DhammaWheel
Whatever a person frequently
thinks about 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 abandon arisen unhealthy mental states. One
abandons the arisen hindrance of restlessness. (MN 141)
Reflection
One of the key strategies of Buddhist practice is to abandon unhealthy states that have arisen in the mind. This word abandon
is used in a particular way—as an alternative to either accepting or
rejecting the experience. If you act out an unhealthy state of mind, you
are only strengthening it, and if you repress it, you are only
postponing its impact. The middle way is to be aware of the unhealthy
state of mind, understand it is harmful, and gently release your hold on
it.
Daily Practice
Restlessness
comes up a lot, particularly in a busy daily life. It wants something
different from what is happening in order to either get something
desired or escape something undesired. It is important to recognize the
unhelpfulness of this mental state. Restlessness is not bad or wrong,
but it does hinder the mind’s ability to act skillfully. Develop the
ability to recognize when you feel restless and then shake off its hold
on you. Instead, just be with what is.
Tomorrow: Establishing Mindfulness of Feeling and Abiding in the Second Jhāna One week from today: Developing Unarisen Healthy States
Share your thoughts and join the conversation on social media #DhammaWheel
To
truly connect with other human beings, especially if we choose to
teach, we must dare to present ourselves in ways that depict the true
variety and complexity of our human experience.
Josh Korda, “Why I Come Clean to Students About My Insomnia, Anxiety, and Sobriety”
You
could say, 'I’m giving attention to my breath,' or 'I’m giving
attention to painting the windows,' but it’s equally, 'I’m learning how
to love this in-breath, learning how to love this brushstroke.' The
practice of attention is learning how to love.
Q&A with Visiting Teacher Laura Burges By The Editors
Laura
Burges, a lay-entrusted dharma teacher in the Soto Zen tradition, on
everything from her favorite breakfast on retreat to the intersection of
recovery from addiction and Buddhism.
RIGHT LIVING Undertaking the Commitment to Abstain from Taking What is Not Given
Taking what is not given is
unhealthy. Refraining from taking what is not given is healthy. (MN 9)
Abandoning the taking of what is not given, one abstains from taking
what is not given; one does not take by way of theft the wealth and
property of others. (MN 41) One practices thus: "Others may take what is
not given, but I will abstain from taking what is not given." (MN 8)
One is to practice thus: "Here, regarding things heard by you, in the
heard there will be just the heard." When, firmly mindful, one hears a
sound, one is not inflamed by lust for sounds; one experiences it with a
dispassionate mind and does not remain holding it tightly. (SN 35.95)
Reflection
The precept
against stealing can be taken figuratively as well as literally. Yes, it
means not to take the property of others, but it can also mean not to
read more into what is said or take away more than is uttered. A casual
comment can be amplified and complexified by the hearer far beyond what
was originally intended by the speaker, and doing this is a kind of
psychological appropriation that can be viewed as a form of “taking what
is not given.”
Daily Practice
See if you can
practice being fully in the present moment, hearing only a sound and not
spinning out into a wide pattern of association, interpretation, or
projection. As a meditation practice, hearing only a sound requires
strong mindfulness and non-attachment. Develop the ability to note what
is happening and only what is happening as sense data, without turning it into a story. This is not easy to do, but it can be done.
Tomorrow: Abandoning Arisen Unhealthy States One week from today: Abstaining from Misbehaving Among Sensual Pleasures
Share your thoughts and join the conversation on social media #DhammaWheel
It’s February 29th,
which means, it’s Leap Year, the odd day of the quadrennial year, and
by that very token, this is a Gay day, a “queer” day, an “in between”
place. In between places and times are traditionally connected to
same-sex/Gay people who, in numerous cultures are considered to be
“not-male, not female” i.e. a third (and possibly fourth) gender; in
between the sexes. The crossroads is a widely understood example of this
“sacred space” traditionally held by same-sex people. The middle
ground. The bridge. All are traditionally Gay archetypes.
Although the
modern calendar counts a year as 365 days, a complete revolution around
the sun takes approximately 365 days and 6 hours. Every four years, an
extra twenty-four hours have accumulated, so one extra day is added to
that calendar to keep the count coordinated with the sun's apparent
position.
There was a
tradition that women may make a proposal of marriage to men only in leap
years, further restricted in some cases to only February 29. There is a
tradition that in 1288 the Scottish Parliament under Queen Margaret
legislated that any woman could propose in Leap Year; few parliament
records of that time exist, and none concern February 29. Another
component of this tradition was that if the man rejects the proposal, he
should soften the blow by providing a kiss, one pound currency, and a
pair of gloves (some later sources say a silk gown). There were similar
notions in France and Switzerland.
A similar modern
American tradition, Sadie Hawkins Day, honors "the homeliest gal in the
hills" created by Al Capp in the cartoon strip Li'l Abner. In the famous
story line, Sadie and every other woman in town were allowed on that
day to pursue and catch the most eligible bachelors in Dogpatch.
Although the comic strip placed Sadie Hawkins Day in November, today it
has become almost synonymous with February 29.
A person who was born on February 29 may be called a "leapling". In non-leap years they may celebrate their birthday on February 28 or March 1.
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