Via Dhamma Wheel | Right Speech: Refraining from False Speech

 

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RIGHT SPEECH Refraining from False Speech False speech is unhealthy. Refraining from false speech is healthy. (MN 9) Abandoning false speech, one dwells refraining from false speech, is 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, correct, and beneficial, and which is welcome and agreeable to others—know the time to use such speech. (MN 58)

Reflection Of course it is important to refrain from false speech, but even right speech is to be wielded carefully. Generally it is appropriate to speak when what you are saying is beneficial—that is, when it is helping people emerge from what is unhealthy and become established on a healthy course. But even in this case there is something to be said for knowing when to speak up and when to remain silent. Daily Practice As you pay attention to your own speech patterns, notice if you ever find yourself praising people or telling them what they want to hear as a way of seeking favor. It is good to say things that please people, especially when it is true and beneficial, but you should still take care not to do so frivolously. The basic message here is just to take care to speak skillfully, even when you have positive things to say. Tomorrow: Reflecting upon Bodily Action One week from today: Refraining from Malicious Speech Share your thoughts and join the conversation on social media #DhammaWheel Questions? Visit the Dhamma Wheel orientation page.

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Via Thich Nhat Hanh Foundation \\ A Mindful Movement

 

Stretch Arms and Shoulders

Let Brother Man Tue guide you through a 5 minute qigong exercise called “The Buffalo” in the beautiful scenery of Deer Park Monastery, California. Practicing this movement helps you stretch and relax your arms, shoulders, and hands, and strengthen your legs.

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Via White Crane Institute \\ LEO BERSANI

 

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1931 -

LEO BERSANI was an American academic, born on this date (d: 2022), known for his contributions to French literary criticism and queer theory. He was known for his 1987 essay "Is the Rectum a Grave?" and his 1995 book Homos.

Bersani was born in the Bronx. He studied at Harvard University, graduating in 1952 with a bachelor’s in Romance languages, and with a Ph.D. in comparative literature in 1958. He taught at Wellesley College and Rutgers University before joining University of California, Berkeley in 1972, where he'd remain for the rest of his career, assuming emeritus status in 1996. He was elected a Fellow of the American Academy of Arts and Sciences in 1992. He met Sam Geraci in 1992. They married in 2014. 

Male homosexuality is not the mirror image of heterosexuality, he argued, but something radically different, lacking many of the patriarchal inequalities that he said defined straight life.

“Far from apologizing for their promiscuity as a failure to maintain a loving relationship,” he wrote, “gay men should ceaselessly lament the practical necessity, now, of such relations, should resist being drawn into mimicking the unrelenting warfare between men and women.”

He followed nearly a decade later, with “Homos” (1995), a book-length critique of the emerging field of queer theory, and in particular of its leading figure, Judith Butler.

He taught that the whole point of being a homosexual man is that you disrupted the experience of possession, ownership, fidelity, consistency, safety, and you allowed sexuality to be what it really is, which is disruptive, disorienting, shattering, limit-violating and boundary-breaking.

An early and avid proponent of the post-structuralist theories coming from France in the late 1960s and early ’70s, Dr. Bersani was particularly taken with the work of the philosopher Michel Foucault, who became a close friend, and whom he brought to Berkeley as a visiting professor.

Like Dr. Bersani, Mr. Foucault critiqued what he called “the will to know,” to grasp the interiority of a subject and assert power over it, and instead looked for nonaggressive, noninvasive ways of engaging with other people — akin, he said, to the way one might look at a painting in a gallery.

“Foucault asked the question, ‘Why can’t we live our lives like a work of art?’ and Leo was just fascinated by that,” John Paul Ricco, an art historian at the University of Toronto, said in an interview.

Dr. Bersani’s later work, starting in the late 1990s, was especially taken with this project of showing that we can encounter something — an artwork, another person, the world itself — without dominating it, or even understanding it.

“He was an absolutely brilliant reader at taking what seemed to be the knots, or the impenetrability, or the downright insanity of a piece of writing, and just saying, ‘Hey, guys, that’s the point,’” Dr. Rose said.

Though Dr. Bersani trained as a literary scholar, his last works focused on art and film, from assessments of Assyrian palace reliefs to the work of the Spanish director Pedro Almodóvar. He took emeritus status in 1996 but continued to teach and write; he published his final book, “Receptive Bodies,” in 2018.

Despite the apparent disjunction between Dr. Bersani’s literary criticism and his work on gay identity, there are themes running through both. He found in gay life a living instance of the sort of “swerve” and aesthetic frivolity that he called for in art and literature; for example, he praised gay bath houses for the casual sexual encounters they encouraged.

“He was interested in sort of lighter ways of sharing the world,” Dr. Tuhkanen said. “Just moving along and sharing rhythms and having anonymous sex where we don’t need to have knowledge of the other person, but we can share a kind of bodily moment and a pleasurable moment. And maybe have a chat afterward.”

 

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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

Exploring Gay Wisdom & Culture since 1989!
www.whitecraneinstitute.org

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Listen to these mantras before you hit the bed.

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 on which your mind is established. (SN 12.40) Develop meditation on lovingkindness, for when you develop meditation on lovingkindness, all ill will is abandoned. (MN 62)  Lovingkindness succeeds when it makes ill will subside. (Vm 9.93)

Reflection Ill will is a generic term for all kinds of aversion, from mild annoyance to raging hatred. These emotions make up a good deal of our daily experience, and generally we are not too happy when we are aversive. The danger is that if we allow these states to persist and even grow, we are ensuring that our minds will become more inclined toward them. On the other hand, developing lovingkindness will incline the mind in the other direction. Daily Practice It may feel like you have no protection against ill will, but you do. Lovingkindness is its antidote, and it can be applied at any time. Because we cannot experience two emotions at the exact same time, all healthy states will block out all unhealthy states and vice versa. Try dosing yourself with kindness every time you feel annoyed and see what happens. Any aversion you might feel will immediately subside. 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: Create New Habits

 

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Create New Habits It is entirely possible to create new, mindful, positive habits. This is certainly possible with the practice of loving speech and deep listening toward ourselves. Positivity and gratitude slowly become a new, mindful habit. Sister Dang Nghiem, “Rehearsing Suffering” CLICK HERE TO READ THE FULL ARTICLE

Streams of Life By Tracy Cochran A brief teaching on bearing witness to collective pains as a larger stream of life.  Read more »

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) Bodily pain is suffering: bodily pain; bodily discomfort; painful, uncomfortable feeling born of bodily contact. (MN 9)

Reflection We don’t need much help in understanding this point—that suffering can present itself in the form of bodily pain. A natural reaction to this pain is to resist it, push it away, or find a way to either avoid it or avoid being aware of it. While pain is an inevitable part of the human situation, the Buddha teaches that we can modify how much we suffer when experiencing pain by how much awareness we bring to the experience. Daily Practice When you are in pain, try turning toward it and observing it with interest rather than resenting it or trying to avoid it. It is happening, so it won’t help to deny it. Look pain in the face and examine its texture and how it presents itself in your experience. See when it is sharp or dull, fleeting or constant, pulsing or steady. Turning toward the actual sensation of pain is the first step toward mitigating the suffering it brings. 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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© 2024 Tricycle Foundation 89 5th Ave, New York, NY 10003