Via Dhamma Wheel | Right View: Understanding the Noble Truth of the Origin of Suffering

TRICYCLE      COURSE CATALOG      SUPPORT      DONATE

RIGHT VIEW Understanding the Noble Truth of the Origin of Suffering What is the origin of suffering? It is craving, which brings renewal of being, is accompanied by delight and lust, and delights in this and that—that is, craving for sensual pleasures, craving for being, and craving for non-being. (MN 9) When one does not know and see mental objects as they actually are, then one is attached to thoughts. When one is attached, one becomes infatuated, and one’s craving increases. One’s bodily and mental troubles increase, and one experiences bodily and mental suffering. (MN 149)

Reflection Of the six kinds of objects that make up our experience, mental objects are the most challenging to work with. The feeling tones that arise with sensory objects give rise to craving, as we delight in the pleasure and are averse to the pain, but thoughts come with the added challenge of rich content. We can’t help but get drawn into the story and entangled in the plot, at which point our mental troubles usually increase. Daily Practice Practice regarding the mental objects coursing through your mind as thoughts and thoughts only. See if you can focus on their arising and passing away as a series of events occurring in the mind, without getting drawn into the content of the thoughts. Never mind, in other words, what the thought is about, but regard it simply as a passing mental phenomenon to be treated much like the passing physical sensations of the body.  Tomorrow: Cultivating Compassion One week from today: Understanding the Noble Truth of the Cessation of Suffering  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. Donate »

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

Via Daily Dharma: What to Do with 24 Hours?

 

Support Tricycle with a donation »

What to Do with 24 Hours? Everyone is given twenty-four hours a day, but we all use it differently. Living a more awakened life depends on when and where we choose to practice. Are we going to squeeze practice into part of the day, or build the practice so it becomes our lives?  Rev. Grace Song, “Zen All Day” CLICK HERE TO READ THE FULL ARTICLE

Each Breath a Dance By Emily Wilson Artist Lee Mingwei on honoring the dead, moments of discord, and the small enlightenment of describing an apple.  Read more »

Via FB

 

Via White Crane Institute // JOHN MAYNARD KEYNES

 

Died

John Maynard Keynes

1946 -

JOHN MAYNARD KEYNES died on this date. Keynes was an English economist whose ideas fundamentally changed the theory and practice of modern macroeconomics and the economic policies of governments. He built on and greatly refined earlier work on the causes of business cycles, and is widely considered to be one of the most influential economists of the 20th century and the founder of modern macroeconomics. His ideas are the basis for the school of thought known as Keynsian economics and its various offshoots.

Keynes's early romantic and sexual relationships were exclusively with men. Keynes had been in relationships while at Eton and Cambridge; significant among these early partners were Dilly Knox and Daniel Macmillan. Keynes was open about his affairs, and from 1901 to 1915 kept separate diaries in which he tabulated his many sexual encounters. Keynes's relationship and later close friendship with Macmillan was to be fortunate, as Macmillan’s company first published his tract Economic Consequences of the Peace

Attitudes in the Bloomsbury Group, in which Keynes was avidly involved, were relaxed about homosexuality. Keynes, together with writer Lytton Strachey, had reshaped the Victorian attitudes of the Cambridge Apostles: "since [their] time, homosexual relations among the members were for a time common", wrote Bertrand Russell. The artist Duncan Grant, whom he met in 1908, was one of Keynes's great loves. Keynes was also involved with Lytton Strachey, Though they were for the most part love rivals, not lovers. Keynes had won the affections of Arthur Hobhouse, and as with Grant, fell out with a jealous Strachey for it. Strachey had previously found himself put off by Keynes, not least because of his manner of "treat[ing] his love affairs statistically".

Political opponents have used Keynes's sexuality to attack his academic work. One line of attack held that he was uninterested in the long term ramifications of his theories because he had no children.

Keynes's friends in the Bloomsbury Group were initially surprised when, in his later years, he began dating and pursuing affairs with women, demonstrating himself to be bisexual. Ray Costelloe (who would later marry Oliver Strachey) was an early heterosexual interest of Keynes. In 1906, Keynes had written of this infatuation that, "I seem to have fallen in love with Ray a little bit, but as she isn't male I haven't [been] able to think of any suitable steps to take."

|8|O|8|O|8|O|8|O|8|O|8|O|8|O|8|

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

|8|O|8|O|8|O|8|O|8|O|8|O|8|O|8|

 

Dhamma Wheel | Right Mindfulness and Concentration: Establishing Mindfulness of Body and the First Jhāna

 

TRICYCLE      COURSE CATALOG      SUPPORT      DONATE

RIGHT MINDFULNESS Establishing Mindfulness of Body 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 standing, one is aware: “I am standing”… One is just aware, just mindful, “there is body.” And one abides not clinging to anything in the world. (MN 10)

Reflection Mindfulness can be practiced in any position. Sitting and walking are the most familiar positions, but you can also practice standing or lying down. It is simply a matter of “establishing the presence of mindfulness” in the same way you do in sitting practice. Notice the same emphasis on being just aware, just mindful of the bodily sensations without mental elaboration. Can you stand to practice without clinging to anything in the world? Daily Practice When you find yourself having to stand in place for any length of time, such as waiting in line or watching an event, take the opportunity to practice mindfulness. Turn your attention inward, to the flow of your direct experience, and notice, for example, all the micro-adjustments made by your body to maintain balance. This in itself can become a compelling practice, as you notice how much is going on that you normally overlook. RIGHT CONCENTRATION Approaching and Abiding in the First Phase of Absorption (1st Jhāna) Having abandoned the five hindrances, imperfections of the mind that weaken wisdom, quite secluded from sensual pleasures, secluded from unwholesome states, one enters and abides in the first phase of absorption, which is accompanied by applied thought and sustained thought, with joy and the pleasure born of seclusion. (MN 4) Reflection Absorption practice begins by finding the sweet spot in the center of the mind, the place where there is neither too much energy (restlessness) nor too little (sluggishness), neither wanting (sense desire) nor non-wanting (ill will) something or anything. When these hindrances, along with doubt, are abandoned temporarily, the mind naturally settles down into a state of tranquil alertness and equanimity. Daily Practice Sit quietly and comfortably in a peaceful place and allow everything swirling around in your mind and body to gradually settle down. Like dust settling in the air or particulates settling in water, there is nothing to force or make happen. Patience will be rewarded by the experience of deeper and deeper modes of peacefulness, clarity, and stability of mind. Don’t try to measure anything; just let it all be what it is. Tomorrow: Understanding the Noble Truth of the Origin of Suffering One week from today: Establishing Mindfulness of Feeling and Abiding in the Second Jhāna 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. Donate »

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

Via Daily Dharma: Forgiveness and Compassion

 

Support Tricycle with a donation »

Forgiveness and Compassion If you’re not ready to forgive the person who’s harmed you, then don’t go there, but have compassion for those you have harmed. Ven. Robina Courtin, “Purification Is a Psychological Process” CLICK HERE TO READ THE FULL ARTICLE

What We’re Listening To By Frederick M. Ranallo-Higgins and Wendy Biddlecombe Agsar Here are a few of our favorite podcasts that no Buddhist listener should miss. Read more » Dhamma Wheel 365 Days of Practice to Your Inbox Commit to a year of contemplative study with Tricycle’s first-ever daily email course, created by Buddhist scholar Andrew Olendzki.  Enroll now »

Via Ram Dass - Love Serve Remember Foundation // Words of Wisdom - April 21, 2024 💌

 

When you go out into the woods, and you look at trees, you see all these different trees. And some of them are bent, and some of them are straight, and some of them are evergreens, and some of them are whatever. And you look at the tree and you allow it. You see why it is the way it is. You sort of understand that it didn’t get enough light, and so it turned that way. And you don’t get all emotional about it. You just allow it. You appreciate the tree.

The minute you get near humans, you lose all that. And you are constantly saying ‘You are too this, or I’m too this.’ That judgment mind comes in. And so I practice turning people into trees. Which means appreciating them just the way they are.

- Ram Dass -

Rise of the queer power couple: New book offers intimate glimpse into 14 extraordinary love stories - LGBTQ Nation