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 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 cognized by you, in the
cognized there will be just the cognized.“ When, firmly mindful, one
cognizes a mental object, one is not inflamed by lust for mental
objects; one experiences it with a dispassionate mind and does not
remain holding it tightly. (SN 35.95)
Reflection
Five of our
sense doors open onto the world, while the sixth, the mind door, opens
inwardly to draw on sensory experience and mental objects such as
memories, imagination, and thoughts. The mental objects are cognized, or
known to us, one after another in a stream of consciousness. Here we
are encouraged to encounter our thoughts without elaboration, as
phenomena arising and passing away.
Daily Practice
See if you can
regard your mental activity—the thoughts and images and words passing
through the mind—with equanimity. That is, observe them closely but
without becoming entangled in their content and without favoring some
and opposing others. Thoughts are merely objects that, like sights and
sounds and physical sensations, come and go based on various conditions.
See if you can abide without “holding them tightly.”
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
Equanimity
is said to be an anchor. It protects you against the “worldly
winds”—pleasure and pain, praise and blame, gain and loss, and fame and
disrepute—by keeping you anchored so you’re not tossed about by those
winds.
Don’t
worry about whether your practice is working, don’t judge your
performance, don’t tell yourself stories or find other ways to avoid
this very moment. These are just ways of separating from our deepest
intention and our zazen. When you do zazen, just do zazen. That’s
enough.
Working With the Five Hindrances: Sloth and Torpor By Vanessa Zuisei Goddard
Tips
for working with the third hindrance described by the Buddha as sloth
and torpor, experienced as sleepiness, disinterest, or a general feeling
of malaise.
However the seed is
planted, in that way the fruit is gathered. Good things come from doing
good deeds; bad things come from doing bad deeds. (SN 11.10) What is the
purpose of a mirror? For the purpose of reflection. So too verbal
action is to be done with repeated reflection. (MN 61)
When you have done an action with speech, reflect upon that same verbal
action thus: “Has this action I have done with speech led to the
affliction of another?” If, upon reflection, you know that it has, then
tell someone you trust about it and undertake a commitment not to do it
again. If you know it has not, then be content and feel happy about it.
(MN 61)
Reflection
Let’s not
overlook the last line of this passage. If you reflect upon what you
have said to people in the past and on review you realize you have not
said anything harmful, you should feel happy about that. Feeling happy
and content about your own behavior is not only allowable but
encouraged. Positive feedback is as valuable as criticism, and
acknowledging your own self-worth is healthy. We forget this sometimes.
Daily Practice
Confide in a
friend some instance in which you have spoken badly in the past and give
that misdeed a chance to come into the open and be encountered with
awareness. Perhaps you told a lie or spread a rumor or otherwise said
something that caused harm. By revealing this openly you are able to
acknowledge that it was wrong, that you know better now, and that you
undertake a commitment to not do it again.
Tomorrow: Abstaining from Taking What is Not Given One week from today: Reflecting upon Mental Action
Share your thoughts and join the conversation on social media #DhammaWheel
Monthly Online Community Practice with Lama Rod + Sanah Ahsan
Thursday May 2nd, 6pm - 7pm UK Time (1pm EST, 10am PST)
Join us for this very special gathering at May's Free Radicals!
This
month we invite you to join Daniel and Lama Rod as they are joined by
special guest and very good friend, Dr Sanah Ahsan as they celebrate the
release of their books and explore shared themes which run throughout
their writing and spiritual practices.
There will of course be music
and time for practice and Q&A, which are the pillars of our Free
Radicals gathering each month.