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.
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 all five arisen hindrances. (MN 141)
Reflection
Having worked
through all five hindrances one at a time, we now focus on treating
sense desire, ill will, restlessness, sluggishness, and doubt as a
group. These are the five kinds of mental states that obstruct the
ability of the mind to gather strength and become unified. Unhealthy
states breed more unhealthy states, and it is helpful to abandon, not
suppress or resist, them when you notice them arising in your
experience.
Daily Practice
Become familiar
with these unhealthy states and notice them at any point during your
day when they come up—which is bound to be often. Just notice them one
by one, recognize each as being not helpful, and let it go. That’s all.
Gently guide your mind away from states that obstruct the mind toward
states that are free of these obstacles. You will come to know your own
mind better, and the practice will become easier to do.
Tomorrow: Establishing Mindfulness of Feeling and the Second Jhāna One week from today: Developing Unarisen Healthy States
Share your thoughts and join the conversation on social media #DhammaWheel
I was chatting with a couple of fellow students afterwards over tea and they told me about the word bombu. “It means foolish being,” they said. “We are all bombu. And we are all forgiven by Amida Buddha.”
Satya Robyn, “Meeting Shame with Compassion: A Pure Land Antidote”
In
a personal reflection, Dr. Kamilah Majied celebrates the legacy of her
spiritual mentor, Dr. Daisaku Ikeda, and his impact on her life and
Buddhist practice.
BEA ARTHUR,
American actress, dies (b: 1922); A long time ally of the LGBT
community, Bea Arthur, was famous for her title role in the sitcom Maude and later for TheGoldenGirls and many Broadway appearances and film.
She was an early
opponent of Proposition 6 in California that would have forbidden Gay
people and their allies from being teachers. It was called The Briggs
Initiative after the state senator John Briggs who sponsored the ballot
initiative. When this writer approached Arthur to request that she
appear before the Morals and Ethics Committee of the Screen Actor’s
Guild. I asked her if she would help and the first thing she said was "I
will do anything you want me to do." As a result, the SAG union would
be among the first to speak out against the broadly discriminatory
proposition.
In November of
2005, Bea flew to New York City from her home in Los Angeles to give a
special benefit performance of her one-woman show. The performance
raised over $40,000 for the Ali Forney Center. In an interview for Next
Magazine Bea explained her decision to offer her support "I'm very, very
involved in charities involving youth and the plight of foster
children. But these kids at the Ali Forney Center are literally dumped
by their families because of the fact that they are lesbian, gay, or
transgender - this organization really is saving lives."
Bea continued to
offer her support, both as a donor and as an advocate. In one of her
very last interviews, published in the New York Blade in May 2008, Bea
spoke with pride of having done the benefit for AFC, and indicated that
she would do anything to help gay kids disowned by their parents.
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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
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.
