Via Daily Dharma: The Pursuit of Happiness, Reframed

 

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The Pursuit of Happiness, Reframed It’s our nature to want happiness and not want suffering. Thus, Buddhists do not ask that one give up the pursuit of happiness, but merely suggest that one become more intelligent about how happiness is pursued. Jeffrey Hopkins, “Equality” CLICK HERE TO READ THE FULL ARTICLE

The Great In-Between Ruth Ozeki in Conversation with Duncan Ryuken Williams and Matthew Ichihashi Potts  A conversation at Harvard Divinity School about the liberatory power of in-between states, the role of storytelling in alleviating suffering, and the parallels.

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

 

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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 consciousness as it actually is, then one is attached to consciousness. 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 Continuing to cycle through all five aggregates, our text comes to focus on consciousness as a source of the craving that leads to suffering. The mind can take anything within its scope as an object of awareness, and you can bring mindfulness even to awareness itself. What does the experience of knowing actually feel like? Learn to regard the act of awareness itself even-mindedly, without getting caught or attached. Daily Practice Work at bringing a posture of equanimity to the experience of consciousness. Awareness itself is not attached; attachment arises alongside it, coloring the awareness with a trace of favoring some things and opposing others. Back away from these subtle forms of craving and see if you can simply be with the experience of knowing something in a balanced and even way, with an evenly hovering awareness. 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.

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

 

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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)   Full awareness: When flexing and extending limbs, wearing clothing, carrying food . . . one is just aware, just mindful: “There is a body.” And one abides not clinging to anything in the world. (MN 10)

Reflection Mindfulness of the body can be very precise and focused, as when we observe every microsensation of the inbreath and outbreath. It can also be broader and more open, taking in the full sweep of larger activities. The practice of full awareness, a term used together with mindfulness, involves an awareness that draws back, so to speak, to a slightly greater distance, allowing it to encompass the full scope of an activity. Daily Practice Practice being aware of your body in motion as it moves the limbs in dance or sport or physical work. Feel the continuity of such movements, and allow your mindfulness to encompass the motion as a whole. Now practice doing all this with full awareness, dialing up your focused attention so it becomes even more acute and precise. This is mindfulness in motion, without clinging. 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) One practices: “I shall breathe in contemplating impermanence”; one practices: “I shall breathe out contemplating impermanence.” This is how concentration by mindfulness of breathing is developed and cultivated  so that it is of great fruit and great benefit. (A 54.8) 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.

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Via Daily Dharma: Change Starts Small

 

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Change Starts Small Often, we think that we have to do something grandiose, but if we can’t be nonviolent to ourselves and to each other, then we’re not going to have a nonviolent world. Konda Mason, “Konda Mason on Compassionate Activism” CLICK HERE TO READ THE FULL ARTICLE

The Gift of Dharma By James Shaheen In his Letter from the Editor, Tricycle’s Editor-in-Chief, James Shaheen, expresses gratitude for contributor Clark Strand and the many others who have made the magazine what it is today.  Read more » I Leave Home Directed by Sunghwan Kim August’s film is available now! “I Leave Home,” directed by Sunghwan Kim is a heartwarming drama that follows a man yearning to become a Buddhist monk and the obstacles he is met with along the way. Watch now »