Monday, September 16, 2024

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

 

RIGHT VIEW
Understanding the Noble Truth of the Cessation of Suffering
What is the cessation of suffering? It is the remainderless fading away and ceasing, the giving up, relinquishing, letting go, and rejecting of craving. (MN 9)

When one knows and sees formations as they actually are, then one is not attached to formations. When one abides unattached, one is not infatuated, and one’s craving is abandoned. One’s bodily and mental troubles are abandoned, and one experiences bodily and mental well-being. (MN 149)
Reflection
The aggregate of formations includes all our habitual volitional and emotional responses to whatever information the senses are presenting to consciousness. This is where we love or hate what is happening, where we yearn for something different or accept peacefully what occurs. This is where suffering either is born or dies, depending on whether we respond in the moment with craving or with mindful equanimity.

Daily Practice
Suffering is not built into any given situation but is optional. Stress is not caused by external stressors but is an internal reaction to circumstances. See if you can bring the profound wisdom of this insight into your lived experience by bringing the cessation of suffering to every moment. Find what it is that you are yearning for, turn that craving into mindful observation, and watch the suffering attached to that moment disappear.

Tomorrow: Cultivating Appreciative Joy
One week from today: Understanding the Noble Truth of the Way to the Cessation of Suffering


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Via Daily Dharma: Befriending Pain

 

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Befriending Pain

While pain can be distracting, alienating, and upsetting, it can also be a powerful way to practice being present with what is—without stories or expectations. 

Annalisa Rakugo Castaldo, “The Noble Truth of Pain”


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The Wall
By Douglas Penick
Author Douglas Penick explores what remains when the mind goes.
Read more »

Sunday, September 15, 2024

Via NPR // A theologian’s work was used to exclude LGBTQ people from church. In a new book, he and his son argue the exact opposite.


 

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Via Dhamma Wheel | Right Mindfulness and Concentration: Establishing Mindfulness of Feeling and Abiding in the Second Jhāna

 


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RIGHT MINDFULNESS
Establishing Mindfulness of Feeling
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 feeling a common painful feeling, one is aware: “Feeling a common painful feeling.” When feeling an uncommon painful feeling, one is aware: “Feeling an uncommon painful feeling”. . . One is just aware, just mindful: “There is feeling.” And one abides not clinging to anything in the world. (MN 10)
Reflection
Common feelings are those that come with ordinary experience, while uncommon feelings are connected with more subtle psychological and meditative experience. Remember, feelings in this context are not what we commonly think of as emotions; rather feelings refer to physical and mental sensations of pleasure and pain. Here we are directed to take note of the painful sensations with the equanimity of mindfulness.

Daily Practice
Pay close attention to what it feels like when something is painful, both physically and mentally, as a way of practicing the second foundation of mindfulness. This means you are not resenting or resisting the pain but merely taking an interest in it and investigating its nuances with a balanced mind. Pain need not be seen as “bad,” but rather can be explored as a different texture on the continuum of lived experience. 


RIGHT CONCENTRATION
Approaching and Abiding in the Second Phase of Absorption (2nd Jhāna)
With the stilling of applied and sustained thought, one enters upon and abides in the second phase of absorption, which has inner clarity and singleness of mind, without applied thought and sustained thought but with joy and the pleasure born of concentration. (MN 4)

Tomorrow: Understanding the Noble Truth of the Cessation of Suffering
One week from today: Establishing Mindfulness of Mind and Abiding in the Third 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: Start with Truth

 

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Start with Truth

We think we know our own life, but what we know is only an edited version, colored by our emotions and narrow vision. How close can we come to the original draft? By staring at truth, the soil is warmed, and we begin digging toward the sky.

Gregg Krech, “Naikan Therapy”


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Via White Crane Institute // Ann Weldy, better known by her pen name ANN BANNON

 


Author Ann Bannon
1932 -

Ann Weldy, better known by her pen name ANN BANNON, born on this date, is an American author who, from 1957 to 1962, wrote six lesbian pulp fiction  novels known as The Beebo Brinker Chronicles. The books' enduring popularity and impact on lesbian identity has earned her the title "Queen of Lesbian Pulp Fiction". Bannon was a young housewife trying to address her own issues of sexuality when she was inspired to write her first novel. Her subsequent books featured four characters who reappeared throughout the series, including her eponymous heroine, Beebo Brinker, who came to embody the archetype of a butch lesbian. The majority of her characters mirrored people she knew, but their stories reflected a life she did not feel she was able to live. Despite her traditional upbringing and role in married life, her novels defied conventions for romance stories and depictions of lesbians by addressing complex homosexual relationships.

Her books shaped lesbian identity for lesbians and heterosexuals alike, but Bannon was mostly unaware of their impact. She stopped writing in 1962. Later, she earned a doctorate in linguistics and became an academic. She endured a difficult marriage for 27 years and, as she separated from her husband in the 1980s, her books were republished; she was stunned to learn of their influence on society. They were released again between 2001 and 2003 and were adapted as an award-winning Off-Broadway production at the New York Theater Workshop. They are taught in Women's and LGBT studies courses, and Bannon has received numerous awards for pioneering lesbian and gay literature. She has been described as "the premier fictional representation of US lesbian life in the fifties and sixties", and it has been said that her books "rest on the bookshelf of nearly every even faintly literate Lesbian"

Ann Bannon retired from teaching and college administration at California State University, Sacramento, in 1997, but tours the country visiting paperback-collecting conventions and speaking at colleges and universities about her writings and experiences. She was a guest of National Public Radio's Peabody Award-winning talk show "Fresh Air" with Terry Gross, and has also been featured in Gross's book, All I Did Was Ask, a collection of transcripts from the show. Bannon also speaks at gay-themed events around the country and is working on her memoirs.

In a recent editorial written by Bannon in Curve, she discussed how her books survived despite criticisms by censors, Victorian moralists, and purveyors of literary "snobbery" in writing, "To the persistent surprise of many of us, and of the critics who found us such an easy target years ago, the books by, of and for women found a life of their own. They—and we—may still not be regarded as conventionally acceptable 'nice' literature, as it were—but I have come to value that historical judgment. We wrote the stories no one else could tell. And in so doing, we captured a slice of life in a particular time and place that still resonates for members of our community.

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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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Via Ram Dass - Love Serve Remember Foundation // Words of Wisdom - September 15, 2024 💌

 

"Death is our greatest challenge as well as our greatest spiritual opportunity. By cultivating mindfulness, we can prepare ourselves for this final passage by allowing nature, rather than Ego, to guide us." 

- Ram DAss -