Monday, October 7, 2024

Via Rob Herring - Earth Conscious Life //

MONDAY MOTIVATION

 

David Suzuki (Credit: Ben Nelms/CBC)

🌍 BE THE CHANGE: David Suzuki is a prominent environmentalist and science communicator. He is of Japanese-Canadian descent and has been a leading voice in environmental advocacy for decades. He hosted the Canadian television series The Nature of Things for an impressive 40+ years. Suzuki has made significant contributions to raising awareness about our human health connection to ecosystems, biodiversity loss, and solutions for more sustainable practices. His work has had a profound impact on environmental policy and public opinion. Here’s a great clip from David about how we are Nature.

 

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 the five aggregates as they actually are, then one is attached to the five aggregates. 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
Previous passages have focused on each of the aggregates in turn: material form, feeling, perception, volitional formations, and consciousness. Here we are invited to look at them as a whole and notice the way they can all act as the place in our experience where attachment that leads to suffering is born and develops. When we understand the aggregates as the fleeting processes they are, non-attachment is easier. 
Daily Practice
Use the three-part analysis of craving as a practical tool. Notice when you have a craving for sensual pleasures, for the things that you like to persist or increase. Notice too when you have a craving for being, wishing for something gratifying to happen. And notice when you have a craving for non-being: that is, when you want something to go away that you do not like or want. These are the textures of craving; practice being aware of them as they occur.
Tomorrow: Cultivating Compassion
One week from today: Understanding the Noble Truth of the Cessation of Suffering


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 Visit the Dhamma Wheel orientation page.
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Via Daily Dharma: The Merit of Love

 

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The Merit of Love

To love is the most meritorious action.

Karma Trinlay Rinpoche, “What We’ve Been All Along”


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Stories of Tibet
By Tenzin D. Tsagong
A collection of fiction from the innovative Tibetan filmmaker Pema Tseden.
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Sunday, October 6, 2024

Via Ram Dass - Love Serve Remember Foundation \\ Words of Wisdom - October 6, 2024 💌

 

"One day I was sitting in a motel in middle America, and it was one of those really plastic Holiday Inn type places, and I had arrived and I went into my room and I sat down and set up my little puja table and you know, all that stuff. Moving the menu and stuff, and it was kind of depressing, and I thought, 'Well, a few more weeks and I'll be done with this tour and I can go home.' And then I saw the pain that that thought was creating for me.

So I got up and I walked out of the room, closed the door, walked down the hall, turned around, came back, unlocked the door and yelled, 'I’m home!' And I came in and I sat down, and I looked and, you know, I wouldn’t have decorated particularly this way, but what the hell, you know? I thought, if I’m not at home in the universe, boy, I got a problem. If I say, 'I can only be home here, not there.'

What is home? Home is where the heart is. Home is the quality of presence. It’s the quality of being wherever you are. "

- Ram Dass

 

>> Want to dive deeper with Ram Dass? Click Here to Receive a Daily Wisdom Text from Ram Dass & Friends.

Via Dhamma Wheel | Right Mindfulness and Concentration: Establishing Mindfulness of Body and Abiding in 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 walking, standing, sitting, falling asleep, waking up, talking, and keeping silent . . . one is just aware, just mindful: “There is body.” And one abides not clinging to anything in the world. (MN 10)
Reflection
Mindfulness of the body can take place at any time and with any activity. We practice it formally seated on a meditation cushion to become familiar with a certain range of sensations, and then we can extend it to other areas of daily life. Acting with full awareness is particularly well suited to ordinary activities requiring a sense of continuity over time, such as walking or dressing yourself. Full awareness is mindfulness in motion.

Daily Practice
All skills are gradually learned by practicing them again and again. When sitting still we tend to focus on the bodily sensations associated with the breath; when walking mindfully we notice the sensations of the rhythmic moving of certain muscles. See if you can extend the scope of these practices by becoming aware of the sensations of other bodily motions, such as those associated with taking a sip of tea, for example. 


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)

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: Faith Is the True Self

 

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Faith Is the True Self

Faith is the ultimate subject, the true self. Therefore, when we distance ourselves from the one moment of faith, we are already far from the Tathagata, away from the self, and are living in a sky of illusory dreams.

Soga Ryōjin, “A Savior on Earth”


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The Ghost of Basho
By Clark Strand
This winning poem from the Tricycle Haiku Challenge explores the essential paradox of poetry.
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Gay Buddhist San Francisco