Sunday, November 10, 2024

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

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)

Reflection

Feeling tones are always present, but we tend to notice only the really strong ones. In between the obvious pleasures and pains of the body, and the more dramatic pleasant and unpleasant mental states, is a midrange of sensation. As pleasure and pain become increasingly subtle, they gradually merge into a neutral state in which a sensation is neither pleasant nor painful. See if you can notice this in your own experience.

Daily Practice

Learn to become more sensitive to the feeling tones arising and passing away in your mind and body by deliberately becoming aware of them. Notice when sensations in your body hurt and when they feel good; notice also how it feels good to think about some things and painful to think about others. A great deal of our experience is neutral, however. There is still a feeling tone, but it is neither pleasant nor painful.

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, 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

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Via Ram Dass - Love Serve Remember Foundation // Words of Wisdom - November 10, 2024 💌

From the soul’s point of view, you get to appreciate that each person is just living out their dharma. Then they are interacting and those interactions are the grist for each other’s mills of awakening. From a soul’s point of view you develop appreciation, from the personality’s point of view you develop judgment.

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

Via Shambhala // EXPLORE THE BODHISATTVA VOW

EXPLORE THE BODHISATTVA VOW

Being a Bodhisattva

We invite you to join Judith Simmer-Brown for Being a Bodhisattva: Exploring the Bodhisattva Vow beginning Saturday, November 30. This three-session course explores the moment in a person’s life when they decide to go one step further than “being Buddhist”—and make a profound commitment to put all others before themselves. It is open to all who are interested in the Bodhisattva vow, or to anyone who would like to reconnect with their original inspiration for taking this vow.

NOV 30, DEC 7 & 14

Saturdays from 1-3pm EST

SHAMBHALA ONLINE

Live with Judith Simmer-Brown

$149 REGISTRATION

Prerequisite: This offering is open to anyone with an interest in exploring the Bodhisattva Vow.

Do you…

Do you wonder if this is the right moment for you to take the Bodhisattva Vow?
Are you interested in learning more about what it means to take the Bodhisattva Vow?
Do you want to learn more or reconnect with your original inspiration for taking this vow?

SESSION BREAKDOWN

Session 1

What is the Bodhisattva vow?

Session 2

A personal exploration of why one would consider taking this vow – or has already taken this vow

Session 3

An exploration of the the paramitas (generosity, discipline, patience, etc…), a key aspect of the Bodhisattva vow

“

Planting such a seed as the bodhisattva vow undermines ego and leads to a tremendous expansion of perspective. Such heroism, or bigness of mind, fills all of space completely, utterly, absolutely. Within such a vast perspective, nothing is claustrophobic and nothing is intimidating. There is only the vast idea of unceasingly helping all sentient beings, as limitless as space, along the path to enlightenment.