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.
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)
Mindful, one breathes in; mindful, one breathes out. . . . One is
just aware, just mindful: "There is body." And one abides not clinging
to anything in the world. (MN 10)
Reflection
The path factor
of right mindfulness will be explored by going carefully through the
meditation instructions found in the classic text Satipatthāna Sutta, or Establishment of Mindfulness Discourse.
The first thing we notice about it in this introductory section is how
deliberate and intentional the practice is: one goes to a quiet place,
sits down, and engages deliberately in the establishment of mindfulness.
Daily Practice
Mindfulness of
the body begins with breathing. Take some time to sit quietly and just
breathe in and out. Breathing mindfully simply means bringing full
awareness to the various micro-sensations that accompany every in-breath
and out-breath. As the refrain prompts us, see if you can attend to
these sensations directly, without thinking about them and without
clinging in any way by favoring or opposing any sensation.
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)
Reflection
Since there are
seven days in the week and eight path factors, we dedicate Sundays to
practicing both kinds of meditation: mindfulness and concentration.
Concentration practice involves focusing the mind on a single object,
such as the breath, and returning attention to this focal point whenever
it wanders off, which it will do often. All forms of meditation involve
some level of concentration, so it is a good thing to practice.
Daily Practice
Formal concentration practice, involving absorption (Pali: jhāna)
in four defined stages, requires more time and sustained effort than
occasional practice generally allows and would benefit from careful
instruction by a qualified teacher. You may begin on your own, however,
simply by practicing to abandon the five hindrances, since jhāna
practice only really begins when they temporarily cease to arise.
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
WORLD AIDS DAY:
dedicated to raising awareness of the AIDS pandemic caused by the
spread of HIV infection. AIDS has killed more than 25 million people,
with an estimated 38.6 million people living with HIV, making it one of
the most destructive epidemics in recorded history. Despite recent,
improved access to antiretroviral treatment and care in many regions of
the world, the AIDS epidemic claimed an estimated 3.1 million (between
2.8 and 3.6 million) lives in 2005 of which, more than half a million
(570,000) were children.
The concept of a
World AIDS Day originated at the 1988 World Summit of Ministers of
Health on Programs for AIDS Prevention. Since then, it has been taken up
by governments, international organizations and charities around the
world.
From its
inception until 2004, UNAIDS spearheaded the World AIDS Day campaign,
choosing annual themes in consultation with other global health
organizations. In 2005 this responsibility was turned over to World AIDS
Campaign (WAC), who chose Stop AIDS: Keep the Promise
as the main theme for World AIDS Day observances through 2010, with
more specific sub-taglines chosen annually. This theme is not specific
to World AIDS Day, but is used year-round in WAC's efforts to highlight
HIV/AIDS awareness within the context of other major global events
including the G* Summit. World AIDS Campaign also conducts “in-country”
campaigns throughout the world, like the Student Stop AIDS Campaign, an infection-awareness campaign targeting young people throughout the UK.
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Most
of us try to avoid the sense that death can come at any time, but its
timing is unknown to us. Can we live each day as if it were our last?
Can we relate to one another as if there were no tomorrow?
RIGHT EFFORT Restraining Unarisen Unhealthy States
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 toward unhealthy states. (MN 19)
Here a person rouses the will, makes an effort, stirs up energy, exerts
the mind, and strives to restrain the arising of unarisen unhealthy
mental states. One restrains the arising of the unarisen hindrance of
sense desire. (MN 141)
Reflection
One of the most
fundamental ideas of early Buddhism is the distinction between healthy
and unhealthy states. These terms are not meant to suggest that these
states are good and bad or right and wrong: sometimes they are
translated as wholesome and unwholesome or skillful and unskillful. The
issue is whether or not the state leads away from suffering, and whether
or not it leads toward wisdom. Seeing this distinction clearly is
important.
Daily Practice
A simple list
of unhealthy states includes the five hindrances, which we will walk
through one at a time. These are mental and emotional states that are
unhelpful to the process of seeing things clearly; they may be either
"arisen"—in present experience—or "unarisen," meaning latent. Here the
practice is to prevent the conditions for the arising of the unhealthy
state of sense desire by taking care not to indulge in sensual objects.
Tomorrow: Establishing Mindfulness of Body and Abiding in the First Jhāna One week from today: Abandoning Arisen Unhealthy States
Share your thoughts and join the conversation on social media #DhammaWheel
The act of giving thanks shouldn’t be relegated to one day of the year, and in Buddhist practice, it isn’t. Gratitude, or appreciation, can be a starting point for practice, wherein we recognize our unique and fortunate position in the world, and endeavor to spend our time wisely—by meditating and living ethically.
Shin Buddhism goes even further, making gratitude the very orientation of practice. The nembutsu, the central Shin practice of reciting the Buddha’s name, is not a plea but an expression of gratitude. As Shin Buddhist minister Rev. Dr. Kenji Akahoshi says, where many people associate the word prayer with the word please, the nembutsu is a thank you. Rev. Akahoshi describes gratitude as a gate or threshold to spiritual life that opens up the perception that our lives are already supported with compassion and wisdom—we just have to recognize it.
In Shin Buddhism as in other traditions, gratitude doesn’t negate or diminish suffering—grief or pain. We can express and embody gratitude while simultaneously acknowledging the real existence of suffering. They’re both motivators for practice.
This week’s Three Teachings offers three perspectives on gratitude and how to think about it every day.
In a brief teaching, H.E. 12th Zurmang Gharwang Rinpoche, head of the Zurmang Kagyu School of Tibetan Buddhism, calls attention to how gratitude is a fundamental motivator for practice.
Meditation teacher Oren Jay Sofer explains that making space for all of our feelings is essential for finding a wise response to a complex world. “We need both the immense beauty and gratitude for blessings in life to keep us afloat, and the deep sadness and grief to urge us to action.
