Via Dhamma Wheel | Right Intention: Cultivating Lovingkindness

 

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RIGHT INTENTION Cultivating Lovingkindness Whatever you intend, whatever you plan, and whatever you have a tendency toward, that will become the basis on which your mind is established. (SN 12.40) Develop meditation on lovingkindness, for when you develop meditation on lovingkindness, all ill will will be abandoned. (MN 62)  The proximate cause of lovingkindness is seeing the lovable qualities of beings. (Vm 9.93)

Reflection We can all practice being kinder to one another. If we are able to make lovingkindness the basis upon which our mind is established, then we will all become kinder. The principle is so simple: the emotions we feed and nurture will grow stronger, and their opposites will starve and eventually die off. The immediate benefit of such practice is not only the growth of kindness but also the withering of hate and ill will. Daily Practice The way to develop lovingkindness is to bring to mind the lovable qualities of others. Try looking at a puppy or a kitten. Don’t you just love it? It has many lovable qualities. All the people you know also have such qualities; you just have to look for them and call them to mind. Practice seeing how often you can find something lovable in another person, even someone you might not like that much. Cultivate lovingkindness. Tomorrow: Refraining from False Speech One week from today: Cultivating Compassion 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: Relationships Start with Self-Love

 

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Relationships Start with Self-Love If you love yourself, you will never enjoy making yourself angry. If you love yourself, you will have the opportunity to love others. And if you love others, you will never try to hurt those people with rude and angry words.  Ven. Mahindasiri Thero, “How to Deal with Toxic People” CLICK HERE TO READ THE ARTICLE

Poet of Blissful Awareness Interview with Roger R. Jackson by James Shaheen Get to know the 10th-century poet-yogin Saraha. Read more » 2025 Tricycle Film Festival March 14–27, 2025 The 2025 Tricycle Film Festival is available online, now through March 27, 2025! If you don’t yet have a ticket, get yours today to gain access to 10 Buddhist films (5 feature-length, 5 short films) that you can watch online as many times as you want for the duration of the festival.  Get your ticket »

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

 

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RIGHT VIEW Understanding the Noble Truth of Suffering When people have met with suffering and become victims of suffering, they come to me and ask me about the noble truth of suffering. Being asked, I explain to them the noble truth of suffering. (MN 77) What is suffering? (MN 9) Sorrow and lamentation are suffering: the sorrow, sorrowing, sorrowfulness, inner sorrow, inner sorriness of one who has encountered some misfortune or is affected by some painful state. (MN 9)

Reflection The first noble truth, the truth of suffering, is described in some detail in these texts. Here the experience of loss and sorrow is highlighted. Elsewhere we might be able to make a distinction between sorrow as a form of mental pain and suffering as a state of emotional affliction, but here we are simply directed to the universal human experience of the pain of loss or misfortune. It hurts a lot to lose someone you love.  Daily Practice The truth of suffering is not meant to encourage us to wallow in our afflictions, but it does not let us try to escape them through some kind of denial. The first noble truth is a starting point. Only when the suffering is acknowledged can the healing begin. Look at some aspect of your own suffering with courage and without fear and decide that you can and will undertake a path to heal the pain by understanding it and letting it go. Tomorrow: Cultivating Lovingkindness One week from today: Understanding the Noble Truth of the Origin 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 Daily Dharma: Fix Your Heart

 

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Fix Your Heart Be neither glad nor regretful when sadness and gloom appear within the heart. Look on them as mental conditions that must be investigated, as things that arise, cease, and come out from the heart. They depend on the heart for their birth and then latch on to it. Ajaan Mahā Boowa Ñãṇasampanno, translated by Ajaan Suchart Abhijāto, “Mãgha Pūjã” CLICK HERE TO READ THE ARTICLE

Replanting the Garden By Hokyu JL Aronson A young monastic tends to his dying elder. Read more »

Via Dhamma Wheel | Right Effort: Maintaining Arisen Healthy States

 

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RIGHT EFFORT Maintaining Arisen Healthy States Whatever a person frequently thinks about and ponders, that will become the inclination of their mind. If one frequently thinks about and ponders healthy states, one has abandoned unhealthy states to cultivate healthy states, and then one’s mind inclines to healthy states. (MN 19) Here a person rouses the will, makes an effort, stirs up energy, exerts the mind, and strives to maintain arisen healthy mental states. One maintains the arisen joy-awakening factor. (MN 141)

Reflection Last week we looked at abandoning unhealthy states that have arisen in the mind, and this week we are doing the opposite: practicing to maintain the good states of mind that have come up. If we are feeling generous or kind, or are being truthful, that is a good thing and should be supported. The word translated here as “maintain” also has the sense of guarding or protecting healthy emotions and healthy thoughts. Daily Practice All kinds of positive states arise and pass away naturally in the mind. The practice here is to notice that and to support, reinforce, and sustain positive states. If you say something nice to someone, say it again or say it to another person. If you give something to someone in an act of generosity, acknowledge that giving to others is good for you and look for opportunities to give again and again in different ways. Tomorrow: Establishing Mindfulness of Mental Objects and Abiding in the Fourth Jhāna One week from today: Restraining Unarisen Unhealthy States Share your thoughts and join the conversation on social media #DhammaWheel Questions? Visit the Dhamma Wheel orientation page.

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