Via Daily Dharma: Your Mother in a Former Life

 

Love Daily Dharma? Share it with friends! For 10 years, Daily Dharma has been one of our most beloved offerings. Each day, 80,000 readers get a daily dose of wisdom from leading Buddhist teachers and writers. We've heard from many of you over the years how much this offering means to you. Now it's time to share the wisdom! For a limited time, when you refer 3 friends to the Daily Dharma newsletter you'll receive a special gift: a brand-new Daily Dharma e-book that includes 30 free teachings from our most popular quotes. That's 30 full articles—for free. Refer your friends to Daily Dharma » Already joined the referral campaign? Access your share link and check on your referrals here.

Your Mother in a Former Life All beings have been your mother in a former life. This is the concept my teacher presented to his class of Western students. Holding this idea in our minds, he told us, would help us to generate a sense of connectedness and all-encompassing compassion. Kate Brandt, “When the World Is Perfect” CLICK HERE TO READ THE ARTICLE

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Via Daily Dharma: Be an Empty Vessel

 

Love Daily Dharma? Share it with friends! For 10 years, Daily Dharma has been one of our most beloved offerings. Each day, 80,000 readers get a daily dose of wisdom from leading Buddhist teachers and writers. We've heard from many of you over the years how much this offering means to you. Now it's time to share the wisdom! For a limited time, when you refer 3 friends to the Daily Dharma newsletter you'll receive a special gift: a brand-new Daily Dharma e-book that includes 30 free teachings from our most popular quotes. That's 30 full articles—for free. Refer your friends to Daily Dharma » Already joined the referral campaign? Access your share link and check on your referrals here.

Be an Empty Vessel An empty vessel refuses nothing and receives everything that is coming at it from all directions. By practicing in this way, you can create more space to accommodate your own reactivity and the points of view of others. Wendy Egyoku Nakao Roshi, “Hold to the Center!” CLICK HERE TO READ THE ARTICLE

The Practice of Council Philip Ryan in conversation with Jared Seide Learn about the founder and executive director of the nonprofit Beyond Us & Them. 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 equanimity awakening factor. (MN 141)

Reflection When you consistently cultivate healthy mental and emotional states your mind and heart become increasingly healthy. You do this partly by abandoning the states that are not healthy as they come up and partly by protecting and maintaining the healthy states that arise. When you feel generous, be more generous. When you are kind, become even kinder. When you care for someone, protect that caring intention. Daily Practice Equanimity is the culminating factor of the seven factors of awakening, the state to which the development of all the others leads. Whenever you notice you are highly attentive to something but are not caught in attaching to it if it's pleasurable or resisting it if it's painful, you have discovered a moment of equanimity. Feel what that is like and try to maintain that state in the ensuing mind moments.  Tomorrow: Establishing Mindfulness of Mental Objects and 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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Via Dhamma Wheel | Right Living: Abstaining from Intoxication

 

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RIGHT LIVING Undertaking the Commitment to Abstain from Intoxication Intoxication is unhealthy. Refraining from intoxication is healthy. (MN 9) What are the imperfections that defile the mind? Negligence is an imperfection that defiles the mind. Knowing that negligence is an imperfection that defiles the mind, a person abandons it. (MN 7) One practices thus: “Others may become negligent by intoxication, but I will abstain from the negligence of intoxication.” (MN 8) One of the dangers attached to addiction to intoxicants is weakening of the intellect. (DN 31)

Reflection Right living means understanding the things that cause us harm and directing our lives away from these things toward those that bring out our best and contribute to our well-being. Just as certain foods strengthen the body and others weaken it, so too certain things strengthen the mind and others weaken it. Negligence, for example, weakens the mind, while its opposite, diligence, strengthens it. Understanding this is important. Daily Practice See if you can identify the toxins in your life that weaken the mind, and then work toward reducing their influence. Many things can be toxic and intoxicating, including substances, activities, relationships, views, and emotional habits. Take an honest inventory of what you intuitively know to be harmful and helpful, and take steps to abandon the things that are toxic and cultivate those that are wholesome. Tomorrow: Maintaining Arisen Healthy States One week from today: Abstaining from Harming Living Beings 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: Effort and Honesty

 

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Effort and Honesty To meditate effectively, all we need to put forward is our effort in following our immediate experience, and our honesty in acknowledging it. Winton Higgins, “Ask Whether It Works, Not Whether It’s True” CLICK HERE TO READ THE ARTICLE

Animistic and Shamanic Elements of Asian Buddhism By Kritee Kanko, PhD Should convert Buddhists in the West reclaim these ancestral elements? Read more »