Revoked

Sunday, June 1, 2025

Via Dhamma Wheel | Right Mindfulness and Concentration: Establishing Mindfulness of Mind and the Third Jhāna

RIGHT MINDFULNESS
Establishing Mindfulness of Mind

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)

When the mind is not uplifted, one is aware: “The mind is not uplifted.”. . . One is just aware, just mindful: “There is mind. “And one abides not clinging to anything in the world. (MN 10)

Reflection

The word uplifted in the original text carries a sense of both greater and loftier. Applying that to mind states, we might think of some states as more open or spacious than others, because they are more expanded in scope, encompassing a wider view. Or we might think of some states as more ethically refined than others; kindness, for example, is more “uplifted” than selfishness.

Daily Practice

As you sit in meditation and observe mental states arise and pass away in your consciousness, notice their quality. Notice in particular when your mind feels contracted; see what that feels like exactly. Notice also when the mental states that are present are ignoble or less than uplifted. You are just noticing, not judging. Abide mindful and fully aware of these states, "not clinging to anything."

RIGHT CONCENTRATION
Approaching and Abiding in the Third Phase of Absorption (3rd Jhāna)

With the fading away of joy, one abides in equanimity. Mindful and fully aware, still feeling pleasure with the body, one enters upon and abides in the third phase of absorption, on account of which noble ones announce: "One has a pleasant abiding who has equanimity and is mindful." (MN 4)

One practices: "I shall breathe in experiencing the whole body"; one practices: "I shall breathe out experiencing the whole body." This is how concentration by mindfulness of breathing is developed and cultivated so that it is of great fruit and great benefit. (SN 54.8)

Tomorrow: Understanding the Noble Truth of the Way to the Cessation of Suffering
One week from today: Establishing Mindfulness of Mental Objects and Abiding in the Fourth Jhāna

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Via Daily Dharma: The Illusion of Control

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The Illusion of Control

The Buddha realized that old age, sickness, and death are not problems in themselves. It is the mind that makes them problems—by believing they shouldn’t happen, by insisting on figuring them out, resisting, controlling.

Matthias Esho Birk, “To Be or Not to Be”

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The Edge of Language
James Shaheen in conversation with Arthur Sze

Pulitzer Prize finalist Arthur Sze brings us into the world of poetry and the responsibility of translations.

In the late '60's we had the Vietnam and Anti-Vietnam forces in this culture that were destabilizing. What happens in the presence of that destabilization, where there is human unconsciousness, is that people get frightened. When they get frightened, they use certain mechanisms: they go into denial, they become more fundamentalist, they try to find values they can hold onto to ward off evil. They cling and become ultra-nationalist. There's more ethnic prejudice, racial prejudice, and antisemitism. It all increases, because this fear isn't just in us; it's a common thing.

These changes are happening very rapidly. People respond with fear, and the question we must ask ourselves today is, "Is there any place you can stand inside yourself where you don't freak out, where you can be quiet enough to hear the predicament and find a way to act in a way that is at least not contributing to the further destabilization?"

GBF Links for Everyone (1 Jun 2025, 15:09)

GBF to Everyone (1 Jun 2025, 15:09)

Shakespeare Meets the Buddha by Edward Dickey

The Buddha and The Bard by Lauren Shufran

Whacking Buddha by Mark Lamonica

To Thine Own Self Be True by David Richo

Playing Shakespeare:

Episode One: The Two Traditions

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=D2VnxiW3oqk

Episode Two: Using the Verse

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=H3rMaHqH2TE

Saturday, May 31, 2025

VIa Dhamma Wheel | Right Effort: Developing Unarisen Healthy States

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RIGHT EFFORT
Developing Unarisen 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 develop the arising of unarisen healthy mental states. One develops the unarisen mindfulness- awakening factor. (MN 141)

Reflection

Mindfulness can be an active state of mind when it is arising in the present moment in your lived experience, or it can be a personality or character trait lying dormant in the unconscious mind, waiting to be activated. In Buddhist language this is indicated by saying mindfulness is either arisen or unarisen, and a different strategy is needed for each situation. Here we are told how to awaken our innate mindfulness by an act of will.

Daily Practice

Develop your latent capacity for mindfulness by bringing it from a passive trait to an active state as often as you can. It is mostly a matter of remembering to do so. It is not difficult to be mindful, but it can be difficult to remember to be mindful. When you are able to do this more often, the habit of being consciously aware of your experience grows and mindfulness becomes the inclination of your mind. This is good for you.

Tomorrow: Establishing Mindfulness of Mind and Abiding in the Third Jhāna
One week from today: Maintaining Arisen Healthy States

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#DhammaWheel

Questions? Visit the Dhamma Wheel orientation page.

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Via Daily Dharma: Underlying Motivation

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Underlying Motivation

Behind every idea is a motivation that is shaped by hopes and fears. If we are able to identify this underlying motivation, we will see the wish to find happiness and to be free from suffering.

Khentrul Rinpoche, “Unity in Difference”

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