Tuesday, June 10, 2025

Via Dhamma Wheel | Right Intention: Cultivating Lovingkindness

RIGHT INTENTION
Cultivating Lovingkindness

Whatever you intend, whatever you plan, and whatever you have a tendency toward, that will become the basis upon 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 purpose of lovingkindness is warding off ill will. (Vm 9.97)

Reflection

Our capacity for lovingkindness is one of the great resources we have as human beings. Yes, we can be nasty and feel ill will toward one another, but this can always be replaced by lovingkindness, at least in principle. Learning how to do this is both a challenge and an opportunity. Here we are told that if we are able to arouse and maintain a feeling of kindness, our minds will be immune, at least for the time being, from all aversion.

Daily Practice

Practice lovingkindness, if only as a protection from ill will. It is easy to get annoyed, to be bothered by people and things, to be surly and sour as you go through the day. But this is unhealthy, does not feel good, and infects the people around you. Look instead at others with goodwill and benevolence and kindness, even if this is difficult to do. You will not only release ill will toward others but also shield yourself from others' ill will toward you.

Tomorrow: Refraining from False Speech
One week from today: Cultivating Compassion

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Via Daily Dharma: Freeing Ourselves from Suffering

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Freeing Ourselves from Suffering

By combining wisdom and method, we can free ourselves from all types of suffering; investigation followed by conviction allows us to first understand the functioning of reality and then to put that understanding into our meditation practice.

Khenchen Konchog Gyaltshen, “Knowing Nirvana”

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Via Alison Elizabeth Marshall blog

Alison Elizabeth Marshall blog

No one is actually worthy of the grace of God

No one is actually worthy of the grace of God. In The Seven Valleys, Baha'u'llah quotes Qur'an 16:61: "If God should chastise men for their perverse doings, He would not leave upon the earth a moving thing!" He also makes a related point that a person who carries out all religious duties is not necessarily going to impress him. For example, in Kitab-i-Aqdas para. 36, he warns people not to use religious practices like a trap set to capture the goal. In another tablet, he says that a person can study all their life and observe all the laws, and yet not benefit from that effort. These passages suggest that tying oneself up in knots trying to be perfect will not necessarily attract divine blessings.

In Tablet of the Son (where “the Son” refers to Jesus), Baha'u'llah makes a remarkable point that bears on this issue. In one passage, while discussing the power of Jesus to heal and purify, he explains that when Jesus sacrificed his life, he infused into the world a fresh divine radiance (the Word of God). Baha'u'llah's point is that a prophet’s influence is not just about bringing new knowledge and laws, it also involves infusing into humankind new powers and capabilities (para. 13). Accordingly, Baha'u'llah interpreted the healing verses in terms of Jesus releasing a divine radiance that healed people of the blindness that stopped them seeing Jesus’s divinity.

In paragraph 19, Baha’u’llah announces that he is Jesus come again. Consequently, the thing that happened last time has happened again—that is, the grace of God has spread over the world and perfumed everything. But this time, there is a crucial difference. This time, God’s favor was so great that Baha’u’llah did not even need to ask God to heal the people. Rather, Baha'u'llah's appearance in the world alone automatically healed every person of every illness.

But today, the leper has been cleansed even before the words “Be cleansed!” are pronounced. For by virtue of his appearance the world and its people have been cured of every malady and illness. Exalted be this grace, which no other grace has surpassed, and this mercy, which has encompassed the world. (Tablet of the Son, para. 19)

What does this mean? No one is actually worthy of the grace of God. However, Baha'u'llah's appearance on earth has rendered everyone worthy of all divine favors. This is the greatest gift given to humankind. Therefore, no need to turn oneself into knots trying to attract divine favors because, in these modern times, all humankind is immersed in a sea of divine favor.

Baha’u’llah makes a similar point in Suratu'l-Nus'h (Surah of Admonition), pages 12-13, where he says "No grace was bestowed due to the merit of any soul." I understand this to mean that no one is worthy of the grace Baha'u'llah has infused into the world. Instead, God has taken the initiative. God has lifted the veil that blinds people from seeing God's beauty, rained on them the showers of divine mercy, poured out the streams of divine knowledge, provided fruits from the tree of generosity, guided people to God's grace, lit up hearts and eyes with divine splendors, enabled people to hear divine melodies, and favored them with everlasting life.

What should we do? Open our hearts to the ecstasy that already surrounds us. Divine favor is not a transactional thing: "If you do this, then I will do that" or "If I am good, then you will give me that." The days of negotiating are over. God is not a narcissist who revels in holding power over you. Everything you need and want has already been granted to you. You are not a pauper in need of a handout. Instead, God has granted you an inheritance that renders you free of need.

Child of existence, my lamp is you and my light is in you, so shine by means of it. Explore no further than me, for I have made you free from need and have been extravagant in bestowing favor on you. (Arabic Hidden Word 11, my translation)