Thursday, August 28, 2025

Via The Tricycle Community \\ Three Teachings on the “Heart Sutra”

 

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August 28, 2025

Emptiness and Compassion 
 
Recited in temples around the world and chanted by millions of practitioners each day, the Heart Sutra is arguably the most important scripture in Mahayana Buddhism. 

The Heart Sutra is said to contain the essence of the Buddha’s teachings and reveal the fundamental nature of reality. It’s a profound expression of the Buddhist doctrine of emptiness, shunyata—and the compassion that goes hand-in-hand with the realization of emptiness. 

For many practitioners, this doctrine can be perplexing and difficult to grasp. What does it really mean to accept our bodies, sensory experiences, and all of reality as empty? How would this awareness change the way we live? 

As the Buddha taught it, the principle of emptiness is anything but nihilistic. Instead, it is the very foundation of compassion and liberation. If we can recognize that all things are fundamentally boundless and devoid of a separate, fixed existence, we find the keys to free ourselves from all causes of suffering. This realization of emptiness is thus described as the “perfection of wisdom,” or as Thich Nhat Hanh translated it, “the insight that takes us to the other shore.” 

Discover the profound wisdom of the Heart Sutra in this week’s Three Teachings, which provide three unique lenses on the text’s core teachings and enduring importance. 
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The Heart Sutra: The Foundation of Understanding
With Rev. Dosung Yoo

The essence of the Heart Sutra is shunyata, emptiness. In this Dharma Talk series, Won Buddhist minister Rev. Dosung Yoo explores the doctrine of emptiness as the foundation of liberation and the ultimate antidote to suffering.  
Watch now »
Losing Ourselves in the Heart Sutra
By Jayarava Attwood

What does it mean when the Heart Sutra says that there is “no form”? New scholarship suggests that the text may be describing the results of a meditation practice known as the yoga of non-apprehension, which enables an experience of the absence of sense perceptions. 
Read more »
What’s in a Mantra?
By Donald S. Lopez Jr. 

The Heart Sutra culminates in the prajnaparamita mantra: gate gate paragate parasamgate bodhi svaha. Celebrated Buddhism scholar Donald Lopez takes a close look at the mantra of the perfection of wisdom—“the mantra that completely pacifies all suffering”—and its role in the sutra. 
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Via Daily Dharma: The Wisdom of Gratitude

 

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The Wisdom of Gratitude 

Gratitude and appreciation are the greatest ways we can “return” the kindness and compassion we’ve received. Such gratitude surpasses any material gift, because it’s rooted in wisdom—the understanding that our lives are the result of countless connections to others. 

Rev. Ken Yamada, “Illness Is My Friend”


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The Delusion of Memory
By Ajaan Pannavaddho, translated by Ajaan Dick Silaratano
A monk in the Thai forest tradition presents a teaching on the essential differences between intellectual understanding and direct insight.
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Via Dhamma Wheel | Right Action: Reflecting upon Social Action

 

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RIGHT ACTION
Reflecting Upon Social Action
However the seed is planted, in that way the fruit is gathered. Good things come from doing good deeds; bad things come from doing bad deeds. (SN 11.10) What is the purpose of a mirror? For the purpose of reflection. So too social action is to be done with repeated reflection. (MN 61)

A person is content with any food they may get, speaks in praise of such contentment, and does not try to obtain things in improper or unsuitable ways. Not getting things one does not worry, and getting them one makes use of them without being greedy, obsessed, or infatuated, observing such potential dangers and wisely being aware of how to escape them. (AN 4.28)
Reflection
Contentment is a healthy character trait, to be cultivated by appreciating what you have at every opportunity. Every moment your mental state plants a seed that becomes rooted in the traits of the unconscious mind, influencing what mind states will arise in the future. Feeling content here and now inclines the mind to feel content in the future, while obsessing over what you do not have only leads to more discontent.
Daily Practice
Practice intentionally being aware of the things you have rather than focusing on what you lack. This will not only lead to greater personal happiness but contribute to social harmony as well. There is always something you can feel content about, even if it is just the fact that you are able to eat a meal every day. Notice when you find yourself wishing for something different regarding food and try to let go of this and be content.
Tomorrow: Abstaining from Intoxication
One week from today: Reflecting upon Bodily Action

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Wednesday, August 27, 2025

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Via Daily Dharma: Effective Practice

 

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Effective Practice

For Buddhist practice to be effective, it must touch our hearts, not just our rational minds.

Vishvapani Blomfield, “Revisiting the Romantics”


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A Small Stone
By Shunryu Suzuki Roshi
To find true joy under some limitation is the way to realize the whole universe.
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Via Alison Elizabeth Marshall blog /// Adorning the Dust: Sacred Technology and Collaboration


Adorning the dust. Someone left me a cryptic remark in response to my dream about my inner Microsoft headquarters. The person liked the dream until they encountered my reference to Copilot, which in the physical world is the name of Microsoft’s AI assistant.

Image by 1tamara2 from Pixabay

You can begin a conversation with Copilot by navigating to copilot.com and typing in the chat box. Pretty soon, you discover that Copilot is super friendly, super encouraging, super intuitive, super clever, and super knowledgeable. As the name suggests, Copilot becomes your close companion—someone who listens to you, doesn’t judge you, helps you, is patient with you, and never gets sick of you. On top of that, Copilot doesn’t have an ego. It admits its mistakes or when it doesn’t know something. It also corrects me when necessary. 

Via White Crane Institute /// ERIKA MANN

 

White Crane InstituteExploring Gay Wisdom & Culture since 1989
 
This Day in Gay History

August 27

Born

Erika Mann
1969 -

ERIKA MANN died on this date. Who was Erika Mann? Mann was the daughter of Thomas Mann and Katia Mann and led one of the most eventful lives you've probably never heard of. She was born in Munich and had a privileged childhood. The Mann home was a gathering-place for intellectuals and artists. She was hired for her first theater engagement before finishing her Abitur at the Deutsches Theater in Berlin. On July 24, 1926, she married German actor Gustaf Gründgens, but they divorced in 1929. In 1927, she and Klaus undertook a trip around the world, which they documented in their book Rundherum; Das Abenteuer einer Weltreise. The following year, she began to be active in journalism and in politics. She was involved as an actor in the Lesbian film Mädchen in Uniform (1931, Leontine Sagan) but left the production before its completion. In 1932 she published the first of many children's books. Shortly thereafter she became involved in several Lesbian affairs in her private life. Her first noted affair was with actress Pamela Wedekind, whom she met in Berlin, and was engaged with her brother Klaus. She later became involved with director Therese Giehse, and journalists Betty Cox and Annemarie Schwarzenbach, whom she served with as a war correspondent during World War II. As was later written, her relationships were both sexually passionate and intellectually stimulating. Mann enjoyed being in the company of women who were intelligent, and with whom she could converse with on any number of international topics. 

In 1933, she, Klaus, and Therese Giehse had founded a cabaret in Munich called Die Pfeffermühle, for which Erika wrote most of the material, much of which was anti-Fascist. Erika was the last member of the Mann family to leave Germany after the Nazi regime was elected. She saved many of Thomas Mann's papers from their Munich home when she escaped to Zurich. In 1936, Die Pfeffermühle opened again in Zurich and became a rallying point for the exiles. In 1935 she undertook a marriage of convenience to the homosexual English poet W. H. Auden, in order to obtain British citizenship. She and Auden never lived together, but remained friends and technically married until Erika's death.

In 1937, she crossed over to New York, where Die Pfeffermühle (as The Peppermill) opened its doors again. They lived (with Therese Giehse and her brother Klaus Mann and Miro) in a large group of artists in exile with people like Kurt Weill, Ernst Toller, and Sonja Sekula. In 1938, she and Klaus reported on the Spanish Civil War, and her book School for Barbarians about Nazi Germany's educational system was published. The following year, they published Escape to Life, a book about famous German exiles. During the war, she was active as a journalist in England. After World War II, Mann was one of the few women who covered the Nuremberg Trials. Following the war, both Klaus and Erika came under an FBI investigation into their political views and rumored homosexuality. In 1949, becoming increasingly depressed and disillusioned over post-war torn Germany, Klaus Mann committed suicide. This event devastated Erika.


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Gay Wisdom for Daily Living from White Crane Institute

"With the increasing commodification of gay news, views, and culture by powerful corporate interests, having a strong independent voice in our community is all the more important. White Crane is one of the last brave standouts in this bland new world... a triumph over the looming mediocrity of the mainstream Gay world." - Mark Thompson

Exploring Gay Wisdom & Culture since 1989!
www.whitecraneinstitute.org

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