VIA Dhamma Wheel | Right View: Understanding the Noble Truth of the Way to the Cessation of Suffering

 

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RIGHT VIEW Understanding the Noble Truth of the Way to the Cessation of Suffering And what is the way leading to the cessation of suffering? It is just this noble eightfold path: that is, right view, right intention, right speech, right action, right living, right effort, right mindfulness, right concentration. (MN 9)

Reflection Understanding that suffering has a cause and can be cured is one thing, but managing to bring about that cure is a formidable challenge: “Just stop craving, and your suffering will disappear! How hard can that be?” As it turns out, it can be very hard indeed. The way out of suffering, woven from the elements of the eightfold path, needs to be crafted anew by each culture, each generation, each person. Daily Practice The practice of walking the path leading to the cessation of suffering has always been a creative project. Since every moment of every person’s experience is new and unique, the blueprint of the eightfold path has to be interpreted flexibly. Find your own distinctive way of understanding these timeless universal principles and applying them to the many challenges of your life and its unique set of changing circumstances. Tomorrow: Cultivating Equanimity One week from today: Understanding the Noble Truth 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 Dhamma Wheel | Right Intention: Cultivating Equanimity

 

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RIGHT INTENTION Cultivating Equanimity 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 equanimity, for when you develop meditation on equanimity, all aversion is abandoned. (MN 62)

Reflection Equanimity is the fourth of the brahma-viharas, the sublime states of mind, and is the secret ingredient of mindfulness, indeed of the entire Buddhist approach to practice. Like the clutch of a car, which disengages the engine from the wheels, freeing them to revolve independently, equanimity disengages us from the compulsion of the pleasure/pain reflex, freeing us to experience a range of sensations without craving. Daily Practice Cultivate the experience of feeling pleasure without getting hooked by it and experiencing displeasure without needing to be rid of it. Notice how pleasure and pain are on one channel, so to speak, and our loving and hating of them are on another. Normally we are forced to respond to pleasure with attachment and to pain with aversion, but equanimity replaces these forms of craving, liberating the mind from them.  Tomorrow: Refraining from Frivolous Speech One week from today: Cultivating Lovingkindness 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: Choose Your Path

 

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Choose Your Path Appreciate that I have a path to follow in the world. There are great works that were laid out by great beings, and I can follow that. I can go on the right path if I choose to. Again, this is the freedom to choose your path. Appreciate that. Yongey Mingyur Rinpoche, “The Antidote to Self-Criticism” CLICK HERE TO READ THE ARTICLE

Pay Attention By James Shaheen Tricycle’s editor-in-chief, James Shaheen, discusses the ethical imperative to take pause from media consumption and turn our attention to the values our practice supports. Read more » Dhamma Wheel 365 Days of Practice to Your Inbox Join Tricycle’s daily email course for a year of contemplative study to deepen your understanding of the noble eightfold path. Enroll now » Follow Us Forward today's wisdom to a friend »

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

 

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RIGHT MINDFULNESS Establishing Mindfulness of Body 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)

Reflection The third foundation on which mindfulness is established, mindfulness of mind, involves noticing the impact of various emotions and attitudes on the mind. Consciousness simply reflects whatever object comes before it, but then we respond to the object with love or hate, wanting or not wanting, and all kinds of judgments favoring or opposing it. With mindfulness we are content with watching this as it occurs. Daily Practice After you gain skill in observing the bodily sensations that accompany breathing in and out and then bringing mindfulness to bear on pleasant and unpleasant feeling tones, next focus on the influence craving and aversion may or may not have on your mind in any given moment. When you like something, be aware of that. When you dislike something, be aware of that. This is the starting point of mindfulness of mind.  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) 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 Share your thoughts and join the conversation on social media #DhammaWheel Questions? Visit the Dhamma Wheel orientation page.

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