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Tibetan Monks Chantiing Om for Deep Meditation and Spiritual Awakening

Via Daily Dharma: Touching Our Suffering

 

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Touching Our Suffering

Even though our practice in Zen is to learn to dwell in the present moment and not be carried away by the future or be swept away by the past, when we meditate, we need to know how to deeply touch our historical suffering with compassion.

Brother Phap Huu, “Healing Our Inner Child”


CLICK HERE TO READ THE ARTICLE
Practicing Real Love
By Thich Nhat Hanh
The late Zen master Thich Nhat Hanh offers a brief teaching on romantic relationships and cultivating a real love that transcends the bond between two.
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Are We One
Directed by Dónal Ó Céilleachair
This month's Film Club pick traces the transmission of Zen meditation through the life’s work of 90-year-old Irish-American Jesuit Zen Master Robert Kennedy, highlighting key historical moments in the ever-evolving story of the coming of Zen to the West. 
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Via Dhamma Wheel | Right Living: Abstaining from Taking What is Not Given

 

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RIGHT LIVING
Undertaking the Commitment to Abstain from Taking What is Not Given
Taking what is not given is unhealthy. Refraining from taking what is not given is healthy. (MN 9) Abandoning the taking of what is not given, one abstains from taking what is not given; one does not take by way of theft the wealth and property of others. (MN 41) One practices thus: "Others may take what is not given, but I will abstain from taking what is not given." (MN 8)

A person reflects thus: "If someone were to take from me what I have not given, that is, to commit theft, that would not be pleasing and agreeable to me. Now if I were to take from another what he has not given, that is, to commit theft, that would not be pleasing and agreeable to the other either. How can I inflict on another what is displeasing and disagreeable to me?" Having reflected thus, one abstains from taking what is not given, exhorts others to abstain from it, and speaks in praise of abstinence from it. (SN 55.7)
Reflection
Another way of stating the Golden Rule, this text is simply pointing out the natural argument against misappropriating the property of others. It is not just that it is wrong and invites retribution but in an important way it is actually unhealthy. That is to say, theft damages the quality of our own character, thus contributing to our own suffering, as well as causing suffering in others.
Daily Practice
This precept against taking what is not given is a rich ground for practice, because it raises the bar for what is to be considered theft. How many things do we take that may not have been freely given? More than you might think. Look into this matter today and see if you notice how many things are coerced from others or taken without returning adequate compensation, and how often you assume you are entitled to something others have overlooked.
Tomorrow: Abandoning Arisen Unhealthy States
One week from today: Abstaining from Misbehaving Among Sensual Pleasures

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Day 2
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PRACTICE PROMPT

What remains when all labels fall?

Write out a list of the roles and identities you currently hold. Notice how each one arises from circumstances, relationships, place, or time as they are all conditional. See how every identity appears and disappears depending on the situation.

Can you regard them as seasonal clothes you wear as needed? Then ask quietly: What am I without these clothes? When roles fall away, do you ever vanish? Or is there something here that remains present, quiet and alive?

 
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Learn More About Your Meditation Month Teacher

Check out Haemin Sunim’s website to see his books, listen to podcast interviews, and watch teachings.

Learn more »
Waking Up Is Letting the Mask Fall

In this essay, Colombian Zen monk Santiago Santai Jiménez asks, “What if who we are is impossible to pin down?”
 
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