Via Dhamma Wheel | Right Mindfulness and Concentration: Establishing Mindfulness of Feeling and the Second Jhāna

 

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RIGHT MINDFULNESS Establishing Mindfulness of Feeling 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 feeling a painful feeling, one is aware: "Feeling a painful feeling . .. . one is just aware, just mindful: 'There is feeling.'" And one abides not clinging to anything in the world. (MN 10)

Reflection The second ground on which mindfulness is established is the realm of feeling tones. This includes both physical and mental feeling tones, and this week the unpleasant or painful feeling tones are singled out. Physical pain is self-evident, but mental pain is often subtler, as is the transition point between an unpleasant feeling tone and an unhealthy emotion.  Daily Practice See if you can break the reflexive bond between feeling pain and immediately resenting it or hating it or wishing it would go away. Try instead to examine with interest and curiosity the texture of the pain: for instance, is it sharp or dull, throbbing or constant? Pain is an inevitable aspect of human experience, and all but the most intense pain is bearable. There is more to learn from facing pain than from attempting to run from it. So let’s look at it and see what we can learn. RIGHT CONCENTRATION Approaching and Abiding in the Second Phase of Absorption (2nd Jhāna) With the stilling of applied and sustained thought, one enters upon and abides in the second phase of absorption, which brings inner clarity and singleness of mind, without applied thought and sustained thought, with joy and the pleasure born of concentration. (MN 4) Reflection The mind is capable, through training, of becoming more concentrated than is usual in ordinary daily experience. The Buddha describes this as a natural process, unfolding as the body and mind become gradually happier and more tranquil while the mind is focusing on a single object. In the second phase of this process, discursive thinking gradually fades away as the feeling of pleasure and well-being grows stronger and deepens. Daily Practice As you sit quietly and focus on your breathing, the thoughts and memories and plans that so habitually inhabit the mind begin to settle, and the mind becomes calmer. At a certain point thoughts may cease altogether. Awareness of sensory experience remains strong, but it is no longer mediated by words, images, or concepts. The need to re-engage the mind with an object and hold it there is no longer needed, so these functions drop away. Tomorrow: Understanding the Noble Truth of the Cessation of Suffering One week from today: Establishing Mindfulness of Mind and Abiding in the Third Jhāna Share your thoughts and join the conversation on social media #DhammaWheel Questions? Visit the Dhamma Wheel orientation page.

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Via FB \\\ ✨ PLAN FOR 2026: A QUIET, STRONG, MEANINGFUL LIFE ✨

 

Buddhism

 PLAN FOR 2026: A QUIET, STRONG, MEANINGFUL LIFE 

2026 is not about proving anything to anyone.

It’s about becoming someone you respect, in peace and in silence.

 Stay Private

Not everyone deserves access to your thoughts, plans, pain, or progress.

Privacy protects your energy. Growth happens faster when it’s not constantly exposed to opinions, jealousy, or noise.

 Work Smart

Hard work matters, but clarity matters more.

Choose effort with direction. Learn skills. Improve focus. Stop burning yourself just to look busy.

 Eat Healthy

Food is not just fuel for the body — it shapes the mind.

What you eat affects your mood, discipline, clarity, and long-term health. Respect your body; it carries you through life.

 Talk Less

Silence builds power.

Not every thought needs expression. Not every plan needs announcement. Let results speak. Listen more than you respond.

 Do Better

Not perfect — better.

Better habits. Better boundaries. Better choices.

Compare yourself only to who you were yesterday.

 Live Life

Stop postponing joy.

Life isn’t a rehearsal. Be present. Laugh. Walk. Breathe deeply. Appreciate small moments — they are the real wealth.

 Be Kind

Kindness is strength, not weakness.

Be gentle with others, but also with yourself. Compassion creates peace where ego creates conflict.

 Stay Humble

Success without humility creates emptiness.

Stay grounded. Stay teachable. Remember: titles fade, character remains.

 Avoid Drama

Drama drains life-force.

Not every invitation deserves your presence. Choose calm over chaos. Distance is sometimes the healthiest response.

 Heal

Unhealed wounds repeat themselves.

Face what hurts. Sit with discomfort. Let go of old pain instead of carrying it into the future.

 Grow

Growth is quiet, slow, and deeply personal.

You won’t hear it happening — like a tree, it just grows. One day, you look back and realize you’re stronger, calmer, wiser.

 2026 is about peace, discipline, and self-respect.

Not loud success.

Not validation.

Just a life that feels right — inside.

Walk gently.

Grow steadily.

Live fully.

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Via Daily Dharma: Practicing Gratitude

 

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Practicing Gratitude Gratitude, by promoting feelings of satisfaction with what you have, counters feelings of insecurity and pulls us out of the rat race. It shifts our focus from what’s missing to what’s there. Joanna Macy and Chris Johnstone, “Coming from Gratitude” CLICK HERE TO READ THE ARTICLE

The Weather of Emotion By Marie Mannschatz A writer and psychotherapist explores the key to opening up to your emotions.  Read more » 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.  Watch now » Follow Us Forward today's wisdom to a friend »

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Via Dhamma Wheel | Right Effort: Abandoning Arisen Unhealthy States

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RIGHT EFFORT Abandoning Arisen Unhealthy States Whatever a person frequently thinks about and ponders, that will become the inclination of their mind. If one frequently thinks about and ponders unhealthy states, one has abandoned healthy states to cultivate unhealthy states, and then one’s mind inclines toward unhealthy states. (MN 19) Here a person rouses the will, makes an effort, stirs up energy, exerts the mind, and strives to abandon arisen unhealthy mental states. One abandons the arisen hindrance of ill will. (MN 141)

Reflection Unhealthy mental states arise all the time. The causes and conditions for their arising have been forged in previous mind moments, and we have no direct conscious control over whether or not they arise. The practice of right effort has to do entirely with how we handle them once they have come up. In other words, we have no control over what hand we are dealt in each moment, but we have the power to play that hand more or less skillfully. Daily Practice The conscious mind cannot control what emerges from the unconscious, but it can exercise some influence over how we respond. Take, for example, ill will, which can manifest as annoyance, resentment, or hatred; practice the art of acknowledging it but choosing not to feed it. To abandon ill will is not to suppress it or block it but rather to see it, know it to be harmful, and abandon it—to let it pass through and wave farewell.  Tomorrow: Establishing Mindfulness of Feeling and Abiding in the Second Jhāna One week from today: Developing Unarisen Healthy States Share your thoughts and join the conversation on social media #DhammaWheel Questions? Visit the Dhamma Wheel orientation page.

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