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Kamishikimi Kumanoimasu Shrine in Kyushu by Kohei Yamakawa

Mindrolling – Raghu Markus – Ep. 445 – Transcendental Meditation with David Lynch

  Mindrolling – Raghu Markus – Ep. 445 – Transcendental Meditation with David Lynch
June 23, 2022 Legendary filmmaker, David Lynch, joins Raghu for a chat on finding true happiness, creativity and peace through Transcendental Meditation. David Lynch is a filmmaker,...

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Via Dhamma Wheel | Right Effort: Abandoning Arisen Unhealthy States

 

RIGHT EFFORT
Abandoning Arisen Unhealthy States

Whatever a person frequently thinks and ponders upon, that will become the inclination of their mind. If one frequently thinks and ponders upon unhealthy states, one has abandoned healthy states to cultivate unhealthy states, and then one’s mind inclines to unhealthy states. (MN 19) Abandoning ill will, one abides with a mind free from ill will, compassionate for the welfare of all living beings; one purifies the mind of ill will. (MN 51) Just as a person who had been bound in prison would get free of prison, so would one rejoice and be glad about the abandoning of ill will. (DN 2)

Reflection

Ill will, along with its synonyms hatred and aversion, can be likened to a disease from which we need to recover. It roils the mind like the boiling of water, preventing us from seeing clearly what arises in the mind, unlike water that is calm and therefore reflective of whatever stands before it. Here ill will is compared with being in prison: hatred has a way of trapping the mind and denying it the freedom it is capable of when unbound.

Daily Practice

When ill will comes up in your mind, abandon it. Just let it go. Anger and hatred are only sustained if we feed them. Since all mental and emotional states are transient, we need simply to allow them to pass through the mind unhindered. Normally we ruminate on what someone said or did and thereby sustain and amplify our ill will. Instead, watch ill will come up, notice that it is unhelpful and unhealthy, and let it go.

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
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Questions? Visit the Dhamma Wheel orientation page.

NO KINK AT PRIDE!

LONESOME International Trailer

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Via Daily Dharma: A Welcome Detour

 What we call self-awareness comes via the detour we take when we encounter others, who show us to ourselves from a new angle. The differences we find in our world, then, offer us the priceless opportunity to become something more than we are now.

Kurt Spellmeyer, “Globalism 3.0” 

CLICK HERE TO READ THE FULL ARTICLE

Via Lama Rod Owens

 

One of the things that drove me into activism and service in my teens was realizing that I was born into a culture that was trying to annihilate my body, spirit, and mind. I was pissed and heartbroken over this and I learned to channel this intense energy into spiritual practice and deeper activism. 

 

Right now I am remembering and calling on all the great beings who came before me and who are still with us now to remember my sacred commitment to never allow the darkness of hate, violence, state and systematic suppression to consume me. I will survive peoples’ weaponizing of their insecurity, narcissism, and trauma against me and my communities. I will not be quiet nor will I disappear. 

 

I am urging all you spiritual leaders, healers, mystics, intuitives, magik practitioners, and yogis to remember your power and confirm your allegiance to light, love, compassion, and community and disrupt this darkness and start acting up. Now is not the time to get more holy. Now is the time to get clear about protecting everyone’s right to be safe, happy, and resourced.

 

- Lama Rod Owens

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Via Lama Rod

 

 

Authentic Voices of Pride I Presented by Chevrolet at NewFest Pride.

Via Daily Dharma: Connect with the Resource of Pleasure

 Underneath our neuroses and all our pushing and pulling, most deeply, we’re glad to be here. Connect to the pleasure of relaxation, the pleasure of the fact that you’re able to breathe.

Martin Aylward, “Coming Back to Embodiment”

CLICK HERE TO READ THE FULL ARTICLE

Via Dhamma Wheel | Right Living: Abstaining from Taking What is Not Given

 

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) On hearing a sound with the ear, one does not grasp at its signs and features. Since if one left the ear faculty unguarded, unwholesome states of covetousness and grief might intrude, one practices the way of its restraint, one guards the ear faculty, one undertakes the restraint of the ear faculty. (MN 51)

Reflection

This is another encouragement to be with what is happening without going beyond the experience and taking more than is given in the moment. The image of guarding the sense doors, as a watchman might guard the gate to a city, suggests the ability to choose what gets into the mind and what is turned away. It is a way of gaining some power and claiming some freedom over what happens to you.

Daily Practice

Practice along these lines: “In what is heard, there will be only what is heard.” As we work with each of the sense modalities in turn, we learn to be fully present with what is occurring without embellishing it or projecting our desires onto it. Can we hear without grasping? What does this feel like? Mindfulness practice involves being fully aware of what is presenting at the sense doors without getting swept away by it or swept beyond it.

Tomorrow: Abandoning Arisen Unhealthy States
One week from today: Abstaining from Misbehaving Among Sensual Pleasures

Share your thoughts and join the conversation on social media
#DhammaWheel

Questions? Visit the Dhamma Wheel orientation page.

Via White Crane Institute // ELIZABETH EDWARDS

 

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The late Elizabeth Edwards

2004 -

"I don't know why somebody else's marriage has anything to do with me. I'm completely comfortable with Gay marriage. If he's pleasant to me on the street, if his children don't throw things in my yard, then I'm happy. It seems to me we're making issues of things that honestly don't matter." – The late ELIZABETH EDWARDS, ex-wife of Democratic presidential candidate (and narcissistic cad) John Edwards, speaking to reporters after her keynote speech to San Francisco's Alice B. Toklas LGBT Democratic Club. Her philandering husband responded by saying that he loves the way his wife always speaks her mind, but that he continued to only support civil unions for Gay couples all while having a child with another woman outside of his marriage and while his wife was fighting the cancer that would eventually take her life. Yeah...bye Felicia. Elizabeth Edwards deserved so much better.

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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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Via Lama Rod Owens // Tending to the summer of apocalypse

 

 

Dear Friends, 

As we enter the summer months, we are entering yet another uncertain season of a continued pandemic, war, inflation, political instability, and much more. 

Yes, this is overwhelming. 

However, as I prepare to transition into summer, I remain grateful for being alive in this body and on this earth because I want to be here to help and facilitate a new age of awakening. 

Contrary to secular understandings of apocalypse being the end of life, a sacred view understands apocalypse as rebirth through truthtelling. As the truth disrupts, we are called to hold space for the discomfort of this disruption, letting it go when we need to, and then turning our energy and attention to rebuilding a world centered on the truth. 

Considering all this, we must understand that summer is a continuation of the work to get free. We remember that a new world is arising, and we continue loving, caring, and dreaming this new world into existence. This is how you tend to the summer of apocalypse.

With love,
Lama Rod

[GBF] new GBF talk

 A new talk has been added to the audio archive at the GBF website:

2022_06_19 Steven Tierney GBF Pride.mp3

Via Dhamma Wheel | Right Action: Reflecting upon Verbal Action

RIGHT ACTION
Reflecting Upon Verbal 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 verbal action is to be done with repeated reflection: (MN 61) When you are doing an action with speech, reflect upon that same verbal action thus: “Does this action I am doing with speech lead to both my own affliction and the affliction of another?” If, upon reflection, you know that it does, then stop doing it; if you know that it does not, then continue. (MN 61)

Reflection

Human speech is actually a complex and remarkable phenomenon. There are many ways in which we are monitoring our own speech as we utter it, if only to know how to end the sentence we have started. We can make use of this power of self-observation to improve the ethical quality of our verbal behavior. It is largely a matter of becoming more conscious of what we are accustomed to doing automatically.

Daily Practice

You can be aware of what you are saying before, during, and after saying it. Here the emphasis is on active mindfulness of speech—awareness of what you are saying in the present moment. It can be helpful to speak somewhat more slowly, to allow yourself time and space to both create and monitor your words. Perhaps a synonym for mindfulness in this context would be thoughtfulness. Practice speaking thoughtfully.

Tomorrow: AAbstaining from Taking What is Not Given
One week from today: Reflecting upon Mental Action

Share your thoughts and join the conversation on social media
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Questions? Visit the Dhamma Wheel orientation page.

 

Via Tricycle // Tried and True Ground

 

Tried and True Ground
By Vanessa Zuisei Goddard

When the path forward becomes unclear, how can we find the courage to step into the unknown?

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