Via Dhamma Wheel | Right Intention: Cultivating Compassion

 

RIGHT INTENTION Cultivating Compassion 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 compassion, for when you develop meditation on compassion, any cruelty will be abandoned. (MN 62)

Reflection Compassion is a mental factor that can be developed, much as you might develop a muscle in the gym. It takes time, constant repetition, and working with successively heavier weights. The more time you spend caring for those who are in pain, and the more challenging the objects of your compassion (even people you don’t like!), the stronger and more compelling your inclination toward compassion will become.  Daily Practice Practice cultivating the intention to care for those who are suffering. Plan ways of helping others and develop a tendency toward compassion. When you do this, compassion will become the basis on which your mind is established. That is to say, it will become easier and more natural for you to feel compassion as you train your mind in that direction. Eventually it will be difficult to have a thought of ill will toward anyone. Tomorrow: Refraining from Malicious Speech One week from today: Cultivating Appreciative Joy Share your thoughts and join the conversation on social media #DhammaWheel Questions? Visit the Dhamma Wheel orientation page.

Tricycle is a nonprofit and relies on your support to keep its wheels turning. Donate »

© 2022 Tricycle Foundation 89 5th Ave, New York, NY 10003

Via Daily Dharma: Wisdom Promotes Compassion

 Just as ignorance promotes anger, the inverse is also true: Wisdom promotes compassion.

Allison Aitken, “What’s Wrong with Anger?”

CLICK HERE TO READ THE FULL ARTICLE

Via Tumblr

 

Via Dhamma Wheel | Right View: Understanding the Noble Truth of the Origin of Suffering

 

RIGHT VIEW Understanding the Noble Truth of the Origin of Suffering What is the origin of suffering? It is craving, which brings renewal of being, is accompanied by delight and lust, and delights in this and that: that is, craving for sensual pleasures, craving for being, and craving for non-being. (MN 9)

Reflection These are the three flavors of craving: strawberry, vanilla, and chocolate. Craving can take the form of 1) wanting more of the physical sensations and other sensory inputs that feel good and wanting to avoid those that feel bad. It can also take the form of 2) aching for things that are not happening to happen or 3) yearning for things that are happening to stop. All three forms of craving inevitably give rise to suffering. Daily Practice Look for the truth of this in your own experience. Any time you are suffering, even slightly, look into the causes of it. There will be something that you want to hold on to because it feels good and you are afraid of it slipping away. Or there will be something that you want to have happen or come into being. Or something you wish would just disappear. Suffering is created anew each moment from these forms of craving. Tomorrow: Cultivating Compassion One week from today: Understanding the Noble Truth of the Cessation of Suffering Share your thoughts and join the conversation on social media #DhammaWheel Questions? Visit the Dhamma Wheel orientation page.

Tricycle is a nonprofit and relies on your support to keep its wheels turning. Donate »

© 2022 Tricycle Foundation 89 5th Ave, New York, NY 10003

Via Daily Dharma: Enjoy Sitting

Finding a way to enjoy just sitting is key. Sitting meditation is a refuge, not a test.

Narayan Helen Liebenson, “The Refuge of Sitting”

CLICK HERE TO READ THE FULL ARTICLE

Via Tumblr

 

Via Dhamma Wheel | Right Mindfulness and Concentration: Establishing Mindfulness of Body and the First Jhāna

 

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 We often forget that the practice of mindfulness meditation is the practice of contentment. We are ardent because we are interested in what is happening, fully aware because we are looking openly at it, and mindful because we are examining our experience with equanimity rather than under the influence of desire. When we no longer desire what is happening to be any different than it is, we are content. Daily Practice Practice mindfulness as an exercise in contentment. Mindfulness begins with bringing deliberate attention to the objects of experience and thereby bringing heightened awareness to the moment. Mindfulness proceeds by disengaging the habit of favoring some things and opposing others, and then regarding all phenomena equally. When desire is replaced by an attitude of equanimity, contentment settles in the mind. RIGHT CONCENTRATION Approaching and Abiding in the First Phase of Absorption (1st Jhāna) Having abandoned the five hindrances, imperfections of the mind that weaken wisdom, quite secluded from sensual pleasures, secluded from unwholesome states, one enters and abides in the first phase of absorption, which is accompanied by applied thought and sustained thought, with joy and the pleasure born of seclusion. (MN 4) Tomorrow: Understanding the Noble Truth of the Origin of Suffering One week from today: Establishing Mindfulness of Feeling and Abiding in the Second Jhāna Share your thoughts and join the conversation on social media #DhammaWheel Questions? Visit the Dhamma Wheel orientation page.

Tricycle is a nonprofit and relies on your support to keep its wheels turning. Donate »

© 2022 Tricycle Foundation 89 5th Ave, New York, NY 10003

Via Daily Dharma: Unfreezing Our Perceptions

We can have this view of ourselves as frozen—and we can have frozen opinions of others as well—but that’s just based on a misunderstanding.

Pema Chödrön, “What Goes Through the Bardos?”

CLICK HERE TO READ THE FULL ARTICLE

Via Ram Dass - Love Serve Remember Foundation // Words of Wisdom - November 6, 2022 💌

 

“Imagine what it would be like to be a wide-open heart who was in the presence of all of the world’s suffering and existence; and at the same moment to have the wisdom and equanimity in which you have full understanding of why it all is the way it is.” 

- Ram Dass -

From Here & Now Podcast - Ep. 179 – Astral Planes, Time, Paradox, and Freedom

Via Daily Dharma: Interdependent Happiness

 In a thoroughly interdependent world, one’s own happiness cannot be built successfully upon the suffering of others. 

Andrew Olendzki, “The Other Dukkha”

CLICK HERE TO READ THE FULL ARTICLE

Via Tumblr

 

Via Dhamma Wheel | Right Effort: Restraining Unarisen Unhealthy States

 

RIGHT EFFORT Restraining Unarisen 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 to unhealthy states. (MN 19)

Reflection The mind has the capacity to guide how it functions to some extent, and unhealthy states such as fear, anger, and aversion have a harmful effect on our well-being. So it makes sense to use whatever ability you have to inhibit the arising of these mental and emotional states before they flood your mind. Once they arise, unhealthy states take over and inhibit the arising of healthy mind states, so it’s better they don’t occur at all.  Daily Practice Keeping your mind focused on healthy states prevents unhealthy states from arising. Only one state of mind can be present at a time, so if you frequently occupy your mind with healthy states, such as thoughts of kindness or generosity or joy in the well-being of others, then your mind will remain inclined toward similar healthy states. Maintaining positive states of mind is the best way of restraining negative mind states. Tomorrow: Establishing Mindfulness of Body and Abiding in the First Jhāna One week from today: Abandoning Arisen Unhealthy States Share your thoughts and join the conversation on social media #DhammaWheel Questions? Visit the Dhamma Wheel orientation page.

Tricycle is a nonprofit and relies on your support to keep its wheels turning. Donate »

© 2022 Tricycle Foundation 89 5th Ave, New York, NY 10003