Via Daily Dharma: Resolving Our Past in the Present

Within our present circumstances, our particular karmic constraints, we can find true freedom. By practicing together, no matter what the situation, we are changing our karma. The effects of our past are being worked out right at this very moment. 

Shingle Roko Sherry Chayat, “Deepening Our Resolve”

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

 

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RIGHT VIEW Understanding the Noble Truth of the Cessation of Suffering What is the cessation of suffering? It is the remainderless fading away and ceasing, the giving up, relinquishing, letting go, and rejecting of craving. (MN 9) When one knows and sees bodily sensations as they actually are, then one is not attached to bodily sensations. When one abides unattached, one is not infatuated, and one’s craving is abandoned. One’s bodily and mental troubles are abandoned, and one experiences bodily and mental well being. (MN 149)

Reflection Since craving is the cause of suffering, the ending of craving will bring about the end of suffering. This is both a general principle and a dynamic that happens in every moment of lived experience. We are aware of something different every moment, and when we either hold on to that object or push it away, we feel discontent. Observing it with equanimity takes away the affliction, and everything simply becomes interesting.   Daily Practice Sensations flow through your body in a constant stream. Some you like, some you don’t like. It is natural to feel attached to the ones that feel good and to resist and resent the ones that don’t, but this itself is the cause of suffering—attachment and aversion. Practice just observing each sensation without attachment, without infatuation, and see for yourself how mindful equanimity results in bodily and mental well being. Tomorrow: Cultivating Appreciative Joy One week from today: Understanding the Noble Truth of the Way to the Cessation 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 FB // Jacob Nordby

"This is another old piece that surfaced. People sometimes question the words “ruthless, relentless …”

That’s what birth is once the time has come: ruthless, relentless, and inevitable.

If you find yourself feeling caught in a process of healing and transformation that just won’t stop, hurts a lot, and no end seems to be in sight, please take heart.

You are discovering who *you* really are beneath all those layers of conditioned survival strategies and coping patterns. The real you is alive and well in there — and is absolutely insistent that you express it with your life, in this lifetime.

It’s worth it. Stay the course. You’ll see". - Jacob Nordby

 

 

 

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 bodily feeling, one is aware: “Feeling a painful bodily feeling" … one is just aware, just mindful “there is feeling.” And one abides not clinging to anything in the world. (MN 10)

Reflection Painful bodily feeling is the most apparent aspect of our experience and is thus the easiest sensation with which to practice. Pain is not an elusive feeling tone. While it can be chronic and excruciating, most of the pain we feel is mild and fleeting. Both pleasure and pain are inevitable aspects of the human condition, and Buddhist practice does not encourage the pursuit of pleasure or the avoidance of pain. Daily Practice As part of the practice of mindfulness, you are invited to simply be aware of pain when it is present. This practice has nothing to do with the natural response of disliking the pain or wishing it were not there but involves simply being aware of the sensation with equanimity. Turn toward the painful sensation, take an interest in its texture, and hold it in mind without pushing it away. Fully aware of the pain, you can still be content. 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 has inner clarity and singleness of mind, without applied thought and sustained thought, with joy and the pleasure born of concentration. (MN 4) Reflection The teachings around right concentration have to do with four phases of absorption, also known as jhānas. When the mind rests steadily on a single object of attention—which is quite difficult to do at first—it gradually disentangles itself from the various hindrances and becomes unified, peaceful, and stable. With this comes inner clarity and the dropping away of the internal use of language. Daily Practice You will know when you have entered into absorption of the jhānas because the state is accompanied at first with a great deal of physical and mental pleasure. The physical pleasure is described as being fundamentally different from any sensual gratification, and the mental pleasure comes naturally when the mind is free of the hindrances (phase one) and when it becomes concentrated or one-pointed (phase two). 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 Daily Dharma: Room to Meet the Present

When we’re trying to change ourselves or change the other, we’re essentially rejecting what is arising in the present moment. And if we reject it, we can’t really meet it. And if we can’t meet it, we can’t allow the space for understanding, how come this has arisen?

Laura Bridgman, “The Dharma of Relationships: The Paramis in Action”

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Via Ram Dass - Love Serve Remember Foundation // Words of Wisdom - April 2, 2023 💌

 
 

You and I are in training to be conscious and compassionate in the truest, deepest sense - not romantically compassionate, but deeply compassionate. To be able to be an instrument of equanimity, an instrument of joy, presence, love, and availability, and at the same moment, absolutely quiet. 

- Ram Dass -

Via The Raft: How Zen Can Help Save the Planet

News from the International Plum Village Community Issue 74: Week of March 27, 2023 "Collective awakening is our hope and the hope of our planet; and collective awakening is possible." ― Thich Nhat Hanh, Answers From the Heart

5-Minute Dharma How Zen Can Help Save the Planet In this 5 minute video, Brother Phap Dung of Deer Park Monastery explains the meaning of “Zen” and the value in bringing a “Zen flavor” to climate and social action. This is a clip from the upcoming Zen and the Art of Saving the Planet Online Course. Watch

 

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 to 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 doubt. (MN 141)

Reflection When a thought or emotion arises that is obviously unhelpful or unhealthy, it is natural to make some effort to get rid of it in order not to encourage the damage that such states can do to oneself and others. “Abandoning” involves a particular kind of effort, one that neither encourages nor rejects the unhealthy state. It is not a matter of repressing or pushing away unhealthy states but of letting them simply “flow through” the mind. Daily Practice While in some circumstances it can be healthy to doubt, the kind of doubt meant here is that which is debilitating and holds us back from practice and understanding. When doubt as an obstacle arises in your experience, simply let it pass without trying to hold on to it or push it away. You can “abandon” doubt by not letting it get a foothold in your mind but instead watching it arise and pass away, as it will naturally do if you let it.  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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