Monday, October 2, 2023

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

 


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RIGHT VIEW
Understanding the Noble Truth of Suffering
When people have met with suffering and become victims of suffering, they come to me and ask me about the noble truth of suffering. Being asked, I explain to them the noble truth of suffering. (MN 77) What is suffering? (MN 9)

In short, the five aggregates affected by clinging are suffering. (MN 9)
Reflection
Some forms of suffering are glaringly obvious, such as a pounding toothache or the deep grief that comes from losing a loved one. Others can be subtler and more pervasive rather than episodic. Such is the case with the suffering that comes from clinging to anything whatsoever. Even things that feel overtly gratifying can on another level be sowing the seeds of disappointment. Clinging always involves some sort of suffering.

Daily Practice
Clinging is the word used to refer to our response to desire. When we want something, we reach for it or hold on tightly so it does not slip away. When we don’t want something, we push it away and try to avoid or destroy it. Notice how this attitude of attachment and aversion can manifest, often subtly, in all aspects of experience. Learn to become consciously aware of the unconscious reflex to grasp, and also to let go of it.

Tomorrow: Cultivating Lovingkindness
One week from today: Understanding the Noble Truth of the Origin of Suffering 


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Via Daily Dharma: Truth Shines Through

Truth Shines Through

Practice challenges our conditioned beliefs. And in this challenge, what isn’t true dissolves. 

Caverly Morgan, “Overcoming Negative Self-Talk”


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Sunday, October 1, 2023

Via FB \\ A Snail´s Shell


 

Via FB

 


Via [GBF] IN PERSON and ZOOM Meeting Sunday, October 1, 10:30-12:00 (PDT)- Dhammachari Danadasa

A wonderful talk with the Venerable Dhammachari who shared this diagram and poem as part of his talk.

OCTOBER 1- Dhammachari Danadasa

Dhammachari Danadasa has been practicing with the San Francisco Buddhist Center (SFBC) community since 1993 and was ordained in 2011. His current area of exploration is the cultivation of metta (universal loving kindness) as a response to all the hatred, discrimination, and bigotry in the world out there.

 

GBF Talks can be found here: https://gaybuddhist.org/

Living for the Dead | Official Trailer | Hulu

Via Dhamma Wheel | Right Mindfulness and Concentration: Establishing Mindfulness of Mental Objects and Abiding in the Fourth Jhāna

 


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RIGHT MINDFULNESS
Establishing Mindfulness of Mental Objects
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 the awakening factor of concentration is internally present, one is aware: “Concentration is present for me.” When concentration is not present, one is aware: “Concentration is not present for me.” When the arising of unarisen concentration occurs, one is aware of that. And when the development and fulfillment of the arisen awakening factor of concentration occurs, one is aware of that. . . . One is just aware, just mindful: “There is a mental object.” And one abides not clinging to anything in the world. (MN 10)
Reflection
The practice of insight meditation also involves the practice of concentration. Insight and concentration are like the two wings of a bird, each supporting the function of the other. Concentration is a mental factor that allows the mind to focus on a single object without being carried away by the stream of consciousness into telling and retelling stories. Insight is understanding the nature of what you are focusing on. 

Daily Practice
As with all mental factors, sometimes concentration is present and sometimes it is not. Sometimes your mind is focused, and other times it is flitting from one object to another, apparently out of control. With practice you can notice these fluctuations of mind. You can watch the ability to focus come and go, always simply being aware of what is happening. The idea is not to control the mind but to calm it and let it settle.


RIGHT CONCENTRATION
Approaching and Abiding in the Fourth Phase of Absorption (4th Jhāna)
With the abandoning of pleasure and pain, and with the previous disappearance of joy and grief, one enters upon and abides in the fourth phase of absorption, which has neither-pain-nor-pleasure and purity of mindfulness as a result of equanimity. The concentrated mind is thus purified, bright, unblemished, rid of imperfection, malleable, wieldy, steady, and attained to imperturbability. (MN 4)

Tomorrow: Understanding the Noble Truth of Suffering 
One week from today: Establishing Mindfulness of Body and Abiding in the First Jhāna

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Questions?
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© 2023 Tricycle Foundation
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Via Daily Dharma: Creating Space for the Dharma

 

Creating Space for the Dharma

Mental simplicity involves contentment, straightforwardness, and some degree of trust in the unfolding of life. This frees up energy to do the relevant thinking that supports our life of practice. It creates space for the dharma to unfold.

Kim Allen, “The Value of Simplicity”


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Two More from White Crane Institute

 


1989 -

DENMARK: The world's first legal, modern same-sex civil union are sanctioned and called "registered partnership."


Anglo-Saxon besties
2008 -

Construction of the Royal Airforce Base at Lakenheath was held up in 2008 when relics of this base’s ancient inhabitants were unearthed during a routine construction project. The base must work with British archaeology officials for every base construction because of the area’s dense concentration of buried artifacts.

Before the Air Force set up shop at Lakenheath more than 60 years ago, it was home to the Anglo-Saxons — ancient peoples who inhabited the south and east of the country from the early fifth century through the Norman conquest of 1066.

Toiling alongside a construction crew that rebuilt the traffic circle on the northside of the base in August, a team of British archaeologists dug up three Anglo-Saxon graves dating to between 450 and 650.

They found two unusually large bodies dating from before the Norman Invasion of 1066 that appeared at first glance to be a husband and wife. The bodies were buried embracing each other, but genetic testing revealed both were men. It remains unknown if they were lovers, relatives, warrior companions, or just good friends…but I think we know.


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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 White Crane Institute // MICHAEL THOMAS FORD

 


1968 -

MICHAEL THOMAS FORD is an American author of primarily gay-themed literature, born on this date. He is best known for his "My Queer Life" series of humorous essay collections and for his award-winning novels Last SummerLooking for ItFull CircleChanging Tides and What We Remember.

Michael Thomas Ford is the author of more than fifty books for both young readers and adults. He is best known for his best-selling novels Last SummerLooking for It, and Full Circle and for his five essay collections in the "Trials of My Queer Life" series. His work has been nominated for eleven Lambda Literary Awards, twice winning for Best Humor Book and twice for Best Romance Novel. He was also nominated for a Horror Writers Association Bram Stoker Award (for his novel The Dollhouse That Time Forgot) and a Gay lactic Spectrum Award (for his short story "Night of the Were puss"). Although he received many literature awards.

Ford began his writing career in 1992 with the publication of 100 Questions & Answers about AIDS: What You Need to Know Now (Macmillan), one of the first books about the AIDS crisis for young adults. Named an American Library Association Best Book for Young Adults, the book became the most widely used resource in HIV education programs for young people and was translated into more than a dozen languages.

The follow-up to that book, The Voices of AIDS (William Morrow, 1995), was a collection of interviews with people whose lives have been affected by the HIV-AIDS crisis. This book too was named an ALA Best Book, as well as a National Science Teachers Association-Children's Book Council Outstanding Science Trade Book for Children and a Booklist magazine Editors' Choice.

Ford's next book, 1996's The World Out There: Becoming Part of the Lesbian and Gay Community (The New Press), was a handbook for people coming out and wanting to know what it means to be part of the queer world. It earned him his first Lambda Literary Award nomination in the YA category, as well as a Firecracker Alternative Book Award nomination.

1998 saw the release of two books, the first being OutSpoken (William Morrow), a collection of interviews with gay and lesbian people that was again aimed at young adults. The book was named both a National Council of Social Studies-Children's Book Council Notable Children's Book in the field of Social Studies and a Booklist magazine "Top of the List" selection, and received a Lambda Literary Award nomination, Ford's second in the YA division.

Ford's second book to come out that year was Alec Baldwin Doesn't Love Me (Alyson Books), the first of what has come to be known as the "Trials of My Queer Life" series. The book received a Lambda Literary Award for Best Humor book, winning out over titles by lesbian comic Kate Clinton, columnist Dan Savage, and cartoonist Alison Bechdel.

Ford next wrote 'That's Mr. Faggot to You (Alyson Books, 1999). Ford obtained a Lambda Literary Award, edging out previous winner comedian Bob Smith. That same year he began recording his weekly radio show for the GayBC Radio Network.

In October 2008, Ford returned to his young adult roots with the publication of Suicide Notes (HarperCollins), the blackly comic story of a young man forced to come to terms with his emerging sexuality after a failed attempt at ending his life puts him in a psychiatric hospital.

In 2009 Ford released his fifth novel with Kensington, What We Remember, a portrait of a family torn apart when the father, believed to have committed suicide, is found to have been murdered. As the mystery around his death is unraveled, so too is the tragic history of a family that isn't what it seems. What We Remember won the 2009 Lambda Literary Award for Gay Men's Mystery.

In December 2009 Ballantine released Ford's Jane Bites Back, the first of a three-book series about Jane Austen, who still exists as a vampire bookshop owner living in the New York suburbs, who has to deal with two suitors and a dark figure from her past. In May 2010 Ford published The Road Home, his sixth novel for Kensington Books.

Mike lives in rural Ohio with his partner and two rescue dogs. He does not like to shave.


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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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a

 

Via Ram Dass - Love Serve Remember Foundation // Words of Wisdom - October 1, 2023 💌



“It’s very far out when you begin not to think. Or the thinking’s going by and you’re not identified with being the thinker. You really think you’ve lost something. It’s a while before you can appreciate the peace that comes from the simplicity of no-mind, of just emptiness, of just not having to be somebody all the time. We’re in training to become nobody. You’ve been somebody long enough. You spent the first half of your life becoming somebody. Now you can work on becoming nobody. Which is really somebody.”

- Ram Dass -

From Here & Now Ep. 235 - The Process of Awakening

Saturday, September 30, 2023

Via RadioLab - Born this Way


 

Via Dhamma Wheel | Right Effort: Maintaining Arisen Healthy States


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RIGHT EFFORT
Maintaining Arisen Healthy States
Whatever a person frequently thinks about and ponders, that will become the inclination of their mind. If one frequently thinks about and ponders healthy states, one has abandoned unhealthy states to cultivate healthy states, and then one’s mind inclines to healthy states. (MN 19)

Here a person rouses the will, makes an effort, stirs up energy, exerts the mind, and strives to maintain arisen healthy mental states. One maintains the arisen awakening factors of tranquility and concentration. (MN 141)
Reflection
The last two of the seven factors of awakening are tranquility and concentration. These are healthy mental and emotional factors that are to be encouraged to arise and when arisen, to be sustained. While all states of mind are fleeting, arising and passing away in a moment, when we are able to string together moments of tranquility one after another, the mind naturally becomes concentrated and focused on a single object. 

Daily Practice
Focused awareness, otherwise known as concentration practice, is something to undertake in a sustained and continuous manner. Put aside some time at the end of the day or before your day begins and allow yourself to really settle in to some uninterrupted practice. It takes some effort, but that effort becomes easier as tranquility deepens. By cultivating these states, you give your mind a break from restlessness.

Tomorrow: Establishing Mindfulness of Mental Objects and the Fourth Jhāna
One week from today: Restraining Unarisen Unhealthy States

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

Questions?
Visit the Dhamma Wheel orientation page.



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© 2023 Tricycle Foundation
89 5th Ave, New York, NY 10003