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

 

TRICYCLE      COURSE CATALOG      SUPPORT      DONATE

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)

Reflection We often hear it said that the Buddha pronounced that “life is suffering,” but he never actually used such words. As he describes here, people encounter suffering themselves and come to him for help in understanding and alleviating it. What he tells them is that any experience driven by craving or aversion will result in the arising of suffering, and every time you are able to abandon that craving your suffering will subside. Daily Practice The noble truth of suffering recognizes that some things just hurt, both physically and mentally. Other things are psychologically painful, particularly when we don’t get what we want or have to deal with what we don’t want. There is also a subtle existential suffering that comes from the conditioned and fragile nature of all things. See if you can discern all three of these levels of suffering in your own lived experience. Tomorrow: Cultivating Lovingkindness One week from today: Understanding the Noble Truth of the Origin 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 »

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

Via Daily Dharma: Inner Practice As An Act Of Compassion

Inner Practice As An Act Of Compassion

You can’t leave the system of inter-eating by abusing it. In fact, the more you abuse it, the more it sucks you in. To free yourself, you have to treat it well, and part of treating it well means learning how to develop your own inner sources of food: concentration and discernment.  Thanissaro Bhikkhu, “We Are Not One” CLICK HERE TO READ THE FULL ARTICLE

 

Via GBF //

On-Retaliation as a Spiritual Practice

We do not have to get back at those who hate us or hurt our

feelings. We have alternative spiritual practices that free us from

that primitive reaction.

Revenge, at first though sweet,

Bitter ere long back on itself recoils.

-John Milton: Paradise Lost, Book 9

-----------------

Quotations from various traditions about letting go of

the urge to retaliate:

One act of retaliation burns to the ground a whole forest of

merit.

–Buddhist Teachings: Dhammapada

Requite evil with what is best. Then truly he between whom

and you there was enmity, will become your dearest friend.

-Koran: 41:34

Do not say: “I’ll do to them as they have done to me;

I’ll pay them back for what they did.”

-Hebrew Bible: Proverbs 24:29

Let him offer his cheek to one who would strike him.

- Hebrew Bible: Lamentations 3:30

He was insulted and did not retaliate with insult; he was

tortured and made no threat.

–Christian New Testament: First Letter of St. Peter 2:23

A view of God as punitive and retributive nullifies any in-

depth spiritual journey: Why would you love or trust or desire to

be with such a God?

-Richard Rohr, Franciscan teacher

I saw the fires of hell and people were not burning there. All

that was burning was what they had refused to let go of on earth.

And the flames were not punishing; they were liberating… The

only thing that burns in hell is the part of you that won’t let go of

your life: your memories, your attachments. The [flames] burn

them all away, but they’re not punishing you, they’re freeing your

soul.

-Meister Eckhart, 14 th Century mystic

We avoid retaliating….

Alcoholics Anonymous: page 67

-----------------------------

Retaliation in relationships:

It is a quarrel most unnatural

To be revenged on him that loveth you.

-Shakespeare: Richard II

----------------------------

Retaliation helps us avoid the grief that is behind it:

Hope of revenge shall hide our inward woe.

—Shakespeare: Troilus and Cressida

---------------------------

Spiritual Practices to free ourselves from the choice to

retaliate:

Treat others the way you want them to treat you.

-Golden Rule

Loving one’s oppressors—we Cambodians loving the

Khmer Rouge—may be the most difficult attitude to achieve. But

it is the law of the universe that retaliation, hatred, and revenge

only continue the cycle and never stop it. Reconciliation does not

mean that we surrender rights. It means that we see ourselves in

the opponent. For what is the opponent but a being in ignorance,

as we are so often. Therefore, only loving-kindness and right

mindfulness can free us.

–Venerable Ghosananda, Buddhist Patriarch of Cambodia

Love means more than moving toward individuals. It means

loving the world so we take a stand against the normalcy of

violence and the values of the world so it can be a better place

[finding] a method which rejects revenge, aggression and

retaliation. The foundation of such a method is love.

-Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr., in his acceptance speech for the

1964 Nobel Peace Prize

Do good to him who has injured you.

–Tao Te Ching 63

Love your enemies, do good to those who hate you, bless

those who curse you, pray for those who mistreat you.

-Luke: 6:27-28

"Love your enemy" doesn't mean love the person you hate.

You can't do that. Love those who hate you.

-B. Alan Wallace

When you begin to see the suffering in the other person,

compassion is born, and you no longer consider that person as

your enemy. The moment you realize that your so-called enemy

suffers and you want him to stop suffering, he ceases to be your

enemy.

–Thich Nhat Hanh

When they go low, we go high.

-Michelle Obama

Via FB

 

Via FB

 

Via FB

Via NPR // Enlighten Me

 

Reposting from On being Notorious

 

My sacred place in HQ

One thing I do when I lay down and hold tight for the radiation treatment is saying the Buddhist Metta prayer. I use a simplified version of it to keep calm.

I begin with:

May all who laid here before me

Be Happy

May all who laid here before me

Be safe

May all who laid here before me

Be healthy

May all who laid here before me

Be free and at ease in all the worlds!

Then:

May I be happy

May I be safe

May I be healthy

May I be free and at ease in all the worlds!

Then: 

May all who come here after me

Be Happy

May all who come here after me

Be safe

May all who come here after me

Be healthy

May all who come here after me

Be free and at ease in all the worlds!

Today I am taking sides

 Today I am taking sides.

I am taking the side of Peace.

Peace, which I will not abandon

even when its voice is drowned out

by hurt and hatred,

bitterness of loss,

cries of right and wrong.

I am taking the side of Peace

whose name has barely been spoken

in this winnerless war.

I will hold Peace in my arms,

and share my body’s breath,

lest Peace be added

to the body count.

I will call for de-escalation

even when I want nothing more 

than to get even.

I will do it

in the service of Peace.

I will make a clearing

in the overgrown 

thicket of cause and effect

so Peace can breathe 

for a minute

and reach for the sky.

I will do what I must

to save the life of Peace.

I will breathe through tears.

I will swallow pride.

I will bite my tongue.

I will offer love

without testing for deservingness.

So don’t ask me to wave a flag today

unless it is the flag of Peace.

Don’t ask me to sing an anthem

unless it is a song of Peace.

Don’t ask me to take sides

unless it is the side of Peace.

Irwin Keller, Oct. 17, 2023

Reposting from Cari Jacobs-Crovetto

Via FB

 

Via White Crane Institute //

 

Today's Gay Wisdom 1618 - The Passionate Shepherd to His Love Come live with me and be my love, And we will all the pleasures prove That valleys, groves, hills, and fields, Woods, or steepy mountain yields. And we will sit upon rocks, Seeing the shepherds feed their flocks, By shallow rivers to whose falls Melodious birds sing madrigals. And I will make thee beds of roses And a thousand fragrant poises, A cap of flowers, and a kirtle Embroidered all with leaves of myrtle; A gown made of the finest wool Which from our pretty lambs we pull; Fair lined slippers for the cold, With buckles of the purest gold; A belt of straw and ivy buds, With coral clasps and amber studs; And if these pleasures may thee move, Come live with me, and be my love. The shepherds's swains shall dance and sing For thy delight each May morning: If these delights thy mind may move, Then live with me and be my love. Christopher Marlowe 1599 Raleigh’s Reply   If all the world and love were young, And truth in every shepherd's tongue, These pretty pleasures might me move To live with thee and be thy love.   Time drives the flocks from field to fold, When rivers rage and rocks grow cold; And Philomel becometh dumb; The rest complains of cares to come.   The flowers do fade, and wanton fields To wayward winter reckoning yields: A honey tongue, a heart of gall, Is fancy's spring, but sorrow's fall.   The gowns, thy shoes, thy beds of roses, Thy cap, thy kirtle, and thy posies Soon break, soon wither, soon forgotten,— In folly ripe, in reason rotten.   Thy belt of straw and ivy buds, Thy coral clasps and amber studs, All these in me no means can move To come to thee and be thy love.   But could youth last and love still breed, Had joys no date nor age no need, Then these delights my mind might move To live with thee and be thy love. Sir Walter Raleigh, 1599

|8|O|8|O|8|O|8|O|8|O|8|O|8|O|8| 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 |8|O|8|O|8|O|8|O|8|O|8|O|8|O|8|