Via Dhamma Wheel | Right Intention: Cultivating Lovingkindness

 

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RIGHT INTENTION Cultivating Lovingkindness 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 lovingkindness, for when you develop meditation on lovingkindness, all ill will will be abandoned. (MN 62)   The characteristic of lovingkindness is promoting welfare. (Vm 9.93)

Reflection One of the great insights of Buddhist practice is that who you are at any given moment is not set in stone, is not a matter of chance, and is not shaped by others. In every mind moment you are shaping who you will become in the next moment. Understanding this is profoundly empowering, for it gives you an opportunity to decide for yourself that you will be a better person in the future by being a better person now.     Daily Practice Kindness can become an ongoing practice, a habit of mind and heart that tries at every opportunity to wish the best for others. It is not a matter of liking people as much as wishing them well and caring for their well-being. Practice targeting random people you encounter throughout the day and wishing them well. Notice the subtle effect this has on your own mind, squeezing out any annoyance or resentment you might otherwise feel. Tomorrow: Refraining from False Speech One week from today: Cultivating Compassion 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: Unconditional Metta

 

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Unconditional Metta  Whether it’s a big reunion or the day-to-day of raising kids, family time can easily trigger old habits, angers, and delusions, but it can also be an incubator for developing strong, unconditional metta.  Tricycle, “5 Teachings on Navigating Family Dynamics”  CLICK HERE TO READ THE FULL ARTICLE

Via Daily Dharma: Opening Up Your Sense of Self

 

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Opening Up Your Sense of Self   Opening up your sense of self to also consist of relationships reveals how the self is constructed through interconnectedness.  Sumi Loundon Kim, “How to Meditate While Raising Kids” CLICK HERE TO READ THE FULL ARTICLE

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) Aging is suffering: "old age, brokenness of teeth, greyness of hair, wrinkling of skin, decline of life, weakness of faculties." (MN 9)

Reflection The wheel has turned one full revolution now, as we looked at each of the path factors four times over the course of a month. We now return to the beginning and go through another cycle over the course of the next 28 days. The noble truth of suffering is not something we "get" once and for all and then move on. It is something to investigate again and again from multiple different angles as our perspective on it changes. Daily Practice We hardly need help understanding the truth of aging, since it is everywhere so  apparent. As our experience with the practice progresses, we learn to observe the signs of aging with greater objectivity and less self-reference. This is just what happens to a body when it ages. It is not that we are being personally persecuted by time. Work on developing the perspective that aging is something to observe rather than to fear. 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.

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Via White Crane Institute //

 

Noteworthy The Unconquered Sun 2021 - SOL INVICTUS ("the Unconquered Sun") or, more fully, Deus Sol Invictus ("the Unconquered Sun God") was the late Roman state sun god. The cult was created by the emperor Aurelian in 274 CE and continued until the abolition of paganism under Theodosius I. The Romans held a festival on December 25 called Dies Natalis Solis Invicti, "the birthday of the unconquered sun." The use of the title Sol Invictus allowed several solar deities to be worshipped collectively, including Elah-Gabal, a Syrian sun god; Sol, the patron god of Emperor Aurelian (270-274); and Mithras. Oh, and a Jewish upstart named Jesus. December 25th was also considered to be the date of the winter solstice, which the Romans called bruma. It was therefore the day the Sun proved itself to be "unconquered" despite the shortening of daylight hours. (When Julius Caesar introduced the Julian Calendar in 45 B.C.E., December 25th was approximately the date of the solstice. In modern times, the solstice falls on December 21st or 22nd.) The Sol Invictus festival has a "strong claim on the responsibility" for the date of Christmas, according to the Catholic Encyclopedia. Solar symbolism was popular with early Christian writers as Jesus was considered to be the "sun of righteousness." The date for Christmas may also bear a relation to the sun worship. According to the scholiast on the Syriac bishop Jacob Bar-Salibi, writing in the twelfth century: "It was a custom of the Pagans to celebrate on the same 25 December the birthday of the Sun, at which they kindled lights in token of festivity. In these solemnities and revelries the Christians also took part. Accordingly when the doctors of the Church perceived that the Christians had a leaning to this festival, they took counsel and resolved that the true Nativity should be solemnized on that day." (cited in "Christianity and Paganism in the Fourth to Eighth Centuries", Ramsay MacMullen. Yale:1997, p155)

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Via Ram Dass - Love Serve Remember Foundation //

Jesus said you will get to the kingdom of God and that’s where you’ll find the children. I like to believe in childhood or child-like qualities as a goal. Or a way to reach spiritual awareness. And it’s not to go back to be a child, it’s to be child-like, in the sense of innocence, openness, freshness and beginning. - Ram Dass

Via Dhamma Wheel | Right Mindfulness and Concentration: Establishing Mindfulness of Mental Objects and 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 sensual desire is internally present, one is aware: "Sensual desire is present for me." When sensual desire is not present, one is aware: "Sensual desire is not present for me." When the arising of unarisen sensual desire occurs, one  is aware of that. And when the abandoning of arisen sensual desire 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 fourth basis for the establishment of mindfulness is the mindfulness of mental objects. While mindfulness of mind focuses on the quality of consciousness, mindfulness of mental objects turns to the specific contents of consciousness. Every moment is a moment of knowing something, and the mind takes up one object after another just as a monkey takes hold of one branch after another as it swings through the trees. Here we notice this. Daily Practice The text does not direct us to be aware of whatever random thoughts come to mind but leads us through a number of specific mental objects as understood by Buddhist psychology. We center here on the first of the five hindrances. Notice when sensual desire is present in the mind and when it is absent. Notice also how it arises and how you can decide to abandon or let go of it. We are practicing observing mental flux.  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 into 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) Reflection The four stages of mental absorption described in the system of jhānas culminate with the attainment of a profound and imperturbable equanimity. In this state the mind is free of both craving and aversion, neither favors nor opposes any mental object, and is able to simply regard things as they actually are, undistorted by our projections and fears. Notice also that such equanimity has the effect of purifying mindfulness. Daily Practice Sitting quietly and allowing the mind to become more and more peaceful, progressively "more unified, and gradually steadier will eventually culminate in the quality of mind described here. This is not a transcendent state but rather a natural, immanent state of mind. See if you can allow your mind to become still like tranquil water and watch the mind reflect whatever comes before it without distortion.  Tomorrow: Understanding the Noble Truth of Suffering One week from today: Establishing Mindfulness of Body and Abiding in the First Jhāna Share your thoughts and join the conversation on social media #DhammaWheel Questions? Visit the Dhamma Wheel orientation page.

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