A personal blog by a graying (mostly Anglo with light African-American roots) gay left leaning liberal progressive married college-educated Buddhist Baha'i BBC/NPR-listening Professor Emeritus now following the Dharma in Minas Gerais, Brasil.
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)
Death is suffering. The passing away of beings, their dissolution,
disappearance, dying, completion of time, dissolution of aggregates,
laying down of the body. (MN 9)
Reflection
It is natural
that we experience a great deal of mental pain when someone we love
dies. Such pain is an inevitable part of life. The Buddha never said
there is a way to make pain go away. How much suffering it causes,
however, is another matter. Pain is amplified by our resentment of it
and our resistance to it, and by our wishing it would go away. Pain is
diminished by our turning toward it, accepting it, and attempting to
learn from it.
Daily Practice
Reflect on the
poignancy of death, either the death of someone dear to you or your own
inevitable death. Allow yourself to feel the sorrow, which is an
expression of mental pain. This is natural. Also allow yourself to feel
strong, whole, and balanced in the midst of the sorrow. Mental pain,
like physical pain, is something to be examined carefully and with
equanimity. We need not feel overwhelmed by it.
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
Sometimes
our most obvious destructive behaviors conceal something else that is
even more difficult for us to acknowledge. We may be willing to
acknowledge our anger, but unwilling to look at the fear and
vulnerability beneath it.
How
Haemin Sunim, internationally known as the “Twitter monk,” came up
against the internet’s ‘cancel’ culture, prompting questions of the
ethical responsibilities of a modern practitioner.
An intimate portrayal of illness, spiritual care, and letting go, Review
follows three people with terminal illness and their reflections on
life and spiritual explorations before death. Subscribers can stream the
film on Tricycle’s Film Club all month long.
ANDRÉ GIDE,
French writer, Nobel laureate died (b. 1869); Not unlike Gore Vidal and
Truman Capote sniping at one another like Paulette Goddard and Rosalind
Russell in The Women, the feud between Gide and Jean Cocteau
was a low point in both their careers. The feud, which lasted for more
than forty years, all public, stemmed from simple, mortal jealousy
between these two cultural gods. Gide was enraged that Cocteau had kept
his young lover, Marc Allégret out all night and had, presumably, slept
with him. Gide confessed years later that he wanted to kill his rival
but decided the word was bloodier than the sword.
Young Andre Gide
2018 -
TODAY'S GAY WISDOM
The wisdom of Andre Gide:
Art is a collaboration between God and the artist and the less the artist does the better - Andre Gide
Be faithful to that which exists nowhere but in yourself - and thus make yourself indispensable - Andre Gide
Believe those who are seeking the truth. Doubt those who find it. - Andre Gide
Dare to be yourself. - Andre Gide
It is better to be hated for what you are than to be loved for what you are not. - Andre Gide
It is only in adventure that some people succeed in knowing themselves, in finding themselves. - Andre Gide
Obtain from
yourself all that makes complaining useless, No longer implore from
others what you yourself can obtain. - Andre Gide
One doesn't discover new lands without consenting to lose sight of the shore for a very long time - Andre Gide
So long as we live among men, let us cherish humanity - Andre Gide
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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
Tai chi, a slow-moving form of Chinese martial art often called meditation in motion, is known to help increase flexibility and improve balance. New research suggests it can reduce blood pressure better than more vigorous forms of aerobic exercise.
Chanting the Lotus Sutra
is a way of renewing my vows with myself and the cosmos. For me, it’s
about learning to see the essential true nature of life, learning to see
beyond the illusion, and to take responsibility for my dreams.
Miguel Atwood-Ferguson, “Miguel Atwood-Ferguson on How Nichiren Buddhism Saved His Life”
An intimate portrayal of illness, spiritual care, and letting go, Review
follows three people with terminal illness and their reflections on
life and spiritual explorations before death. Subscribers can stream the
film on Tricycle’s Film Club all month long.
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 sluggishness is internally present, one is aware:
"Sluggishness is present for me." When sluggishness is not present, one
is aware: "Sluggishness is not present for me." When the arising of
unarisen sluggishness occurs—one is aware of that. And when the
abandoning of arisen sluggishness 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
Formal practice
involves sitting down deliberately for a stretch of time and committing
to being aware of all that unfolds in your experience. At its best this
is an enterprise of great contentment, even though it requires effort
to maintain an ardent and wakeful mind. Even if all you are noticing is
that your mind is getting sluggish and you need to generate some energy,
it is valuable that you can see that.
Daily Practice
As we practice
becoming aware of the five hindrances in succession, we come to working
with sluggishness. Like all the other hindrances, this is just a mental
state that is inherently impermanent and that comes and goes under
different conditions. When you notice a lethargy of mind, just be aware
of it. This is just what is happening now. But notice also that it goes
away and that you can help it go away by abandoning it.
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 due to equanimity.
The concentrated mind is thus purified, bright, unblemished, rid of
imperfection, malleable, wieldy, steady, and attained to
imperturbability. (MN 4)
Reflection
Equanimity is
the attitude and emotional state that is truly transformative. Being
able to be entirely neutral while at the same time being fully aware is a
special state of mind to be cherished. Neutral is sometimes regarded as
a negative word, suggesting disinterest or detachment, but that is not
at all how it is used in the Buddhist tradition. Rather it is the
pinnacle of the developed mind, the state to which the jhāna practice
delivers us.
Daily Practice
See if you can
work with these descriptions of the mind as a living practice. Can you
feel what it is like for the mind to be "bright"? Can you relate to how
the texts are using words like "unblemished" and "rid of imperfection"
not to judge the mind harshly but to appreciate its capacity for
luminosity? Can you sit tranquilly in equanimity and feel the mind as
"malleable"and "wieldy," imperturbable in the face of any experience?
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
