Via Dhamma Wheel | Right Effort: Restraining Unarisen Unhealthy States

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RIGHT EFFORT Restraining Unarisen 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 restrain the arising of unarisen unhealthy mental states. One restrains the arising of the unarisen hindrance of doubt. (MN 141)

Reflection The fifth of the five hindrances is doubt. This is not the healthy skepticism that encourages us to think for ourselves and not take anything on hearsay. It is the debilitating doubt wherein we are unsure of ourselves and unclear about whether the practice we are doing is well taught or we are practicing it correctly. These sorts of doubts hinder our progress and are better replaced by their opposite, trust and confidence. Daily Practice See if you can give some attention to the quality of mind that presents itself when you are doubtful about something and, alternatively, when you are trusting of something. The point is not so much whether the doubt or trust is justified or not, or right or wrong, but rather the effect such attitudes have on the workings of consciousness. Self-doubt in particular undermines the mind, while confidence promotes energy. Tomorrow: Establishing Mindfulness of Body and Abiding in the First Jhāna One week from today: Abandoning Arisen Unhealthy States 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: Growth Is in the Little Things

 

 

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Growth Is in the Little Things

Every wholesome thought, every pure intention, every effort to train the mind represents a potential for growth along the noble eightfold path. Bhikkhu Bodhi, “Vision and Routine” CLICK HERE TO READ THE FULL ARTICLE

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Via Dhamma Wheel | Right Living: Abstaining from Harming Living Beings

 

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RIGHT LIVING Undertaking the Commitment to Abstain from Harming Living Beings Harming living beings is unhealthy. Refraining from harming living beings is healthy. (MN 9) Abandoning the harming of living beings, one abstains from harming living beings; with rod and weapon laid aside, gentle and kindly, one abides with compassion for all living beings. (M 41) One practices thus: "Others may harm living beings, but I will abstain from the harming of living beings." (MN 8) A layperson is not to engage in the livelihood of trading in meat. (AN 5.177)

Reflection Vegetarianism is an important issue in contemporary Buddhist discussion. The Buddha was famously not a vegetarian, although he spoke of the importance of not harming living beings. His perspective was that as beggars, the monks and nuns had to accept all offerings put in their bowls without making distinctions between what they liked or didn't like, or between what they thought was rightly or wrongly procured.  Daily Practice Whether or not you are a practicing vegetarian, the matter raised here is about the livelihood of a layperson. Trading in meat was singled out as an inappropriate profession because it involves the killing of living beings every day in great numbers. This is just not a healthy thing to be doing. Give the matter some attention today and reflect upon how much harm or lack of harm results from what you do for a living. Tomorrow: Restraining Unarisen Unhealthy States One week from today: Abstaining from Taking What is Not Given 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: Peaceful Abandon

 

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Peaceful Abandon  Try turning off the radio, the phone, the computer, and the TV; sit comfortably in a quiet place, relaxing the body and mind; mindfully breathe in, mindfully breathe out, and abandon—just for now—any thought or response that tends to disperse and divide your awareness. Andrew Olendzki, “Busy Signal” CLICK HERE TO READ THE FULL ARTICLE

On ‘Music for Zen Meditation’ By Stephan Kunze On the occasion of the 60th anniversary of Tony Scott’s groundbreaking spiritual jazz album, Tricycle looks back at Zen’s enduring influence on modern music. Read now » My Buddha Is Punk Directed by Andreas Hartmann In this film, twenty-five-year-old Burmese punk musician Kyaw Kyaw is on a mission to travel through Myanmar playing music and organizing demonstrations to raise awareness about the persecution of the country’s ethnic minorities. Subscribers can stream the film on Tricycle’s Film Club all month long. Watch now »

Via White Crane Institute // ROSA BONHEUR

	Exploring Gay Wisdom & Culture since 1989
This Day in Gay History
March 22 Born Rosa Bonheur wearing the Legion of Honor 1822 - ROSA BONHEUR, French painter born (d: 1899); a French animalière and realist artist, one of few female sculptors. As a painter she became famous primarily for two chief works: Plowing in the Nivernais (in French Le labourage nivernais, le sombrage ), which was first exhibited at the Salon of 1848, and is now in the Musee D'Orsay in Paris depicts a team of oxen plowing in a field while attended by peasants set against a vast pastoral landscape; and, The Horse Fair (in French Le marché aux chevaux ), which was exhibited at the Salon of 1853 (finished in 1855) and is now in the Metropolitan Museum of Art, in New York City. Bonheur is widely considered to have been the most famous woman painter of the 19th century. Writers used to explain Bonheur’s penchant for dressing in men’s clothing by saying that the famous painter of animals needed disguises to paint unmolested in the markets she frequented for her subjects. It’s a nice thought, but untrue. Rosa Bonheur, who lived together with Nathalie Micas for most of her life, dressed as a man because she wanted to. She drank, she smoked, she became one of the most popular painters in the world and a member of the French Legion of Honor. She was, in short, very much her own person. As she once said to a male friend who was concerned about her movement through the world of men (gasp!) unchaperoned, “Oh my dear Sir, if you knew how little I care for your sex, you wouldn’t get any ideas in your head. The fact is, in the way of males, I only like the bulls I paint.”

 

 

 

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