Saturday, June 22, 2024

Via Daily Dharma: The Aliveness of This Body

 

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The Aliveness of This Body

Let’s connect with the sense of aliveness in this body. Breathing, pulsating, this amazing piece of nature. 

Nikki Mirghafori, “Death Is a Part of Life”  


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Celebrating Buddhism’s Inclusivity
By Wendy Biddlecombe Agsar and Tricycle
In honor of Pride Month, here is a collection of articles from Tricycle’s archives that celebrate strides toward equality.
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Via Dhamma Wheel | Right Effort: Abandoning Arisen Unhealthy States

 


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

Abandoning ill will, one abides with a mind free from ill will, compassionate for the welfare of all living beings; one purifies the mind of ill will. (MN 51) Just as a person who had been bound in prison would get free of prison, so would one rejoice and be glad about the abandoning of ill will. (DN 2)
Reflection
Ill will, along with its synonyms hatred and aversion, can be likened to a disease from which we need to recover. It roils the mind like the boiling of water, preventing us from seeing clearly what arises in the mind, unlike water that is calm and therefore reflective of whatever stands before it. Here ill will is compared with being in prison: hatred has a way of trapping the mind and denying it the freedom it is capable of when unbound.

Daily Practice
When ill will comes up in your mind, abandon it. Just let it go. Anger and hatred are only sustained if we feed them. Since all mental and emotional states are transient, we need simply to allow them to pass through the mind unhindered. Normally we ruminate on what someone said or did and thereby sustain and amplify our ill will. Instead, watch ill will come up, notice that it is unhelpful and unhealthy, and let it go.

Tomorrow: Establishing Mindfulness of Feeling and Abiding in the Second Jhāna
One week from today: Developing Unarisen Healthy States

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Friday, June 21, 2024

Jesus in India, Tibet and Persia - An Account Missing from the Bible

Avalokitesvara Mantra

 

 

Oṃ Mani Padme Hūṃ / Om Mani Padme Hum

Avalokiteshvara (or Avalokiteśvara) is a Bodhisattva who represents compassion, and his mantra also symbolizes that quality. 

Avalokiteshvara means “The Lord Who Looks Down (in compassion)”.

There are various forms of Avalokiteśvara (Chenrezig in Tibetan). The four-armed form is shown here. There is also a 1000-armed form — the many arms symbolizing compassion in action. And in the far east, Avalokiteshvara turned into the female Bodhisattva, Kuan Yin.

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The Sūtra on the Heart of Realizing Wisdom beyond Wisdom

 

Avalokiteshvara, who helps all to awaken, moves in the deep course of realizing wisdom beyond wisdom, sees that all five streams of body, heart, and mind are without boundary, and frees all from anguish.

 

O Shāriputra, [who listens to the teachings of the Buddha], form is not separate from boundlessness; boundlessness is not separate from form.

 

Form is boundlessness; boundlessness is form.

 

The same is true of feelings, perceptions, inclinations, and discernment.

 

O Shāriputra, boundlessness is the nature of all things.

 

It neither arises nor perishes, neither stains nor purifies, neither increases nor decreases.

 

Boundlessness is not limited by form, nor by feelings, perceptions, inclinations, or discernment.

 

It is free of the eyes, ears, nose, tongue, body, and mind; free of sight, sound, smell, taste, touch, and any object of mind; free of sensory realms, including the realm of the mind.

 

It is free of ignorance and the end of ignorance.

 

Boundlessness is free of old age and death, and free of the end of old age and death.

 

It is free of suffering, arising, cessation, and path, and free of wisdom and attainment.

 

Being free of attainment, those who help all to awaken abide in the realization of wisdom beyond wisdom and live with an unhindered mind.

 

Without hindrance, the mind has no fear. Free from confusion, those who lead all to liberation embody profound serenity.

 

All those in the past, present, and future, who realize wisdom beyond wisdom, manifest unsurpassable and thorough awakening.

 

Know that realizing wisdom beyond wisdom is no other than this wondrous mantra, luminous, unequaled, and supreme.

 

It relieves all suffering. It is genuine, not illusory.

 

So set forth this mantra of realizing wisdom beyond wisdom. Set forth this mantra that says:

 

Gaté, gaté, paragaté, parasamgaté, Bodhi! Svaha!

Gaté, gaté, paragaté, parasamgaté, Bodhi! Svaha!

Gaté, gaté, paragaté, parasamgaté, Bodhi! Svaha!

 

Translated by Kazuaki Tanahashi and Joan Halifax Rōshi


 

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Via Dhamma Wheel | Right Living: Abstaining from Taking What is Not Given

 


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RIGHT LIVING
Undertaking the Commitment to Abstain from Taking What is Not Given  
Taking what is not given is unhealthy. Refraining from taking what is not given is healthy. (MN 9) Abandoning the taking of what is not given, one abstains from taking what is not given; one does not take by way of theft the wealth and property of others. (MN 41) One practices thus: “Others may take what is not given, but I will abstain from taking what is not given.” (MN 8)

On hearing a sound with the ear, one does not grasp at its signs and features. Since if one left the ear faculty unguarded, unwholesome states of covetousness and grief might intrude, one practices the way of its restraint, one guards the ear faculty, one undertakes the restraint of the ear faculty. (MN 51)
Reflection
This is another encouragement to be with what is happening without going beyond the experience and taking more than is given in the moment. The image of guarding the sense doors, as a watchman might guard the gate to a city, suggests the ability to choose what gets into the mind and what is turned away. It is a way of gaining some power and claiming some freedom over what happens to you.

Daily Practice
Practice along these lines: “In what is heard, there will be only what is heard.” As we work with each of the sense modalities in turn, we learn to be fully present with what is occurring without embellishing it or projecting our desires onto it. Can we hear without grasping? What does this feel like? Mindfulness practice involves being fully aware of what is presenting at the sense doors without getting swept away by it or swept beyond it. 

Tomorrow: Abandoning Arisen Unhealthy States
One week from today: Abstaining from Misbehaving Among Sensual Pleasures

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

Questions?
Visit the Dhamma Wheel orientation page.



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89 5th Ave, New York, NY 10003

Via Daily Dharma: Vehicles of Knowledge

 


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Vehicles of Knowledge

Pain is also a vehicle of knowledge. It may very well be knowledge itself. 

Ocean Vuong, “Why Buddhist Ocean Vuong Practices a Death Meditation”
 

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Make Your Practice a Continuous Stream
By Ajahn Chah, Translated by Thanissaro Bhikkhu
A lesson in disenchantment from one of the Thai Forest Tradition’s most influential teachers.
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