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Via Dhamma Wheel | Right Mindfulness and Concentration: Establishing Mindfulness of Feeling and the Second Jhāna

 

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RIGHT MINDFULNESS Establishing Mindfulness of Feeling 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 feeling a neither-pleasant-nor-painful feeling in the body, one is aware: “Feeling a bodily neither-pleasant-nor-painful feeling … one is just aware, just mindful: 'There is feeling.'” And one abides not clinging to anything in the world. (MN 10)

Reflection Of the three kinds of feeling tone—pleasant, painful, and neither-pleasant-nor-painful—it is this third, neutral feeling that is the most challenging to the practice of mindfulness. Feeling tones arise in a steady stream, just like the stream of consciousness; the practice is to pay close enough attention to the textured sensation of each moment. The object is one thing (sight, sound, etc.), and the feeling tone that arises with it is another.  Daily Practice Sit quietly for some stretch of time and attend carefully to all the neutral sensations in the body. You might even scan systematically from head to foot looking for all the feeling tones that are occurring. Some are obviously pleasant, some are clearly painful. What about the rest? These are the neutral sensations—you feel them, but they do not feel good or bad. They are just there. Feel what it's like to feel what is just there.  RIGHT CONCENTRATION Approaching and Abiding in the Second Phase of Absorption (2nd Jhāna) With the stilling of applied and sustained thought, one enters upon and abides in the second phase of absorption, which has inner clarity and singleness of mind, without applied thought and sustained thought, with joy and the pleasure born of concentration. (MN 4) Reflection The mind is capable, through training, of becoming more concentrated than is usual in ordinary daily experience. The Buddha describes this as a natural process, unfolding as the body and mind become gradually happier and more tranquil while the mind is focusing upon a single object. In the second phase of this process, discursive thinking gradually fades away as the feeling of pleasure and well-being grows stronger and deepens. Daily Practice As you sit quietly and focus on your breathing, the thoughts and memories and plans that so habitually inhabit the mind begin to settle, and the mind becomes calmer. At a certain point thoughts may cease altogether. Awareness of sensory experience remains strong, but it is no longer mediated by words, images, or concepts. The need to re-engage the mind with an object and hold it there is no longer needed, so these functions drop away. Tomorrow: Understanding the Noble Truth of the Cessation of Suffering One week from today: Establishing Mindfulness of Mind and Abiding in the Third Jhāna 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: Happiness Without Conditions

 

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Happiness Without Conditions Our fragile happiness depends on things happening a certain way. But there is something else: a happiness not dependent on conditions. The Buddha taught the way to find this perfect happiness. Bhante Henepola Gunaratana, “Getting Started” CLICK HERE TO READ THE ARTICLE

Classroom Mindfulness Put to the Test By Emma Varvaloucas Is mindfulness causing children more harm than good?  Read more » Women of Tibet: A Quiet Revolution Directed by Rosemary Rawcliffe On March 12, 1959, 15,000 unarmed Tibetan women took to the streets of Lhasa to oppose the violent occupation of their country by the Communist Chinese army. For the first time on film, three generations of Tibetan women and His Holiness the 14th Dalai Lama tell the story of one of the great movements of nonviolent resistance in modern history. Watch now »

Via Ram Dass - Love Serve Remember Foundation \\ Words of Wisdom - April 27, 2025 💠

As I have gone from identity with ego to identity with soul or witness, I have found a space and a way in relation to the mystery of the universe that allows me to be with the suffering that lives on this plane, mine and others, in a way that doesn’t overwhelm me. I’m not overwhelmed by my impotence to take it all away and I don’t have to look away from it, and I deal with it as it arises.

 

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Via White Crane Institute \\ LUDWIG WITTGENSTEIN

 

Exploring Gay Wisdom & Culture since 1989
This Day in Gay History
April 26

LUDWIG WITTGENSTEIN, Austrian-born philosopher (d. 1951); an Austrian philosopher who worked primarily in the foundations of logic, the philosophy of mathematics, the philosophy of mind and the philosophy of language. His influence has been wide-ranging and he is generally regarded as one of the 20th century's most important philosophers.

Before his death at the age of 62, the only book-length work Wittgenstein had published was the Tractatus Logico-Philisophicus,["Philosophical Investigations"], which Wittgenstein worked on in his later years, was published shortly after he died. Both of these works are regarded as highly influential in analytic philosophy.

Ludwig Wittgenstein seems to have been uncomfortable with his sexuality. Certainly, he was very secretive about his sexual interests and activities. His secretiveness is not altogether surprising, considering the fact that homosexuality was illegal in Austria and Britain during his lifetime. Therefore, details of his emotional and sexual life are sparse.

William W. Bartley first broached the subject of Wittgenstein's homosexuality in his 1973 biography and received considerable censure and disapproval from the philosophy establishment. Apparently, in his student days in Vienna, Wittgenstein occasionally cruised the Prater, a large public park, where he met rough trade youths; he seems to have continued this activity later in England. However, Wittgenstein is also believed to have had long-term affairs with men of his own class, such as the philosopher Frank Ramsey and the architect Francis Skinner.

|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|

Pete Buttigieg on Trump Tariffs, Taxing Billionaires, and Republican Gays

Via LGBTQ Nation \\ Pete Buttigieg just sold a MAGA bro on his vision for America

 

Via LGBTQ Nation \\ Anti-LGBTQ+ GOP legislator says gay marriage must be overturned because “God”

 

Via Dhamma Wheel | Right Effort: Abandoning Arisen Unhealthy States

 

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RIGHT EFFORT Abandoning Arisen 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 abandon arisen unhealthy mental states. One abandons all five arisen hindrances. (MN 141)

Reflection Having worked through all five hindrances one at a time, we now focus on treating sense desire, ill will, restlessness, sluggishness, and doubt as a group. These are the five kinds of mental states that obstruct the ability of the mind to gather strength and become unified. Unhealthy states breed more unhealthy states, and it is helpful to abandon, not suppress or resist, them when you notice them arising in your experience. Daily Practice Become familiar with these unhealthy states and notice them at any point during your day when they come up—which is bound to be often. Just notice them one by one, recognize each as being not helpful, and let it go. That’s all. Gently guide your mind away from states that obstruct the mind toward states that are free of these obstacles. You will come to know your own mind better, and the practice will become easier to do. Tomorrow: Establishing Mindfulness of Feeling and the Second Jhāna One week from today: Developing Unarisen Healthy 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: Practice in the Body

 

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Practice in the Body We already have everything we need to get our practice out of our head and into our body, simply by being in the body that we’re in, as it is, in this one moment. Sensei Dhara Kowal, “This Very Body” CLICK HERE TO READ THE ARTICLE

‘Architectures of Emptiness’ By Arthur Sze Arthur Sze’s twelfth book of poetry dances between silence and sound and asks how we can live fully in the face of catastrophe. Read more » Women of Tibet: A Quiet Revolution Directed by Rosemary Rawcliffe On March 12, 1959, 15,000 unarmed Tibetan women took to the streets of Lhasa to oppose the violent occupation of their country by the Communist Chinese army. For the first time on film, three generations of Tibetan women and His Holiness the 14th Dalai Lama tell the story of one of the great movements of nonviolent resistance in modern history. Watch now »