Via Daily Dharma: Sitting Is Freedom

 

Sitting Is Freedom When I look for freedom today, I find it not in fantasy or in dreams but in my sitting practice. What kind of freedom is it that exists in doing nothing? It is the freedom not to interfere or react. It is the freedom to merely observe. Ananda Baltrunas, “A Prison of Desire” CLICK HERE TO READ THE ARTICLE

The Philosophy of Other-Emptiness By Zim Pickens Explore the life and controversial teachings of Dölpopa Sherab Gyaltsen.  Read more »

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 upon 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)  Lovingkindness fails when it produces sentimentality. (Vm 9.93)

Reflection Believe it or not, lovingkindness is impersonal by nature. The feeling of care for another is not dependent on the specific qualities of that person but can be directed to anyone and everyone. This is what makes lovingkindness unsentimental. You don’t love only if the person is a family member or a friend. And you don’t love difficult people only if they deserve it or you have forgiven them. Lovingkindness rises above the personal.  Daily Practice See if you can discern, in your own experience, the difference between a feeling of lovingkindness that is laced with a sense of self and one that is not. See if you can sense the difference between the love you have for someone dear to you and the universal lovingkindness you cultivate while doing mettā practice. Personal connections are sentimental in a good sense, while lovingkindness transcends the personal. 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: Embodying Reality

 

Embodying Reality The ultimate goal of the spiritual journey is to realize the union of your mind and ultimate reality. You discover eventually that not only are you in reality but that you also embody that reality. Traleg Kyabgon Rinpoche, “Letting Go of Spiritual Experience” CLICK HERE TO READ THE ARTICLE

Enchantment and Illusion By Haley Barker Michela Martello’s lively compositions examine gender, tantric imagery, and the middle way. Read more »

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) Mental pain is suffering. Mental pain, mental discomfort, painful, uncomfortable feeling born of mental contact. (MN 9)

Reflection Under normal circumstances it is okay to make excursions into the realm of mental pain, as long as you are reinforced with the power of mindful equanimity. (Do not do this, however, if you are suffering from serious trauma.) When sitting just be aware, “I am sitting.” When walking just be aware, “I am walking.” And when experiencing mental pain simply be aware, “I am experiencing mental pain.” Equanimity makes suffering bearable. Daily Practice Losing someone you love really hurts. Feel the mental pain of that loss without elaborating a story around it. Feel the pain and nothing else. Being emotionally injured by someone really hurts. Feel in your body how that hurt manifests: tightness in the chest? Heat? Pain hurts, but it is ultimately just a passing sensation. Equanimity allows us to open to pain without being overwhelmed by suffering. 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 Ram Dass - Love Serve Remember Foundation //

 

You and I are using words - we use speaking and listening as a vehicle for us to meet. You’re picking them up and fitting them with your ideas, and deciding they work. You’re using your intellect to decide: am I here, am I like us, or am I them, or what am I? Whatever happened to Ram Dass? But we are also capable of meeting in the intuitive heart/mind—a way of knowing each other that isn’t through our immediate, analytic, intellectual process. When I share truth with the Beloved, we dance through the words with our minds, while sinking into a place of shared presence.

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 the mindfulness awakening factor is internally present, one is aware: “Mindfulness is present for me.” When mindfulness is not present, one is aware: “Mindfulness is not present for me.” When the arising of unarisen mindfulness occurs, one  is aware of that. And when the development and fulfillment of the arisen mindfulness awakening factor 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 Mindfulness is a mental state that comes and goes, like all mental states. Sometimes it arises and passes away on its own, and sometimes you “establish its presence” by putting forth energy with an intentional act of will. As your experience and skill in meditation increases, you will find it easier to arouse mindfulness, will it more often, and will find that it remains established for longer periods of time.  Daily Practice The easiest way to notice the presence of mindfulness is in that instant when you become mindful after not being mindful. When mindfulness is established in your mind after being absent the moment before, you can best discern its texture and quality. That is harder to notice when mindfulness has slipped away. Practice noticing when your mind is wandering and gently guide it back to the breath.  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 This state of mind is the culmination of the four stages of absorption and represents the consummation of the meditative enterprise of focused, one-pointed awareness. With the mind thus purified of its imperfections it is capable of seeing clearly, and by becoming "malleable" and "wieldy" it can be used as a tool to penetrate the many distortions and delusions that normally prevent us from understanding the true nature of things. Daily Practice Allow your Sunday sitting meditation to slowly and gently mellow into a profound state of equanimity. The mind is steady and bright but also imperturbable in the sense that there is nothing in your inner or outer experience that is going to evoke an episode of yearning or aversion. Equanimity is balance, an evenly hovering attention. Notice also in this passage that equanimity is said to be the means of purifying mindfulness. 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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