Monday, July 7, 2025

Via BBC \\ Dalai Lama

 Earlier this week, the exiled Tibetan spiritual leader confirmed plans for a successor.

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Daniel Orey oreydc@gmail.com

12:16 AM (15 hours ago)
to me
Earlier this week, the exiled Tibetan spiritual leader confirmed plans for a successor.

Source: BBC News
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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)

Association with the unpleasant is suffering. Whenever one has unwanted, disliked, unpleasant objects of sight, sound, smell, taste, tangibles or mind, or whenever one encounters ill wishers, wishers of harm, of discomfort, of insecurity, with whom they have concourse, intercourse, connection, union—this too is suffering. (MN 9)
Reflection
One obvious form of suffering is having to deal with things that are unpleasant and that we don’t like. This can take the shape of sensual inputs, such as horrible visual images, annoying sounds, foul flavors and odors, and painful physical sensations, and it can include mental images and thoughts that are repugnant. Notice also that the text mentions people who are difficult and even hostile as sources of suffering.
Daily Practice
Just as it is inevitable that you will experience painful sensations in your body from time to time, it is equally inevitable that you will come into contact with people who are unfriendly and even wish you ill. This is an opportunity for practice. It is a chance to respond to such people with caution, yes, but also with equanimity, at least, and perhaps even with kindness. Do not allow the ill will of others to provoke ill will in yourself.
Tomorrow: Cultivating Lovingkindness
One week from today: Understanding the Noble Truth of the Origin of Suffering

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Via Daily Dharma: Notice the Thread of Life

 

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Notice the Thread of Life

We may survive a hurricane and have a heart attack the next day. Our lives are all hanging by a thread. It makes us nervous to think about it, so we try not to. But that thread has held us up since we were born. And once in a while it’s good to notice it so we can be thankful for it.

Gregg Krech, “Grateful for Nothing”


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Owning Your Dharma
By Mindrolling Jetsün Khandro Rinpoche
Is the glass half samsara or half nirvana? 
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Sunday, July 6, 2025

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 energy-awakening factor is internally present, one is aware: “Energy is present for me.” When energy is not present, one is aware: “Energy is not present for me.” When the arising of unarisen energy occurs, one  is aware of that. And when the development and fulfillment of the arisen energy-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
Energy is a mental factor, like so many others, that arises and passes away in the mind from one moment to another. We all know what it feels like to have too little energy and to give it a boost to accomplish a task, and what it feels like to have too much energy and to try to calm down using relaxation exercises. One way of practicing mindfulness of mental objects is to learn to look at and develop this awakening factor.
Daily Practice
See if you can gain an intuitive understanding of what the energy factor feels like in your own direct experience. Do this by noticing when it is present and when it is absent. Like isolating a muscle in the body for strengthening exercises, see if you can identify and strengthen the means of deliberately increasing or decreasing mental energy. This is an awakening factor because it is a crucial tool for developing the mind toward awakening.
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)

One practices: “I shall breathe in tranquilizing mental formations;”
one practices: “I shall breathe out tranquilizing mental formations.”
This is how concentration by mindfulness of breathing is developed and cultivated 
so that it is of great fruit and great benefit. (SN 54.8)
Tomorrow: Understanding the Noble Truth of  Suffering
One week from today: Establishing Mindfulness of Body and Abiding in the First Jhāna

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Via Daily Dharma: Our Relationship in This Moment

 

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Our Relationship in This Moment

We’re not anyone in particular. Every moment, in response to the conditions in front of us, another person, the sky, the flowers, we are created again. That’s who we are: our relationship in this moment.

Norman Fischer, “We Are Our Relationships”


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The Eight Worldly Winds: Praise and Blame
By Vanessa Zuisei Goddard
In the latest installment of our series on the eight worldly winds, Vanessa Zuisei Goddard explains how praise and blame can compound our ignorance.
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Via Ram Dass - Love Serve Remember Foundation //

 


The root of fear is the feeling of separateness within the model one has of oneself. Once that feeling of separation exists, then you process everything from that model. It then keeps reinforcing the sense of vulnerability, because there are incredibly powerful forces moving both inside and outside of you.

The transformative process of spiritual work is reawakening to the innocence of going behind that model of separation that one has, that cuts you off, that made you a tiny little fragile somebody. A lot of the power comes from a freeing of our fragility.
 
- Ram Dass