Saturday, December 27, 2025

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Via Daily Dharma: True Bodhicitta

 

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True Bodhicitta

Green Tara reminds us that bodhicitta doesn’t involve a minimization of our subjective experience, or require that our own needs be eclipsed; rather, it invites us to locate our spiritual efforts within a larger frame. Bodhicitta nurtures our sense of agency.

Pilar Jennings, “Boundaries Make Good Bodhisattvas”


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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 ill will. (MN 141)
Reflection
The encouragement to make an effort to restrain unhealthy mental states that have not yet arisen in the mind is not a call to suppress or censure yourself. You are not being asked to stick a finger in the dike and hold back the onslaught of the unconscious mind. Rather it is a call to be skillful in how to hold yourself in this present moment, for this moment conditions what will come up next.
Daily Practice
The mental quality of ill will includes such emotions as hatred or annoyance and can take the form of anger or fear. The practice described here involves understanding under what conditions these states arise and making an effort to instead encourage the conditions that will not welcome their arising. If you feel kindness, hatred will not arise; with equanimity, you will not get annoyed; if you trust, fear will not assail you.
Tomorrow: Establishing Mindfulness of Body and Abiding in the First Jhāna
One week from today: Abandoning Arisen Unhealthy States

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Are we living through the fall of civilisation? | The Reith Lectures 2025

Friday, December 26, 2025

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Posten - When Harry Met Santa (Norwegian postal service's 2021 holiday ad)

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Via Daily Dharma: Be Mindful of Self-View

 

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Be Mindful of Self-View

Approaches focused on mindfulness invite a wonderful attention to the body, here and now, but often miss directing attention toward our dependent, selfless nature. Without this insight, we miss how the processes of craving and suffering are bound up with self-view.

Anshin Devin Ashwood, “Visiting Teacher: Anshin Devin Ashwood”


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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 toward all living beings. (MN 41) One practices thus: "Others may harm living beings, but I will abstain from the harming of living beings." (MN 8)

A person reflects thus: "I am one who wishes to live, who does not wish to die. If someone were to take my life, that would not be pleasing and agreeable to me. Now if I were to take the life of another, that would not be pleasing and agreeable to the other either. How can I inflict upon another what is displeasing and disagreeable to me?" Having reflected thus, one abstains from the destruction of life, exhorts others to abstain from it, and speaks in praise of abstinence from it. (SN 55.7)
Reflection
This is one way of stating the Golden Rule found the world over: "Do unto others as you would have them do unto you." It requires that we consider the feelings of another to be as important as our own. Once this insight is well understood, it becomes a matter of following your own nature rather than following a rule. You become incapable of cruelty or selfish exploitation.
Daily Practice
The practice of non-harming (Sanskrit: ahimsa) consists first and foremost of caring for others to the extent that we cannot consciously want to harm them. But notice that this teaching goes farther, also encouraging us to speak openly about the value of abstaining from causing harm. The challenge is to do this with a mind of lovingkindness. How can we condemn the causing of harm without wishing harm to those who cause it? 
Tomorrow: Maintaining Arisen Healthy States
One week from today: Abstaining from Harming Living Beings

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

Questions?
 Visit the Dhamma Wheel orientation page.
Tricycle is a nonprofit and relies on your support to keep its wheels turning.
© 2025 Tricycle Foundation
89 5th Ave, New York, NY 10003