Sunday, December 28, 2025

Via Daily Dharma: Own Your Faults

 

Support the Tricycle community with a donation »
Own Your Faults

Disowning our faults or even just disparaging them only piles separation onto separation, which creates disorder not only in our local sangha but in the whole world.

Roshi Nancy Mujo Baker, “The Buddhist Guide to Gossip”


CLICK HERE TO READ THE ARTICLE
The Buddhist Traveler in Stockholm
By Haley Barker
In a country of 10.5 million, about 50,000 Swedes identify as Buddhist. Check out these must-see landmarks in Sweden’s capital. 
Read more »

Via Dhamma Wheel | Right Mindfulness and Concentration: Establishing Mindfulness of Body and the First Jhāna

 

TRICYCLE      COURSE CATALOG      SUPPORT      DONATE
RIGHT MINDFULNESS
Establishing Mindfulness of Body
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)
 
Breathing in and out, aware of long and short breaths . . . one is just aware, just mindful: "There is body." And one abides not clinging to anything in the world. (MN 10)
Reflection
Breathing is universally recommended as an object of meditation because it is always present and always changing. Sometimes it is long, sometimes short. This is not about controlling the breath but following along with it however it naturally unfolds. We are breathing all the time, but today is a good time to sit intentionally for some period of time and do nothing but be aware of breathing in and out, long and short. 
Daily Practice
There is a wealth of guidelines for practice here. What does it feel like to be at the same time both ardent (intent, energetic) and content, or to be aware of the breath while not clinging to the object of awareness? These are questions to be investigated in your own experience. Sit down in an empty place, establish the presence of mindfulness, and see for yourself what these words are pointing to.
RIGHT CONCENTRATION
Approaching and Abiding in the First Phase of Absorption (1st Jhāna)
Having abandoned the five hindrances, imperfections of the mind that weaken wisdom, quite secluded from sensual pleasures, secluded from unwholesome states, one enters and abides in the first phase of absorption, which is accompanied by applied thought and sustained thought, with joy and the pleasure born of seclusion. (MN 4)
Reflection
Absorption practice begins by finding the sweet spot in the center of the mind, the place where there is neither too much energy (restlessness) nor too little (sluggishness), neither wanting (sense desire) nor not wanting (ill will) anything. When these hindrances, along with doubt, are abandoned temporarily, the mind naturally settles down into a state of tranquil alertness and equanimity.
Daily Practice
Sit quietly and comfortably in a peaceful place and allow everything swirling around in your mind and body to gradually settle down. Like dust settling in the air or particulates settling in water, there is nothing to force or make happen. Patience will be rewarded by the experience of deeper and deeper modes of peacefulness, clarity, and stability of mind. Don’t try to measure anything; just let it all be what it is.
Tomorrow: Understanding the Noble Truth of the Origin of Suffering
One week from today: Establishing Mindfulness of Feeling and the Second Jhāna


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

Via FB












 

Via FB


 

Via FB


 

Via FB


 

Via FB


 

Via Ram Dass - Love Serve Remember Foundation /// Words of Wisdom - December 28, 2025 ❄️

 


“As I started to allow myself to be human more, when I just allowed what I am – things changed must faster in me. Things fell away more quickly. And once I just allowed the fact that I am human with all the foibles, things started to flow and I could feel change occurring in myself. And then I would start to experience my own beauty. And the idea that I just am… that when you look at a tree or a rock or a river, it is in its own way beautiful. ”
 
- Ram Dass

Source: Ram Dass – Here and Now – Ep. 30 – Risk Being Human

Saturday, December 27, 2025

Via FB




 

Via FB


 

Via Daily Dharma: True Bodhicitta

 

Support the Tricycle community with a donation »
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”


CLICK HERE TO READ THE ARTICLE

Via Dhamma Wheel | Right Effort: Restraining Unarisen Unhealthy States

 

TRICYCLE      COURSE CATALOG      SUPPORT      DONATE
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

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

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

Friday, December 26, 2025