Meditation Month Day 23

 

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PRACTICE PROMPT That which knows and that which is known are one and the same.    Choose an object right in front of you. Do you experience the knowing of the object as something separate from the object itself? Are there two different experiences, or only one? If you begin to think about it, it may seem that there is a difference between the object and the awareness of the object. Look more carefully: are there really two separate entities here, or just one experience?

Related Content Getting Rid of the “Little I” A practitioner reflects on a private interview with her Zen teacher wherein she learns more about dropping her own self conception and connecting with expansiveness. Read more » Four Buddhist Teachings on Emptiness In an article about sunyata, writer and researcher Simeon Mihaylov explains the perspective of “no subject-ojbect” in Yogacara, the mind-only school of Mahayana Buddhism.   Read more » Follow Us

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Via Daily Dharma: Recognize Skillful Means

 

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Recognize Skillful Means When you’re feeling frustrated that you can’t change someone’s harmful opinions or terrible judgment, it’s important to recognize the skillful means you can use to care for yourself and others. Kimberly Brown, “Want to Change Someone’s Mind? Try This Instead.”  CLICK HERE TO READ THE ARTICLE

Her Gaze By Li-Young Lee, edited by Oliver Egger  A poet reflects on the mystery of his own mother.  Read more » The Afterlife of Japanese American Wartime Incarceration Brandon Shimoda in conversation with James Shaheen  In this episode of Tricycle Talks, poet Brandon Shimoda explores the ongoing legacies of the US government’s mass incarceration of Japanese immigrants and Japanese Americans during World War II. Listen now » Follow Us Forward today's wisdom to a friend »

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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 layperson is not to engage in the livelihood of trading in weapons. (AN 5.177)

Reflection Everyone has to earn a living somehow, and all human activities involve some form of harm to others. The Buddha encouraged his followers to abstain from certain trades that do the most harm, including involvement with weapons of warfare. He did not condemn them as morally wrong but pointed out that the harm caused by weapons rebounds on the worker and has a cumulative unhealthy effect on the mind. Daily Practice Think about what you do professionally and reflect on how much harm to other beings is intrinsic to the job. If there are ways to mitigate this harm, try to implement changes in how things are done. If you are engaged in a job that is fundamentally harmful, such as making or deploying weapons that are used to kill, then it would contribute to your welfare to look for another line of work.  Tomorrow: Restraining Unarisen Unhealthy States One week from today: Abstaining from Taking What is Not Given Share your thoughts and join the conversation on social media #DhammaWheel Questions? Visit the Dhamma Wheel orientation page.

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Via GBF: 2 poems for Jeff

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Richard Azzolini	Wed, Jan 21, 8:12 PM (15 hours ago)
to Gay

    Jeff and I both loved these poems.

It was a joy knowing him.  

Richard

When Death Comes, Mary Oliver

When death comes,

like the hungry bear in autumn;

when death comes and takes all the bright coins from his purse

to buy me, and snaps the purse shut;

when death comes

like the measle-pox

when death comes

like an iceberg between the shoulder blades,

I want to step through the door full of curiosity, wondering:

what is it going to be like, that cottage of darkness?

And therefore I look upon everything

as a brotherhood and a sisterhood,

and I look upon time as no more than an idea,

and I consider eternity as another possibility,

and I think of each life as a flower, as common

as a field daisy, and as singular,

and each name a comfortable music in the mouth,

tending, as all music does, toward silence,

and each body a lion of courage, and something

precious to the earth.

When it's over, I want to say all my life

I was a bride married to amazement.

I was the bridegroom, taking the world into my arms.

When it's over, I don't want to wonder

if I have made of my life something particular, and real.

I don't want to find myself sighing and frightened, or full of argument.

I don't want to end up simply having visited this world.     

Contemplation on no-coming and no-going - thich nhat hanh

This body is not me.

I am not limited by this body.

I am life without boundaries.

I have never been born,

and I have never died.

Look at the ocean and the sky filled with stars,

manifestations from my wondrous true mind.

Since before time, I have been free.

Birth and death are only doors through which we pass,

sacred thresholds on our journey.

Birth and death are a game of hide-and-seek.

So laugh with me,

hold my hand,

let us say good-bye,

say good-bye, to meet again soon.

We meet today.

We will meet again tomorrow.

We will meet at the source every moment.

We meet each other in all forms of life.