Thursday, February 3, 2022

Via Dhamma Wheel | Right Action: Reflecting upon Verbal Action

 

RIGHT ACTION
Reflecting Upon Verbal Action
However the seed is planted, in that way the fruit is gathered. Good things come from doing good deeds, bad things come from doing bad deeds. (SN 11.10) What is the purpose of a mirror? For the purpose of reflection. So too verbal action is to be done with repeated reflection: (MN 61)

When you have done an action with speech, reflect upon that same verbal action thus: "Has this action I have done with speech led to my own affliction?" If, upon reflection, you know that it has, then tell someone you trust about it and undertake a commitment not to do it again. If you know it has not, then be content and feel happy about it.  (MN 61)
Reflection
People are always talking, if not to other people, then to themselves. And the words we use have consequences, sowing the seeds of both external and internal karma. External karma is the consequence of our actions in the world; internal karma is the effect of our thoughts and emotions on ourselves. This text is telling us that it is beneficial to reflect upon things you have said in the past, noticing anything that has been hurtful to yourself. It is not too late to change the pattern, to learn to speak to yourself and of yourself in healthier ways.

Daily Practice
Pay attention to what you say, both to others and to yourself. Notice if you find you are devaluing yourself—putting yourself down in some way or being harshly self-critical. As in the case of bodily action, revealing these things to another person who you trust and who has your best interests in mind can be unburdening. It is healthy to change unhealthy habits, even those that are the most intimate and personal.

Tomorrow: Abstaining from Taking What is Not Given
One week from today: Reflecting upon Mental Action

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Questions?
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Via Daily Dharma: Befriending Your Breath

 The breath is like a soothing friend holding your hand as you walk into fear or loneliness or anger, encouraging you to stay with it. And if you feel like running away, observe that. And the breath is always there, in, out, in, out.

Interview with Larry Rosenberg by Amy Gross, “The Art of Doing Nothing”


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Wednesday, February 2, 2022

Via Lion's Roar // Ubuntu: I Am Because We Are; How to Practice Hugging Meditation; The Mindful Bodhisattva

 


Ubuntu: I Am Because We Are
The African philosophy of ubuntu teaches that we are human only through the humanity of others. Buddhists of African descent explore the synergy between ubuntu and the Buddhist teachings on interdependence. From the March 2022 issue of Lion’s Roar.

Via Dhamma Wheel | Right Speech: Refraining from Malicious Speech

 

RIGHT SPEECH
Refraining from Malicious Speech
Malicious speech is unhealthy. Refraining from malicious speech is healthy. (MN 9) Abandoning malicious speech, one refrains from malicious speech. One does not repeat there what one has heard here to the detriment of these, or repeat here what he has heard there to the detriment of those. One unites those who are divided, is a promoter of friendships, and speaks words that promote concord. (DN 1) One practices thus: "Others may speak maliciously, but I shall abstain from malicious speech." (MN 8)

When others address you, their speech may be gentle or harsh … One is to train thus: "My mind will be unaffected, and I shall utter no bad words; I shall abide with compassion for their welfare, with a mind of lovingkindness, without inner hate." (MN 21)
Reflection
Our natural tendency is to soften to gentle words and retaliate against harsh speech. But the former can allow us to be exploited by the flatterer, and the latter allows the worst in others to bring out the worst in us. Equanimity in the face of harsh speech is not indifference or detachment; it is simply being aware without reactivity. It is not allowing our minds to be thrown off by what others say to us.

Daily Practice
This is a challenging practice, but a helpful one. It encourages us to maintain a balanced state of mind in the face of any kind of speech. It may be easier to practice this at first with overhearing things in the media or the conversations of others, working up to being able to wish for the welfare of even those who speak harshly directly to you. It is not as hard as it sounds once you learn not to take everything others say personally.

Tomorrow: Reflecting upon Verbal Action
One week from today: Refraining from Harsh Speech

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Questions?
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Via Ram Dass - Love Serve Remember Foundation // Words of Wisdom - February 2, 2022 💌

 
 

It says in the Tao, “Truth waits for eyes unclouded by longing.”    

The way I hear this in psychology is: motivation affects perception. When I’m hungry, I see what’s edible. If I’m horny, I see what’s makeable. If I’m tired, I see what’s soft, you know, my motivation selects out of the infinity of the universe what it is that fits in with my desires.    

Since that’s the case, as long as you’re identified with your desires, you can’t help but manipulate the universe to try to bring about that gratification of your desires. If you carry that to its ultimate truth, you see that everybody around you is an object to be manipulated to give you that gratification.    

So if it says, “Truth waits for eyes unclouded by longing,” what does it mean to have an eye unclouded by longing? It’s the place in your being, in your awareness, which is not totally identified with your desire system.    

My sense is that to the extent you are not attached to your desire systems, you are able to hear other human beings, and you do less of projecting into them what you need, and the result is that out of your action comes responses which are more compassionate to who they are than your need at the moment.    

So this doesn’t mean you don’t have desires, but rather there is a paradox that’s hard to work with, which is this: “What does it mean to be fully involved in life and non-attached?”   

- Ram Dass

Via Daily Dharma: Work With What’s There

 You don’t escape from your delusions in zazen. Instead, you look straight at them, since you have to work with them. This is the paradox. You never enter a promised paradise in which there will be no delusion. But all your delusions are workable. If they weren’t, I think we’d all go mad.

Jakusho Kwong-roshi, “Emptying into Spaciousness”


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Tuesday, February 1, 2022

Via LGBTq Nation

 


Via Ram Dass - Love Serve Remember Foundation // Words of Wisdom - January 30, 2022 💌

 
 

We’ve been talking about balance—that the game is not to push away the world, the game is not to get caught in it—the game is to, as Christ said, ‘Be in the world, but not of the world,’ to be simultaneously empty and full, to be somebody and nobody. It’s all these paradoxes you have to embrace. There’s nothing to do, so get on with it.” - Ram Dass

 
Excerpt from Episode 191 of the Ram Dass Here & Now podcast

Via Dhamma Wheel | Right View: The Noble Truth of the Origin of Suffering

 

RIGHT VIEW
Understanding the Noble Truth of the Origin of Suffering
What is the origin of suffering? It is craving, which brings renewal of being, is accompanied by delight and lust, and delights in this and that; that is, craving for sensual pleasures, craving for being, and craving for non-being. (MN 9)

When one does not know and understand odors as they actually are, then one is attached to odors. When one is attached, one becomes infatuated, and one’s craving increases. One’s bodily and mental troubles increase, and one experiences bodily and mental suffering. (MN 149)
Reflection
The classical teaching of the noble truths is described in this text by cycling through all six sense spheres one by one, pointing to how suffering arises and ceases in countless individual experiences. Suffering is not a broad concept, but an intimate and fleeting experience. Every time you are experiencing something and craving it in some way, you are creating a micro-event of suffering. Today we are considering suffering in relation to the sense of smell.

Daily Practice
Smell is perhaps the least used of all the senses, but it is not to be overlooked as a field for practice. Are you capable of smelling odors without at the same time saying to yourself on some level: “This one is good"; "This one is bad"; "I want more of this one"; "I want this one to go away"? This is the invitation to practice. See if you can experience odors simply as what they are and not in relation to your desire for or against.

Tomorrow: Cultivating Compassion
One week from today: Understanding the Noble Truth of the Cessation of Suffering

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Questions?
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Via Daily Dharma: Uncovering Intrinsic Beauty

 When we’ve traced the senses back to the mind’s intrinsic radiance, every experience becomes the path—beautiful in the beginning, the middle, and the end, just as the Buddha said.

Kurt Spellmeyer, “Awakened by Beauty”


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Via Thich Nhat Hanh Foundation

 

 


 


Prayer for the New Year


Today, the 31st January 2022 marks the eve of the Lunar New Year, known in Vietnam as “Tet.” This was Thay’s favorite time of the year, as it always marks the coming together of our spiritual family in an intimate and relaxed way with poetry, gentle music, the hanging of simple poetic couplets, and “the fragrance of Zen.” When Thay first ordained and received the novice precepts, his teacher gave him the monastic Dharma name “Phùng Xuân” 逢春 which means "Meeting the Spring." In welcoming Tet this year, we will be honoring Thay’s memory and the spirit of “meeting the warmth of spring” in every moment.

Ashes of our teacher on the altar

As we welcome the new year tonight in our monasteries around the world, we will do as Thay always taught us to do, and present to the Ancestors’ Altar our formal aspiration or “New Year’s Prayer” for the year to come:


… Dear Respected Thay, you are a beautiful continuation of spiritual and blood ancestors across the ages, like a lotus in a sea of humanity. In your whole life of practice you have made an infinite contribution towards peace in ourselves and peace in the world. You encourage us to come home to ourselves, to be present for one another, to be as one body, to breathe as one body, and to go together as a river. You bridge differences and fill chasms, and always find the most beautiful gems in each culture and in each faith in order to enrich our path of practice, and inspire in us a direction and a course of action to take so that we can contribute to humanity’s collective wisdom, so that Buddha Maitreya—the Buddha of Love—can manifest each day in the form of a sangha.

 

Dear Thay, as we end the year, and as your physical body may play hide and seek, we give ourselves permission to grieve, to cry and to remember you. At the same time we come home to the present moment, looking deeply to recognize you in each brother and each sister, each flower bud and new leaf, in each passing cloud and beautiful walking path—in the many wonders of life. Some of us have been your life-long students, some have been to retreats, some have read your books, and some may have never met you but have spent moments enjoying a cup of tea in silence or admiring nature’s beauty with clear eyes—in one way or another, we know you, Thay, and we can recognize you in our very own practice.

Read the New Year's Prayer in Full

 

Via Dhamma Wheel | Right Intention: Cultivating Compassion

 

RIGHT INTENTION
Cultivating Compassion
Whatever you intend, whatever you plan, and whatever you have a tendency toward, that will become the basis on which your mind is established. (SN 12.40) Develop meditation on compassion, for when you develop meditation on compassion, any cruelty will be abandoned. (MN 62) 

The function of compassion is not bearing the suffering of others. (Vm 9.94)
Reflection
Compassion is an emotion to be felt, a "trembling of the heart in the presence of suffering." Its opposite emotion, cruelty, can come in strong or very subtle forms and involves the mind being unmoved in the face of suffering. Allowing yourself to be moved by compassion (as opposed to merely bearing or tolerating it) has a gradually transformative effect, softening the hardness of the mind and heart and allowing the habit of compassion to develop.

Daily Practice
Open yourself to the suffering of others. There is no shortage of opportunity for doing this in our world. But instead of noticing a tragic event or an injustice and then moving on to something else, allow your attention to linger on the suffering for a while. Open your mind and body to the unpleasantness of attending to suffering. It is okay to feel the pain of suffering without immediately trying to fix it. We learn and grow from this.

Tomorrow: Refraining from Malicious Speech
One week from today: Cultivating Appreciative Joy

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Questions?
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Via Daily Dharma: Finding Yourself in No-Self

 It’s not that there’s no self, because that’s ridiculous. You’re you, and I’m me. But the self doesn’t exist in the way we imagined it does. . . . Try to find it as it really exists, not as you think it should.

“The Zen of Therapy”, Interview with Mark Epstein by James Shaheen


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Sunday, January 30, 2022

Via White Crane Institute // Coretta Scott King

 


Coretta Scott King
2006 -

Coretta Scott King died in Rosarito Beach, Mexico on this day. The great civil-rights activist and tireless supporter of Gay Rights succumbed to complications from a stroke and ovarian cancer. In arguing against a constitutional amendment banning Gay marriage King said, "Gay and Lesbian people have families, and their families should have legal protection, whether by marriage or civil union. A constitutional amendment banning same-sex marriages is a form of gay bashing and it would do nothing at all to protect traditional marriage."

In 2003, she invited the National Gay and Lesbian Task Force to take part in observances of the 40th anniversary of the March on Washington and Martin Luther King's "I Have A Dream" speech. It was the first time that an LGBT rights group had been invited to a major event of the African American community. King said her husband supported the quest for equality by LGBT people and reminded her critics that the 1963 March on Washington was organized by Bayard Rustin, an openly Gay civil rights activist.

 


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Gay Wisdom for Daily Living from White Crane Institute

"With the increasing commodification of gay news, views, and culture by powerful corporate interests, having a strong independent voice in our community is all the more important. White Crane is one of the last brave standouts in this bland new world... a triumph over the looming mediocrity of the mainstream Gay world." - Mark Thompson

Exploring Gay Wisdom & Culture since 1989!
www.whitecraneinstitute.org

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

 


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, experiencing the whole body …one is just aware, just mindful: "There is body." And one abides not clinging to anything in the world. (MN 10)
Reflection
As you sit in formal practice your breath becomes an anchoring object of awareness. Other objects—sounds, thoughts—will intrude on your attention, but the breath is a baseline to which you can return. Notice the texture of the entire breath, from the beginning of the in-breath to the last moment of the out-breath, with steadiness and no interruption. When the mind is attentive like this it is naturally content.

Daily Practice
See if you can experience contentment while breathing. This means not wanting anything to be different than it is, not having anywhere else to go, not moving your mind beyond the moment but simply meeting each movement of the breath with mindful equanimity. You can feel the experience of the breath permeating your whole body and simply abide without clinging to anything whatsoever. 


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
Jhāna practice is not for everyone. Some take to it easily, some find it inaccessible. This is not something for you to succeed or fail at. If you are seriously interested in undertaking these concentration practices, then you should find a qualified teacher and practice in a protected space. Jhāna practice can contribute greatly to your understanding of the teachings, but is not a universal prerequisite. Lots of Buddhists don’t practice jhāna.

Daily Practice
Without striving for any kind of accomplishment, sit quietly at a dedicated time and place and allow the mind to gradually settle down, sinking through increasing layers of relaxation and calm. When one of the five hindrances arises, just gently let go of it and move the mind away from it. Whenever the mind is able to temporarily free itself of the hindrances, it naturally drops into the absorption of jhāna.


Tomorrow: Understanding the Noble Truth of the Origin of  Suffering
One week from today: Establishing Mindfulness of Feeling and Abiding in the Second Jhāna


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Via Daily Dharma: Let Silence Set

 When you are practicing zazen, do not try to stop your thinking. Let it stop by itself. If something comes into your mind, let it come in, and let it go out. It will not stay long.

Shunryu Suzuki Roshi, “Small Mind, Big Mind”


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