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Via Dhamma Wheel | Right View: The Noble Truth of the Way to the Cessation of Suffering

 

RIGHT VIEW
Understanding the Noble Truth of the Way to the Cessation of Suffering

And what is the way leading to the cessation of suffering? It is just this noble eightfold path: that is, right view, right intention, right speech, right action, right living, right effort, right mindfulness, right concentration. (MN 9) Having heard the Dhamma and trusting the Buddha, one undertakes a commitment to perfect their ethical behavior. (DN 2)

Reflection

The first step along the path of transformation and healing laid out by the Buddha is not meditation but the cultivation of improved ethical behavior. The practice is to purify your mind of some of the most harmful mental and emotional toxins that obstruct the ability to quiet the mind. This can only be done by making a commitment to a healthier course of action and will in itself greatly contribute to the cessation of suffering.

Daily Practice

Make a commitment to improving or even perfecting your ethical behavior as a living and active practice. Choose to work toward being a better person, toward treating others with greater care and respect, and toward being truthful and trustworthy. Ethical behavior is not only the result of meditation and wisdom but also the cause of them. As wisdom grows it becomes easier to behave ethically, but you need to begin such behavior on day one.

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

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Questions? Visit the Dhamma Wheel orientation page.

Via Daily Dharma: Love Is Certain

 In the midst of uncertainty, love is certain.

Susan Moon, “Don’t Fear the Reaper”

CLICK HERE TO READ THE FULL ARTICLE

Via Buddhist Boot Camp - FB

 

 

 

 

 A great mindfulness exercise to mind your own business: before saying anything to anyone, ask yourself these three questions: Does it need to be said? Does it need to be said right now? And.. MOST IMPORTANTLY.. does it need to be said by ME? If not, then don't say it. Increase the gap between impulse and action.

Via FB

 

Via Buddhist Boot Camp - FB

 

Via Nikki Walton – New Growth – Ep. 21 – Comedy, Spirituality, & Being Yourself w/ Duncan Trussell February 08, 2022

 

  Duncan Trussell joins Nikki for a conversation on comedy, spirituality, service, Ram Dass, confidence, being yourself, and starting where you are. Welcoming new friend...

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Via Ram Dass – Here and Now – Ep. 193 – The Anxiety of Being in the Void

  Ram Dass – Here and Now – Ep. 193 – The Anxiety of Being in the Void
February 10, 2022

  In the conclusion of this Ram Dass Q&A from 1992, he answers questions and offers wisdom about how life is our practice, how to...

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Via Dhamma Wheel | Right Mindfulness and Concentration: Establishing Mindfulness of Mind and the Third Jhāna

 

RIGHT MINDFULNESS
Establishing Mindfulness of Mind

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 mind is beset by aversion, one is aware "the mind is beset by aversion". . . One is just aware, just mindful: "There is mind." And one abides not clinging to anything in the world. (MN 10)

Reflection

As mental factors flow into consciousness, they color and distort the clarity with which we see what is actually going on, either in the world or in our own minds. Sometimes the mind is "beset by aversion" —that is, we feel annoyance at or distaste for some object of experience. Resenting this, or wishing it were not so, does no good and can even make aversion worse. With mindfulness practice, one simply abides without clinging and lets the experience come and go.

Daily Practice

The practice of mindfulness is simply to be aware of what is happening in the moment. This includes being aware of both healthy and unhealthy states of mind, and here we are being encouraged to know when the mind has been impacted by the emotional state of aversion, the not liking and not wanting of something. The practice here is to simply note the aversion without clinging to it. Aversion to the aversion is a form of clinging.

RIGHT CONCENTRATION Approaching and Abiding in the Third Phase of Absorption (3rd Jhāna)

With the fading away of joy, one abides in equanimity; mindful and fully aware, still feeling pleasure with the body, one enters upon and abides in the third phase of absorption, on account of which noble ones announce: "One has a pleasant abiding who has equanimity and is mindful." (MN 4)

Reflection

In some contexts the words "joy" and "equanimity" can seem to exclude one another: it is either one or the other. Here they are combined in the third phase of absorption, where the strong sensory pleasure of the previous two jhānas fades away, to be replaced by equanimity. Then this equanimity itself is subtly pleasurable but not in the same sense as before. The absence of pleasure is itself pleasurable, so to speak.

Daily Practice

Again, never mind the formal levels of jhāna practice. That is something you can get into if you take up formal jhāna practice under proper conditions. But sitting in silence and solitude on a Sunday morning or afternoon, you can allow the mind and body to formlessly unwind and relax to such an extent that you taste the quality of equanimity, of being fully aware of all experience without wanting anything to be different than it is.

Tomorrow: Understanding the Noble Truth of the Way to the Cessation of Suffering
One week from today: Establishing Mindfulness of Mental Objects and Abiding in the Fourth Jhāna

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Questions? Visit the Dhamma Wheel orientation page.

Via Daily Dharma: Each Step a Miracle

People say that walking on water is a miracle, but to me, walking peacefully on the Earth is the real miracle. The Earth is a miracle. Each step is a miracle. Taking steps on our beautiful planet can bring real happiness.

Thich Nhat Hanh, “Walk Like a Buddha”

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Via White Crane Institute // MONROE WHEELER

 

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L to R: Monroe Wheeler with George Platt Lynes

1899 -

MONROE WHEELER, American curator, born (d: 1988); Poet and author Glenway Wescott and Monroe Wheeler were an extraordinary couple. The two met for the first time in 1919, and it was, it seems, a classic case of love at first sight. At the time, Wescott was still in his teens and Wheeler just 20. Seemingly inured to the social mores of the time and inconstancies of youth, the two embarked on a relationship that can be called nothing short of a marriage, for the next 68 years, until Wescott's death in 1987.

The young couple traveled the world, stopping in on Gertrude Stein's Paris Salon and crossing paths with Jean Cocteau on the Riviera, while Wescott developed his poetry and later fiction (he authored The Grandmothers and The Pilgrim Hawk, among other bestsellers of his day) and Wheeler found his path. Eventually he would become the director of exhibitions and publications at the Museum of Modern Art.

The two moved with equal ease through the literary and artistic circles of London and the continent as well as their families' Midwestern homes. That their relationship thrived is notable enough. But 1927 brought a new challenge to their pairing. High-school student George Platt Lynes fell passionately in love with the strikingly good-looking Wheeler. And Wheeler, for his part, was entranced by Lyne’s 'full, luscious mouth and his wasp-like waist'. Instead of driving a wedge between Wescott and Wheeler, as might be expected, Lynes soon became part of their shared life. When, after some casting about, he hit upon photography, the two nurtured his career and used their considerable connections to get him both work and gallery shows.

In 1930, while still in France, Wheeler entered into a partnership with Barbara Harrison to establish the Harrison of Paris press, the goal of which was to publish fine editions of new and neglected classics. Over 5 years, they produced 13 titles, including works by Thomas Mann, Katherine Anne Porter, and Glenway Wescott's A Calendar of Saints for Unbelievers, with illustrations by Pavel Tchelitchev.

In 1935, following the marriage of Barbara Harrison to Glenway's younger brother, Lloyd, Wheeler and Wescott moved back to the United States. They soon set up households both on the farm in New Jersey bought by Barbara Harrison and Lloyd Wescott and in New York City, where they shared a series of apartments with George Platt Lynes.

It was at this time that Wheeler began an association with the Museum of Modern Art when, in 1935, he guest-curated an exhibit. His position at MOMA became permanent in 1938 when he was hired as Membership Director, then moved quickly into the position of Director of Exhibitions and Publications. Wheeler's innovations in publication and exhibit design soon became well-known. In 1951, in recognition of his work in bringing French artists to the attention of American viewers, he was made a Chevalier of the French Legion of Honor by the government of France.

In 1967, in preparation for his retirement, Wheeler shifted his duties at the museum. Having long been a trustee of the museum, he was appointed counselor and joined the International Council in its biannual meetings. After his official retirement in 1967, he continued to advise the museum on exhibitions and serve with a number of civic and arts organizations.

In 1969, Wheeler traveled as a cultural advisor with Nelson Rockefeller on a presidential mission to Latin America. In the 1970s, Wheeler travelled extensively and worked on projects documenting the history of MOMA and the collections of the Rockefeller family.

Monroe Wheeler died in Manhattan on August 14^th 1988 at the age of 89, 18 months after the death of Glenway Wescott.

 

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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 Ram Dass - Love Serve Remember Foundation // Words of Wisdom - February 13, 2022 💌

 
 

When you are fully present in the moment, there is no anticipatory fear, no anxiety, because you are just here and now, not in the future. When we are resting in our souls, death is just closing a chapter in a book. - Ram Dass

Via Dhamma Wheel | Right Action: Reflecting upon Mental Action

 

RIGHT ACTION
Reflecting Upon Mental 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 mental action is to be done with repeated reflection: (MN 61) When you have done an action with the mind, reflect upon that same mental action thus: "Has this action I have done with the mind 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

So much of what we do is never revealed in speech or bodily action. All mental activity is also a form of action and has karmic consequences. It is also the case that we can cause harm through our patterns of thought, including harm to ourselves. Karma is simply the workings of cause and effect, and every action we perform is accompanied by an internal mental intention, which is the focus of today’s practice.

Daily Practice

Here is an opportunity to look over some of your own mental patterns of activity and see if there have been any that contribute to self-harm. Perhaps there are ways you criticize yourself too harshly or undervalue your capabilities or secretly sabotage yourself. This is the sort of thing one often shares with a therapist, but it can be equally healing to share these mental actions with a good friend or someone else you trust.

Tomorrow: Abstaining from Misbehaving Among Sensual Pleasures
One week from today: Reflecting upon Social Action

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Questions? Visit the Dhamma Wheel orientation page.

Via Daily Dharma: The Wonder of Now

This moment is the only one we’ll ever have. When we really get that, a spaciousness opens up—breathing room, clarity, relief.

Tina Lear, “Unclutter Your Life by Erasing Your Future”

CLICK HERE TO READ THE FULL ARTICLE

Via Daily Dharma: Loving Yourself First

 Until you are able to love and take care of yourself, you cannot be of much help to others.

Thich Nhat Hanh, “Cultivating Compassion”

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Via Dhamma Wheel | Right Effort: Developing Unarisen Healthy States

 

RIGHT EFFORT
Developing Unarisen Healthy States

Whatever a person frequently thinks about and ponders, that will become the inclination of their mind. If one frequently thinks about and ponders healthy states, one has abandoned unhealthy states to cultivate the healthy state, and then one’s mind inclines to healthy states. (MN 19) Here a person rouses the will, makes an effort, stirs up energy, exerts the mind, and strives to develop the arising of unarisen healthy mental states. One develops the unarisen energy awakening factor. (MN 141)

Reflection

The mental and emotional states that are healthy, leading away from suffering and toward greater clarity of understanding, do not always arise on their own and sometimes need a little help. In the sequence of awakening factors, investigation of states naturally gives rise to energy, because everything becomes so interesting, but the development of energy can also be instigated and encouraged as a deliberate practice.

Daily Practice

Interesting how it is put in the text: that we need to stir up energy to develop energy. What this is pointing to is that sometimes we just have to reach down and decide that we will bring more energy to bear on a given situation. Perhaps it is blinking the eyes to overcome drowsiness or gritting the teeth boost our willpower to avoid a temptation. Energy is a factor that can be weak or strong. Here we practice strengthening it.

Tomorrow: Establishing Mindfulness of Mind and the Third Jhāna
One week from today: Maintaining Arisen Healthy States

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Questions? Visit the Dhamma Wheel orientation page.

Via White Crane Institute // From Harry Hay's Radically Gay

 

Today's Gay Wisdom

2018 -

TODAY’S GAY WISDOM

From Harry Hay's Radically Gay, edited by Will Roscoe:

Harry Hay's Gay politics represent an alternative to postmodernist, queer theory and dogmatic Constructionism. Indeed, Hay is the only contemporary Gay thinker who could be said to offer a unified theory of Gayness -- one that begins by defining its subject in multidimensional terms and then accounts for its individual and historical origins, its diverse forms and their history, the psycho-social development of Gay individuals, and the nature and sources of Gay oppression. Postmodernism offers at best a politics of resignation, one that rejects the possibility of an "outside" to power, of a subject-SUBJECT alternative to subject-OBJECT social relations, and the means of getting there is through a politics that affirms Queer identities and cultures.

Hay is not bothered if his ideas are called Essentialist or if his activism is deemed "identity politics" — he is happy to emphasize his differences with Social Constructionism and Queer theory — provided that the word radical precede these labels. The original meaning of this word, "to the root," serves well to convey the underlying theme of his philosophy and politics. The key principles of Harry's radical Essentialism can be summed up as follows:

• It is, first and foremost, Gay-centered — a "situated knowledge" (to borrow Donna Haraway's terminology) reflecting the social standpoint of contemporary sexual minorities. It is not neutral on the question of Queer well-being; it seeks to create knowledge that contributes to that end.
• It posits Gay presence rather than absence in the usual state of human society.
• It conceives of its subject in multidimensional terms — not merely as sexual preference but as a difference manifest in gender roles, social identity, economic roles and sometimes religious roles, as well.
• It seeks to tell history from the bottom up, using those documents, records and artifacts that reveal the common experience of the largest number of Queer folk and not only the discourse of elite heterosexuals and social institutions.
• It recognizes various levels of meaning — individual, social, trans-cultural, and spiritual. It does not assume that the way an individual describes herself will be identical to the institutional definition of labels that have been applied to her.
• It is multicultural and comparative. Rather than a unitary instance — "the modern homosexual" — it employs the notion of a family tree (like Wittgenstein's concept of "family resemblance") to conceptualize the relationship between the Queer identities and roles of different cultures and historical periods.
• It views history as a process of continuity-within-change rather than as a series of sharply defined periods of ruptures. Concept/labels like "Sodomite" and "Urning," "homosexual," and "Gay," have overlapped in their usage. Neither can be defined without reference to the other.
• It focuses on praxis. It seeks to analyze the interaction between individuals and their societies and cultures. It looks for instances of symbols and ideas in action as well as in discourse.

The mass coming-out that transformed the quiescent homophile movement of the 1960s into the dynamic Lesbian/Gay liberation and civil rights movements of the 1970s and 1980s was in large measure a function of joining a community where a negative label could be replaced with an affirmative identity. Hay's writings show that this was no accident. The cultural minority model was a carefully thought out political analysis and strategy on the part of the Mattachine founders.

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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 Daily Dharma: Emotions Unlock Wisdom

Tibetan Buddhism teaches that we find the antidotes to our most painful states of mind by leaning directly into the emotion itself. Our emotions are full of wisdom. They are the keys for deepening our practice and our relationships with our world.

Judith Simmer-Brown, “Transforming the Green-Ey’d Monster”

CLICK HERE TO READ THE FULL ARTICLE

Via Dhamma Wheel | Right Living: Abstaining from Misbehaving Among Sensual Pleasures

RIGHT LIVING
Undertaking the Commitment to Abstain from Misbehaving Among Sensual Pleasures

Sensual misconduct is unhealthy. Refraining from sensual misconduct is healthy. (MN 9) Abandoning sensual misconduct, one abstains from misbehaving among sensual pleasures. (MN 41) One practices thus: "Others may engage in sensual misconduct, but I will abstain from sensual misconduct." (MN 8) Sensual conduct is of two kinds: to be cultivated and not to be cultivated. Such sensual conduct as causes, in one who cultivates it, unhealthy states to increase and healthy states to diminish, such sensual conduct is not to be cultivated. But such sensual conduct as causes, in one who cultivates it, unhealthy states to diminish and healthy states to increase, such sensual conduct is to be cultivated. (MN 114)

Reflection

Misbehaving among sensual pleasures can include various forms of harmful sexuality, such as exploitation, causing humiliation, or sexual predation. It can also include all sorts of activities that are not sexual but involve sensual gratification. Our ability to inhabit a sensory and sensual world is not in itself a problem. The problem is that our senses can so easily lead us into attachments and aversions that cause difficulties.

Daily Practice

This practice is about the skillful use of the sense apparatus. Notice when sensory stimulation leads to craving and thus to grasping behavior. This is the path to suffering, as our senses lead us to wanting things we cannot have or hating things that are unpleasant. Notice also that there are ways to engage the senses that do not automatically lead to craving and grasping, and thus do not lead to suffering. Explore this.

Tomorrow: Developing Unarisen Healthy States
One week from today: Abstaining from Intoxication

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

Questions? Visit the Dhamma Wheel orientation page.