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Via Dhamma Wheel | Right Living: Abstaining from Taking What is Not Given

 

RIGHT LIVING
Undertaking the Commitment to Abstain from Taking What is Not Given

Taking what is not given is unhealthy. Refraining from taking what is not given is healthy. (MN 9) Abandoning the taking of what is not given, one abstains from taking what is not given; one does not take by way of theft the wealth and property of others. (MN 41) One practices thus: “Others may take what is not given, but I will abstain from taking what is not given.” (MN 8) On seeing a form with the eye, one does not grasp at its signs and features. Since if one left the eye faculty unguarded, unwholesome states of covetousness and grief might intrude, one practices the way of its restraint, one guards the eye faculty, one undertakes the restraint of the eye faculty. (MN 51)

Reflection

This is not a practice for shutting out the world but for gaining some control over what enters and influences your mind. Just as you don’t eat everything that you encounter, so also you need not see, hear, touch, or think everything that is capable of being discerned. Some objects impinge on the senses with such force that they cannot be ignored, but most of what we experience we seek out, driven by desire. We need not do this.

Daily Practice

Even with visual experience, we do not always have to take in more than what is immediately presented to the eye. Practice seeing something, acknowledging it, and then letting it pass away without chasing after its details and associations. We can take what is given to sight, and only what is given, and then move on to the next moment. In this way we are not dragged into entanglements we don’t choose, and we remain free.

Tomorrow: Abandoning Arisen Unhealthy States
One week from today: Abstaining from Misbehaving Among Sensual Pleasures

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Questions? Visit the Dhamma Wheel orientation page.

Via Daily Dharma: Compassion Through Acceptance

 The power of acceptance can’t be overestimated. Accepting the basic fact of the suffering and pain we witness, and remaining willing to experience it, is what allows us to access our innate capacities for compassion.

Fleet Maull, “From Empathy to Compassion”

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The violence in the US this month — the killing of African-American elders at a grocery store, Asian elders worshiping in their church, and 19 small children and two of their teachers in their elementary school classrooms — has elicited so much pain and grief. For many, it has also elicited a new or renewed determination to try to make this a better world. For others, well, for now it’s just exhaustion.

We invite you to join us this Friday, May 27, at 7:00 PM ET to hold space for our collective, whatever we feel, and offer metta to all who are suffering.

With lovingkindness,
All of us at IMS

Register Here

This is a free event. Open to all.

 

 

The Book of Queer | Streaming Soon on discovery+

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 wish to do an action with speech, reflect upon that same verbal action thus: “Would this action I wish to do with speech lead to both my own affliction and the affliction of another?” If, upon reflection, you know that it would, then do not do it; if you know that it would not, then proceed. (MN 61)

Reflection

Habits of speech follow the same principles as habits of body and mind. Whatever you practice doing, you learn to do, and however you practice speaking, you learn to speak that way. If you speak well of others, are kind in your intentions, and always take care to say only what is true, your character will be molded in that direction. The opposite is also true, and it is not hard to pick up unhealthy and hurtful habits of speech.

Daily Practice

Practice mindfulness of speech. This means speaking with conscious awareness rather than reacting automatically to what others say or venting the first emotion to surge into your mind. Reflect on the effect your words are likely to have on others before you let fly, and take care not to do harm to yourself or others. In fact, any time you are harming others with your words, you are also harming yourself. Speak carefully.

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

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Questions? Visit the Dhamma Wheel orientation page.

Via Daily Dharma: Effortless Release

If we really understand that nothing lasts and that everything is unreal and illusory, then letting go is easy. Actually, it happens by itself without effort.

Chökyi Nyima Rinpoche, “The Secret Strength of Sadness”

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Via Daily Dharma: Being the Stream

 Meditation is not just a rest or retreat from the turmoil of the stream of the impurity of the world. It is a way of being the stream, so that one can be at home in both the white water and the eddies.

Gary Snyder, “Just One Breath”

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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) Disputes occur when a person is envious and avaricious. Such a person dwells disrespectful and undeferential toward others, causing harm and unhappiness for many. If you see any such root of a dispute either in yourself or externally, you should strive to abandon it. And if you do not see any such root of dispute either in yourself or externally, you should practice in such a way that it does not erupt in the future. (MN 104)

Reflection

Malicious speech separates, while right speech unites. It is unhealthy to separate and healthy to unite, both individually and collectively. The world as a whole suffers when people divide one group from another and benefits when we have a sense of shared purpose. Envy and avarice can only occur when people are separate from one another, for only then does it feel like others have something that you do not.

Daily Practice

See if you can break down the distinctions between yourself and others so that you are content with whatever you have and feel no envy or yearning for what others have. Practice this attitude in your mode of speech, praising instead of blaming when others possess something you do not. Learn to say “us” and “ours” more than “me” and “mine.” Disputes and quarrels thrive on separation; harmony breeds peace.

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

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Questions? Visit the Dhamma Wheel orientation page.

Via Ram Dass - Love Serve Remember Foundation // Words of Wisdom - May 25, 2022 💌

 

The first step of karma yoga is to get free of the attachments to your own life, to develop a witness. We have thousands and thousands of me’s and there is one me that watches all the other me’s, right? That’s the only game. It’s not trying to change any of the me’s. It’s not the evaluator, and it’s not the judge, it’s not the super ego. It doesn’t care about anything. It just notes, ‘hmmm, there he is doing that.’ That witness, that place inside you, is your centering device. And that begins to be the work one does on oneself. Once one understands there is a place in oneself that one is not attached, the first job is to extricate yourself from attachment. - Ram Dass

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Via Dhamma Wheel | Right View: Understanding 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 nonbeing. (MN 9) When one does not know and see material form as it actually is, then one is attached to material form. 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

As we proceed with a systematic investigation of the second noble truth—how craving gives rise to suffering—we begin looking at each of the five aggregates in turn: material form, feeling, perception, formations, and consciousness. Material form includes everything constituted of matter, including the sense organs of the body and the substances in the environment giving rise to incoming data of sense experience.

Daily Practice

Pay attention to the point at which the subjective experience of the body meets resistance. Notice the physical sensations of your feet on the floor, your butt on the chair, your skin against your clothing. This is how we encounter material form in lived experience. Experience each of the four great elements: feel earth as resistance, air as movement, water as wetness, fire as heat. Notice how craving arises from each.

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

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Questions? Visit the Dhamma Wheel orientation page.

Via Daily Dharma: The Art of Living

 The art of living involves overcoming our head-trapped numbness, in becoming acutely sensitive to the cryptic messages of our feelings, no matter how painful. The more closely we listen, the more deeply we understand. Not just great but entirely unimagined treasures may then pour into our life and world.

David Edwards, “Burning Among Stars in the Night”

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SBMG will be having a three-hour mini-retreat with Guo Gu

 

On June 11, SBMG will be having a three-hour mini-retreat with Guo Gu, founder of the Tallahassee Chan Center.  This offering will only be online (no presence at the Dharma Center). Registration is on a sliding scale of $20 - $100 and includes a teacher donation.  Note, we do not turn away anyone for lack of funds. To learn more, read here.        You can find more at https://www.guogulaoshi.org.   You can find the audio files on the fourfold dimensions of transforming the self - in 1) Facing 2) Embracing 3) Transforming and 4) Letting Go of ourselves here: https://tallahasseechan.org/teachings/dharma-talks/special-talks/ Guo Gu has a listing of on-demand video lectures on Chan Buddhism at: https://courses.tallahasseechan.org

Register Now

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