Revoked

Monday, August 22, 2022

Via Dhamma Wheel | Right View: Understanding the Noble Truth of the Cessation of Suffering

RIGHT VIEW
Understanding the Noble Truth of the Cessation of Suffering

What is the cessation of suffering? It is the remainderless fading away and ceasing, the giving up, relinquishing, letting go, and rejecting of craving. (MN 9)

When one knows and sees consciousness as it actually is, then one is not attached to consciousness. When one abides unattached, one is not infatuated, and one’s craving is abandoned. One’s bodily and mental troubles are abandoned, and one experiences bodily and mental well-being. (MN 149)

Reflection

Last week we were reminded of the consequences of not knowing and seeing consciousness as it really is, namely attachment, infatuation, and an increase of troubles generally. Here we discover the positive side of the story. We are much better off when we understand that consciousness is a series of momentary phenomena that arise and pass away in rapid succession. Seeing this, we do not get attached to it.

Daily Practice

Become familiar with the habit of regarding your own mind as a series of events rather than as a solid thing with enduring qualities. Little is lost by doing so, and much can be gained. With a process, there is nothing to attach to. It is like watching a game or a performance: you want to stay present and attentive, but you don’t want to inhibit what is happening by trying to hold on to it. Your mind too is like a performance.

Tomorrow: Cultivating Appreciative Joy
One week from today: Understanding the Noble Truth of the Way to the Cessation of Suffering

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Via Daily Dharma: Find the Middle Path of Anger

There is great potential for us to find a middle path with anger through mindfulness, not adding to our brutal self-judgments because of it, and not acting it out in ways that ultimately leave us isolated and regretful.

Sharon Salzberg, “The Deluding Force”

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Sunday, August 21, 2022

LGBTQ Baha'i Experience Q and A, August 2022

Via Daily Dharma: Patience Is Self Care

Anger, annoyance, and impatience deplete energy. Patient effort strengthens our resources.

Allan Lokos, “Cooling Emotional Fires”

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Via Dhamma Wheel | Right Mindfulness and Concentration: Establishing Mindfulness of Feeling and the Second Jhāna

RIGHT MINDFULNESS
Establishing Mindfulness of Feeling

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 feeling a common pleasant feeling, one is aware: “Feeling a common pleasant feeling.” When feeling an uncommon pleasant feeling, one is aware: “Feeling an uncommon pleasant feeling”. . . One is just aware, just mindful: “There is feeling.” And one abides not clinging to anything in the world. (MN 10)

Reflection

A common pleasant feeling refers to the ordinary pleasures we are capable of experiencing through the gratification of the senses. Some things look really good, sound wonderful, taste and smell delicious, feel smooth and cool to the touch, and are great to think about. An uncommon pleasant feeling is the sort encountered during some meditation practices. In both cases it is okay to be closely aware of pleasure.

Daily Practice

When pleasure is encountered in ordinary life it is usually accompanied by desire and craving. When we practice mindfulness with pleasant feeling tones as an object, the goal is to experience the sensations with equanimity rather than with preference and attachment. It is natural to experience pleasure; the danger comes only when we allow it to carry us away into unhealthier mental and emotional states.

RIGHT CONCENTRATION
Approaching and Abiding in the Second Phase of Absorption (2nd Jhāna)

With the stilling of applied and sustained thought, one enters upon and abides in the second phase of absorption, which has inner clarity and singleness of mind, without applied thought and sustained thought, with joy and the pleasure born of concentration. (MN 4)

One practices: “I shall breathe in contemplating fading away";
one practices: “I shall breathe out contemplating fading away.”
This is how concentration by mindfulness of breathing is developed and cultivated
so that it is of great fruit and great benefit. (A 54.8)

Tomorrow: Understanding the Noble Truth of the Cessation of Suffering
One week from today: Establishing Mindfulness of Mind and Abiding in the Third Jhāna

Share your thoughts and join the conversation on social media
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Questions? Visit the Dhamma Wheel orientation page.