Wednesday, October 19, 2022

Via Dhamma Wheel | Right Speech: Refraining from Harsh Speech

 

RIGHT SPEECH
Refraining from Harsh Speech
Harsh speech is unhealthy. Refraining from harsh speech is healthy. (MN 9) Abandoning harsh speech, one refrains from harsh speech. One speaks words that are gentle, pleasing to the ear, and affectionate, words that go to the heart, are courteous, and are agreeable to many. (DN 1) One practices thus: “Others may speak harshly, but I shall abstain from harsh speech.” (MN 8)

It is a mistake to return anger with anger. Not giving anger for anger, one wins a double victory. One behaves for the good of both oneself and the other person. Knowing well the other’s anger, be mindful and remain calm. In this way you are healing both yourself and the other person. (SN 11.14)
Reflection
This call for calm in the face of anger is timeless—and timely. Anger can be an effective emotion, but it is also toxic. Not only can things escalate and get seriously out of hand when you return anger with anger, but cultivating anger has a corrosive effect on your own heart and mind. If you regard the angry person as caught up by a hostile force, you can feel compassion for them rather than anger. This contributes to healing both of you.

Daily Practice
Make a point of remaining calm when someone else is angry and see what it feels like. You may feel the impulse to get angry in return, but you can recognize that this is an impulse you can abandon when it arises. By not giving in to anger when it is provoked by others, you are not only protecting yourself from the harmful effects of the toxic emotion but also helping the other person, who often, like you, is a victim of anger.

Tomorrow: Reflecting upon Mental Action
One week from today: Refraining from Frivolous Speech

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Via Ram Dass - Love Serve Remember Foundation // Words of Wisdom - October 19, 2022 💌

 
 
“As long as I stay mired in the drama, all I’m doing is digging everybody’s hole deeper along with me. And so I see it as a place to work on myself. It’s not bad, it’s not good; of course, we’re going to get stuck, that’s why we took human incarnation. If you weren’t ever going to get stuck, you wouldn’t have taken birth here. That’s your work.”
 

Tuesday, October 18, 2022

Via Dhamma Wheel | Right Intention: Cultivating Appreciative Joy

 

RIGHT INTENTION
Cultivating Appreciative Joy
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 appreciative joy, for when you develop meditation on appreciative joy, any discontent will be abandoned. (MN 62) 

Appreciative joy is like a mother with a son who is young, for she just wants him to long enjoy the benefits of youth. (Vm 9.108)
Reflection
Appreciative joy is what lovingkindness transforms into when we witness something good and beneficial happening to another person, just as it turns to compassion when we see harm being done. Appreciating the good fortune of others is a readily available source of joy, as there are many blessings that can be counted. You can choose to focus on the harm or the good in the world around you and thereby feel either joy or sorrow.

Daily Practice
Practice focusing on the good things around you, the many ways other people can experience good fortune and well-being. Notice how your mind is uplifted when you appreciate the positive aspects of others' experience. This is a skill that can be developed with practice. It is not about shutting out the misfortunes that abound in the world but about balancing them with recognizing the many blessings that also exist.

Tomorrow: Refraining from Harsh Speech
One week from today: Cultivating Equanimity

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Via Daily Dharma: Compassion Versus Empathy

 A key distinction between compassion and empathy is that in empathy, the focus is on the problem or the need, and the response is primarily emotional. With compassion, the focus is not just on the problem, but also the solution. It’s a more empowered state.

Thupten Jinpa, “The Power of Awareness and Compassion to Transform Our World”


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Monday, October 17, 2022

Via Tumblr


 

Via Tumblr

 


The Noble Eightfold Path


 

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 the five aggregates as they actually are, then one is not attached to the five aggregates. 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
The five aggregates are the medium in which human experience unfolds, like the water in which fish swim or the air in which birds fly. At every moment all five aspects of experience co-arise: material form, feeling tones, perceptions, volitional and emotional formations, and consciousness. The skill to learn is how to be in this world without attachment, without infatuation, and with craving and troubles abandoned. 

Daily Practice
When you know and see these aggregates as they actually are—that is, as impermanent and interdependently conditioned processes with no essential core—it is natural to no longer feel attached to them and thereby driven by them. Try deconstructing your troubles by recognizing the extent to which they all eventually boil down to experiential components of the aggregates and as such are inherently empty.

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: The Path Itself

 Developing a practice takes time. It’s natural to want to jump to the end result, but that isn’t possible. The great mystery of cultivating a meditation practice might be the path itself—how it twists and turns; the work we must put into it along the way.

Justin von Bujdoss, “Tilopa’s Six Nails”


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Sunday, October 16, 2022

Via White Crane Institute // MARIN ALSOP

 


Maestra Maren Alsop
1956 -

MARIN ALSOP is an American conductor and violinist born on this date. She is currently music director laureate of the Baltimore Symphony Orchestra, as well as, chief conductor of the Vienna Radio Symphony Orchestra, and the Ravinia Festival. In 2020 she was elected to the American Philosophical Society.

Alsop was born in New York City to professional musician parents, and was educated at the Masters School and studied violin at Juilliard's Pre-College Division ('72). She attended Yale University but later transferred to The Juilliard School, where she earned BM and MM degrees in violin. While studying at Juilliard, Alsop played with orchestras such as the New York Philharmonic and the New York City Ballet. She founded the string ensemble String Fever in 1981. Alsop was also concertmaster in a Philip Glass recording session of The Photographer chamber opera in 1983. In 1984, Alsop founded Concordia, a 50-piece orchestra specializing in 20th-century American music. She won the Koussevitzky Prize as outstanding student conductor at the Tanglewood Music Center in 1989, where she met her hero and future mentor Leonard Bernstein.

In September 2007, Alsop was appointed the 12th music director of the Baltimore Symphony Orchestra (BSO), having been named Music Director Designate for the 2006–2007 concert season. Selecting her was noteworthy because although Alsop is not the first woman to hold this position in an American orchestra (Antonia Brico, for example, was the conductor of several American orchestras), Alsop was one of the first women to hold the position with an American orchestra. The initial controversy surrounding the announcement that she would be the BSO's next Music Director stemmed from significant resistance from the orchestra's players, who insisted they had not had enough voice in the search process. The orchestra and Alsop met after the announcement and apparently smoothed over some of their differences. In June 2009, the orchestra announced the extension of her contract for another five years, through August 2015. In July 2013, the BSO announced a further extension of her contract as music director through the 2020–2021 season. In February 2020, the Baltimore Symphony announced that Alsop is to conclude her music directorship of the orchestra at the close of the 2020–2021 season, and to take the title of Music Director Laureate.

In the UK, Alsop has served as principal guest conductor with the Royal Scottish National Orchestra and with the City of London Sinfonia. Alsop was Principal Conductor of the Bournemouth Symphony Orchestra (Bournemouth SO) from 2002 to 2008, the first female principal conductor in the orchestra's history. She was voted Gramophone magazine's Artist of the Year in 2003 and won the Royal Philharmonic Society's conductor's award in the same season. In April 2007, Alsop was one of eight conductors of British orchestras to endorse the 10-year classical music outreach manifesto, "Building on Excellence: Orchestras for the 21st Century", to increase the presence of classical music in the UK, including giving free entry to all British schoolchildren to a classical music concert. Alsop received an honorary degree of Doctor of Music from Bournemouth University in November 2007. Alsop served as an Artist-in-Residence at the Southbank Centre, London, for the 2011–2012 season.

In 2012, Alsop became principal conductor of the São Paulo State Symphony Orchestra (OSESP), the first female principal conductor of OSESP. In July 2013, OSESP granted her the title of Music Director and in April 2015 extended her contract to the end of 2019. Alsop led the orchestra on a European tour, including its first appearance at the Proms in August 2012, the first Proms appearance by any Brazilian orchestra. They returned to Europe in October 2013, with concerts in Berlin, London, Paris, Salzburg and Vienna and to the Proms in August 2016. In December 2017, OSESP announced that Alsop would stand down as its music director in December 2019, and subsequently to take the title of honorary conductor.

In 2010, 2013, 2015 and 2016, Alsop conducted the Belgian National Orchestra at the Queen Elisabeth Competition.

In September 2013, Alsop became the first female conductor of the Last Night of The Proms, and returned to conduct the Last Night in September 2015. In September 2014, at the Proms, she was awarded Honorary Membership of the Royal Philharmonic Society.

In 2014, Alsop first guest-conducted the Vienna Radio Symphony Orchestra (Vienna RSO). In January 2018, the Vienna RSO announced the appointment of Alsop as its next chief conductor, effective September 2019, with an initial contract of three years. She is the first female conductor to be named chief conductor of the Vienna RSO. Alsop is to hold the title of chief conductor designate with immediate effect, through the 2018–2019 season.

Alsop was a recipient of one of the 25th Annual Crystal Awards for 2019 at the World Economic Forum Annual Meeting in Davos, Switzerland. Since 2020 she is Artist in Residence at the University of Music and Performing Arts Vienna.

Alsop's spouse is Kristin Jurkscheit, a horn player. They have a son, and Alsop has spoken publicly about her family. While Alsop was conducting the Colorado Symphony, of which her partner was a member, their relationship provoked controversy, though Alsop responded that the relationship predated her appointment to lead the orchestra and had no bearing on her job performance. 

There is a documentary about Alsop streaming on PBS called The Conductor.

 

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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: Anger as Sustenance

 Remind yourself that anger is just another form of energy; that you can use it to sustain the hard work of caring for whom or what you love.

Vanessa Zuisei Goddard, “A Fierce and Tender Clarity”


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Via Ram Dass - Love Serve Remember Foundation // Words of Wisdom - October 16, 2022 💌

 
 

"The next message you need is always right where you are. "

- Ram Dass -

Via Dhamma Wheel | Right Mindfulness and Concentration: Establishing Mindfulness of Feeling and Abiding in 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 neither-pleasant-nor-painful feeling, one is aware: “Feeling a common neither-pleasant-nor-painful feeling.” When feeling an uncommon neither-pleasant-nor-painful feeling, one is aware: “Feeling an uncommon neither-pleasant-nor-painful feeling.”. . . One is just aware, just mindful: “There is feeling.” And one abides not clinging to anything in the world. (MN 10)
Reflection
A feeling tone accompanies every moment of experience, and it changes at every moment. We generally just accept this and are influenced by it but without conscious awareness. The stream of feelings flows as constantly as the stream of consciousness, and modulates on a spectrum from extremely pleasant through moderately pleasant, mildly pleasant, neutral, mildly painful, and moderately painful to extremely painful.

Daily Practice
The second of the four foundations on which mindfulness practice is established is the mindful awareness of feeling tones. This requires isolating them in your experience, since they are usually blended in with everything else. Make a point of selecting just the strand of experience that carries a feeling tone—good, bad or neutral. Not whether you like it or not, just how it feels. You will learn with practice how to focus on this regularly.


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)

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

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