Via Daily Dharma: The Twofold Gift of Meditation

 Meditation becomes both a refuge and a training: a refuge into being, and a training into doing.

Martine Batchelor, “A Refuge Into Being”

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Via Ram Dass - Love Serve Remember Foundationia // Words of Wisdom - October 30, 2022 💌

 

“Many of our sisters and brothers, at this moment, are so busy warding off starvation, are so busy avoiding the terrors that are created by the minds of humans, are so lost in the struggle of survival, that they cannot be with us today. But we can be with them. And we can bring them here by not excluding them. By realizing that what we represent is just a pseudopod of the totality that is the human play. That this is not an exclusive gathering, we aren’t special. We are merely part of the dance, and this our part.” - Ram Dass From Here & Now Podcast - Ep. 211 – Being Truth

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Via Dhamma Wheel | Right Effort: Maintaining Arisen Healthy States

RIGHT EFFORT Maintaining Arisen 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 healthy states, 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 maintain arisen healthy mental states. One maintains the arisen awakening factor of equanimity. (MN 141)

Reflection The mind is constantly changing, and every moment is different from every other. Still, there are some mental and emotional states that are good for us and we want to sustain, and others we are better off abandoning. We cannot always rely on the healthy states to naturally persist once they occur, and it is a skillful use of effort to work to maintain them. Doing so will incline the mind steadily in the direction of greater health.  Daily Practice When you find yourself feeling generous, look for ways to maintain that attitude of generosity by additional thoughts and acts of generosity. When you notice kindness or compassion arising in your experience, recognize it as healthy and see how you can nurture the emotion so it lingers in your mind a bit longer. At every opportunity, find ways to encourage your best qualities to continue once they have arisen. Tomorrow: Establishing Mindfulness of Mental Objects and the Fourth Jhāna One week from today: Restraining Unarisen Unhealthy States Share your thoughts and join the conversation on social media #DhammaWheel Questions? Visit the Dhamma Wheel orientation page.

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Via Daily Dharma: Reshaping Negative Thoughts

 See mental afflictions as raw material, the way a potter would view clay. You don’t see clay as a problem; you see it as an opportunity to create something.

Lama Kathy Wesley, “Your Mistakes Are Progress”

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Via White Crane Institute // The Passionate Shepherd to His Love

 

Today's Gay Wisdom

1618 -

The Passionate Shepherd to His Love

Come live with me and be my love,
And we will all the pleasures prove
That valleys, groves, hills, and fields,
Woods, or steepy mountain yields.

And we will sit upon rocks,
Seeing the shepherds feed their flocks,
By shallow rivers to whose falls
Melodious birds sing madrigals.

And I will make thee beds of roses
And a thousand fragrant poises,
A cap of flowers, and a kirtle
Embroidered all with leaves of myrtle;

A gown made of the finest wool
Which from our pretty lambs we pull;
Fair lined slippers for the cold,
With buckles of the purest gold;

A belt of straw and ivy buds,
With coral clasps and amber studs;
And if these pleasures may thee move,
Come live with me, and be my love.

The shepherds's swains shall dance and sing
For thy delight each May morning:
If these delights thy mind may move,
Then live with me and be my love.

Christopher Marlowe 1599

Raleigh’s Reply

 

If all the world and love were young,

And truth in every shepherd's tongue,

These pretty pleasures might me move

To live with thee and be thy love.

 

Time drives the flocks from field to fold,

When rivers rage and rocks grow cold;

And Philomel becometh dumb;

The rest complains of cares to come.

 

The flowers do fade, and wanton fields

To wayward winter reckoning yields:

A honey tongue, a heart of gall,

Is fancy's spring, but sorrow's fall.

 

The gowns, thy shoes, thy beds of roses,

Thy cap, thy kirtle, and thy posies

Soon break, soon wither, soon forgotten,—

In folly ripe, in reason rotten.

 

Thy belt of straw and ivy buds,

Thy coral clasps and amber studs,

All these in me no means can move

To come to thee and be thy love.

 

But could youth last and love still breed,

Had joys no date nor age no need,

Then these delights my mind might move

To live with thee and be thy love.

Sir Walter Raleigh, 1599

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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

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Via Dhamma Wheel | Right Living: Abstaining from Intoxication

 

RIGHT LIVING Undertaking the Commitment to Abstain from Intoxication Intoxication is unhealthy. Refraining from intoxication is healthy. (MN 9) What are the imperfections that defile the mind? Negligence is an imperfection that defiles the mind. Knowing that negligence is an imperfection that defiles the mind, a person abandons it. (MN 7) One practices thus: “Others may become negligent by intoxication, but I will abstain from the negligence of intoxication.” (MN 8) When I look on with equanimity, some particular sources of suffering fade away in me; thus that suffering is exhausted. (MN 101)

Reflection We saw last month how some sources of suffering diminish with effort. Now we hear that other sources of suffering are resolved when we simply look upon them with equanimity. In other words, some things are better handled by not striving to change them overtly but simply by changing your relationship to what is happening. Desire can be a form of intoxication, and equanimity can transform negligence into clarity. Daily Practice Knowing when to step forward to try to change things with effort and when to step back and allow them to change by natural processes is a skill to be learned and a practice to be developed. Never underestimate the transformative power of equanimity. Sometimes it is our own desires, our wanting and not wanting, that cause problems; in such cases learning to look on with equanimity can make all the difference.  Tomorrow: Maintaining Arisen Healthy States One week from today: Abstaining from Harming Living Beings Share your thoughts and join the conversation on social media #DhammaWheel Questions? Visit the Dhamma Wheel orientation page.

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Via Daily Dharma: Abiding in Flow Mind

Learning to walk out of thinking mind into flow mind or awareness mind is the ultimate medicine.

Jan Chozen Bays, “How to Break Free of the Inner Critic”

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