Via Dhamma Wheel | Right Intention: Cultivating Appreciative Joy

 

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RIGHT INTENTION Cultivating Appreciative Joy Whatever you intend, whatever you plan, and whatever you have a tendency toward, that will become the basis upon 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)  The manifestation of appreciative joy is elimination of discontent. (Vm 9.95)

Reflection It turns out that feeling good about the success or well-being of other people is good for you. The natural inclination of the self is toward selfishness, which is aimed at getting what we want and need. This is a useful function up to a point, but if we are ever to evolve beyond it, we need to reverse the process and cultivate care and concern for others. Wishing them well and celebrating their good fortune is a good place to start. Daily Practice Keep on the lookout today for what happens to other people and wish them well when you see or hear of someone having good fortune. This is actually an excellent remedy for your own discontent. If you are not happy about your lot in life, you can immediately lift yourself into a better state by taking joy in the good fortune of others. Rather than resent their success you can use it to help raise your own mood. Tomorrow: Refraining from Harsh Speech One week from today: Cultivating Equanimity 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: Making Requests, Not Demands

 The difference between a request and a demand lies not in the sweetness of your speech but in whether or not you subtly punish anyone who says no.

Katy Butler, “Say It Right”

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

 

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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 understands flavors as they actually are, then one is not attached to flavors. 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 Just as suffering is constructed moment by moment by attaching to the details of sensual experience, wanting the flavors we like and not wanting the flavors we don’t like, so too that very moment of suffering can be deconstructed by abandoning the wanting and not wanting and replacing it with equanimity. We still experience the flavor, directly and intently, but without being entangled with it—only aware of it. Daily Practice Practice eating with equanimity. Simply take a bite, chew it slowly and carefully, attending fully to every nuance of texture and flavor, and then swallow when appropriate. All this is done with great awareness but without favoring or opposing any aspect of the experience. When you experience flavors “unattached” and “without infatuation,” you are, in that brief moment at least, entirely free of suffering. Tomorrow: Cultivating Appreciative Joy  One week from today: Understanding the Noble Truth of the Way to the Cessation of Suffering 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: Path to Paradise

 Like happiness or peace or calm, paradise is not found by looking for it. Instead, it comes upon us, or we put ourselves in the right place where it can visit us.

Pico Iyer, “Let Life Come to You”

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Via Daily Dharma: Aimless and Undisturbed

The beautiful thing about having fewer obsessions and ambitions—and just sitting straight and watching the breathing—is that nothing will disturb us. Things disturb us only when we have an aim.

Dzongsar Jamyang Khyentse Rinpoche, “Do Nothing”

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

 

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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 bodily pleasant feeling, one is aware: Feeling a bodily pleasant feeling … one is just aware, just mindful: "There is feeling." And one abides not clinging to anything in the world. (MN 10)

Reflection In every mind moment, consciousness takes a single, particular object to be aware of, and a particular feeling tone coarises with that moment of consciousness. While knowing the object, we also know whether it feels good or bad, or has a feeling tone that is not obviously one or the other. This sensation becomes a focus point for establishing the presence of mindfulness. Just be aware of that feeling tone, arising and passing. Daily Practice In this passage we are focusing only on pleasant bodily feeling tones. Yes, we are allowed to experience pleasure and even to focus on it exclusively. As you sit in meditation, notice what feels good in your body. Even if there is discomfort in some parts of the body, there will also be comfort in other parts. Seek out the pleasure in your bodily experience, noticing its texture and how it changes, arising and passing away.  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) When one sees oneself purified of all these unhealthy states and thus liberated from them, gladness is born. When one is glad, joy is born; in one who is joyful, the body becomes tranquil; one whose body is tranquil feels pleasure; in one who feels pleasure, the mind becomes concentrated. (MN 40) Reflection When the mind is temporarily free of afflicted states, it enters upon a natural path towards concentration. Whether or not you practice the jhānas, some degree of focus is an essential part of meditation practice, and this passage describes how you can gently follow the process of relaxing into concentration. Daily Practice See if you can tread the path of gladness, leading to joy, leading to peace. This is not the enthusiastic joy of winning the lottery or dancing at a wedding, but is a more subtle and deeper joy that comes from gladness, from a softening of the mind in response to its being free for some time from restlessness, sluggishness, sense desire, ill will, and doubt. Subtract, as you sit, and see if you can refrain from adding anything. 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 #DhammaWheel Questions? Visit the Dhamma Wheel orientation page.

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Via Ram Dass - Love Serve Remember Foundation // Words of Wisdom - March 5, 2023 💌

 

It’s one thing to be generous, it’s another to receive generosity. It’s an exchange of love.

- Ram Dass -