Saturday, June 3, 2023

Via Dhamma Wheel | Right Effort: Developing Unarisen Healthy States

 

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RIGHT EFFORT
Developing Unarisen 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 develop the arising of unarisen healthy mental states. One develops the unarisen mindfulness-     awakening factor. (MN 141)
Reflection
Mindfulness can be an active state of mind when it is arising in the present moment in your lived experience, or it can be a personality or character trait lying dormant in the unconscious mind, waiting to be activated. In Buddhist language this is indicated by saying mindfulness is either arisen or unarisen, and a different strategy is needed for each situation. Here we are told how to awaken our innate mindfulness by an act of will. 
Daily Practice
Develop your latent capacity for mindfulness by bringing it from a passive trait to an active state as often as you can. It is mostly a matter of remembering to do so. It is not difficult to be mindful, but it can be difficult to remember to be mindful. When you are able to do this more often, the habit of being consciously aware of your experience grows and mindfulness becomes the inclination of your mind. This is good for you. 
Tomorrow: Establishing Mindfulness of Mind and Abiding in the Third Jhāna
One week from today: Maintaining Arisen Healthy States

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Friday, June 2, 2023

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Fellow Travelers Official Teaser | SHOWTIME

Via Daily Dharma: The Contradiction of Gossip

It’s amazing to think that we actually use speaking about the faults of others in order to feel connected. Notice the contradiction, the delusion, here: we use, and even create, separation from one thing or person to overcome separation from another! 

Roshi Nancy Mujo Baker, “The Buddhist Guide to Gossip”


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Via White Crane Institute // BRENT HAWKES

 


The Reverend Brent Hawkes
1950 -

BRENT HAWKES, CM ONB born; Hawkes is a Canadian clergyman and Gay Rights activist. 

He was appointed as senior pastor of the Metropolitan Community Church of Toronto, a church openly affirming for LGBT parishioners, in 1978 to succeed Bob Wolfe.

Hawkes has served on the advisory committee of PrideVision TV, and served on the board of directors for advocacy group Egale Canada. In addition to his advocacy work on LGBT issues, he has supported anti-racist initiatives, drawn attention to poverty and poor housing, and advocated the ordination of female priests.

On January 14, 2001, Hawkes gained national attention by performing a wedding ceremony for two same-sex couples at the Metropolitan Community Church of Toronto. Although city clerks would not issue marriage licenses for same-sex marriages at this time, Hawkes employed the alternative provided in Ontario law for regular church attendees to publish official banns for three consecutive weeks, and thereby conducted a legal marriage without requiring prior government permission. 

In the spirit of the banns as a public opportunity for interested parties to raise legal objections, the church also issued a press release in late 2000 announcing its intentions. The government of Jean Chretien did not endorse the marriages, although Governonr General Adrienne Clarkson sent a personal letter of support. The city clerk refused to register the record of marriage, leading to a court battle. The church sued the city, the province and the federal government. On July 12, 2002, the Ontario Superior Court Justice ruled that the marriages performed by Hawkes in January 2001 were legal, but stayed its decision pending a possible appeal, and on June 10, 2003, the Court of Appeals for Ontario declared the common law definition of marriage as "invalid to the extent that it refers to “one man and one woman” in the ruling of Halpern v Canada, immediately striking down all barriers against same-sex marriage in the province. It also made those two marriages the first in the modern world.

He retired as pastor of the Metropolitan Community Church in fall 2017, and was succeeded by Jeff Rock.  Hawkes lives in Toronto with John Sproule, his partner of more than thirty years. They married on March 7, 2006.


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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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Chasing Coffee (Gay Short Film) Cafe Perseguido

Via Dhamma Wheel | Right Living: Abstaining from Misbehaving Among Sensual Pleasures

 


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RIGHT LIVING
Undertaking the Commitment to Abstain from Misbehaving Among Sensual Pleasures    
Sensual misconduct is unhealthy. Refraining from sensual misconduct is healthy. (MN 9) Abandoning sensual misconduct, one abstains from misbehaving among sensual pleasures. (MN 41) One practices thus: “Others may engage in sensual misconduct, but I will abstain from sensual misconduct.” (MN 8)

Forms cognizable by the eye are of two kinds: those to be cultivated and those not to be cultivated. Such forms as cause, in one who cultivates them, unhealthy states to increase and healthy states to diminish, such forms are not to be cultivated. But such forms as cause, in one who cultivates them, unhealthy states to diminish and healthy states to increase, such forms are to be cultivated. (MN 114)
Reflection
As humans we use our eyes a lot. Mostly we are free to choose what we gaze on, but in many cases our attention is hijacked by visual images directed at us from a billboard, a magazine page, or a computer screen. Sometimes this provokes craving of various sorts and is thus a way of engaging us in sensual misconduct against our will. Learning to resist being hijacked by images and to abandon it when it happens is a healthy skill.

Daily Practice
Notice the quality of your mind as you take in visual information. The more you look at something, does it increase or decrease your stress? Does it make you more calm and at ease or does it wind you up? What you look at is one thing; how you feel when you do so is something else. Learn to observe the inner state evoked by sensory inputs and to thereby learn what to cultivate and what not to cultivate for your own well-being. 

Tomorrow: Developing Unarisen Healthy States
One week from today: Abstaining from Intoxication

Share your thoughts and join the conversation on social media
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Questions?
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© 2023 Tricycle Foundation
89 5th Ave, New York, NY 10003

Apple's Future Computer: The Knowledge Navigator

Knowlege Navigator Implications -- Apple 1988

Thursday, June 1, 2023

Via Dhamma Wheel | Right Action: Reflecting upon Mental Action

 


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RIGHT ACTION
Reflecting Upon Mental 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 mental action is to be done with repeated reflection. (MN 61)

When you wish to do an action with the mind, reflect upon that same mental action thus: “Would this action I wish to do with the mind 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
It may seem odd to us that we could be aware of our intention to think thoughts before actually doing so. Thinking before you speak is one thing, but thinking before you think? And yet in the Buddhist model of mind and body, actions of the mind are not so different from actions of body and speech. We can learn to be aware of them before, during, and after undertaking all forms of action. 

Daily Practice
Identify some of your thought patterns that are familiar to you: the stories you tell yourself over and over, the episodes from the past you ruminate over. Now make the decision not to go there yet again. Some of this introspection can be helpful, but if it becomes repetitive and involuntary it can “lead to your own affliction.” There are ways to take more control over your mental action, and not ruminating is one of those ways.

Tomorrow: Abstaining from Misbehaving Among Sensual Pleasures
One week from today: Reflecting upon Social Action

Share your thoughts and join the conversation on social media
#DhammaWheel

Questions?
Visit the Dhamma Wheel orientation page.



Tricycle is a nonprofit and relies on your support to keep its wheels turning.

© 2023 Tricycle Foundation
89 5th Ave, New York, NY 10003

Via Tricycle // Storytelling, Death, and Putting Flesh Back on Bones

 


Storytelling, Death, and Putting Flesh Back on Bones
Ann Tashi Slater in conversation with Edwidge Danticat
Writer Edwidge Danticat uses her craft to explore the varying depths of inevitable loss we experience in life. Rooted in Haitian storytelling, her work explores migration, family, poverty, and violence, and sheds light on the Haitian diaspora in the United States. In this interview, she discusses how she finds meaning in the face of impermanence.
Read more »

Via Daily Dharma: Telling the Truth

If we indulge the human propensity to understate, exaggerate, and alter facts for whatever comfort or false security a lie might accord us, we forfeit our capacity to see reality clearly, and see only a world of our own invention.

Lin Jensen, “Right Lying”


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Via White Crane Institute // “You Can’t Make This Shit Up” "The PLAN for a GAY BOMB"

 


1994 -

File under “You Can’t Make This Shit Up”: On this date the United States Pentagon receives a proposal from the Air Force requesting funds to build a "GAY BOMB" that would turn enemy troops Gay. The proposal would not come to light until 2007 when the Sunshine Project would discover it through a Freedom of Information Act disclosure.

As part of a military effort to develop non-lethal weapons, the proposal suggested, "One distasteful but completely non-lethal example would be strong aphrodisiacs, especially if the chemical also caused homosexual behavior."

The documents show the Air Force lab asked for $7.5 million to develop such a chemical weapon. In both of the documents, the possibility was canvassed that a strong aphrodisiac could be dropped on enemy troops, ideally one which would also cause "homosexual behavior."

The documents described the aphrodisiac weapon as "distasteful but completely non-lethal". The "New Discoveries Needed" section of one of the documents implicitly acknowledges that no such chemicals are actually known. The reports also include many other off-beat ideas, such as spraying enemy troops with bee pheromones and then hiding numerous beehives in the combat area, and a chemical weapon that would give the enemy bad breath.

The Wright Laboratory, which had made the proposal, won the 2007 Ig-Nobel Peace Prize for "instigating research & development on a chemical weapon—the so-called 'Gay bomb' / 'poof bomb' —that will make enemy soldiers become sexually irresistible to each other." However, Air Force personnel contacted were not willing to attend the award ceremony at Harvard University's Sanders Theater to accept the award in person.


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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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