Via Dhamma Wheel | Right Speech: Refraining from Harsh Speech

 

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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) How does there come to be non-insistence on local language and non-overriding of normal usage? In different localities they call the same thing by different words. So whatever they call it in such and such a locality, without adhering to that word one speaks accordingly, thinking: “These people, it seems, are speaking with reference to this.” (MN 139)

Reflection One way of speaking harshly is to dominate how words are used and understood. Too often we listen to others barely enough to project our own meaning onto their words and wait impatiently for the opportunity to jump back in and speak again. Right speech is a two-way street and involves learning from others at least as much as conveying our own perspectives to them. Refraining from speaking without listening is healthy. Daily Practice Practice listening when you are talking with people. Actively attend to what they say and try to understand in their own terms what they mean. Assume you don’t automatically understand them and practice inquiring into their words and phrases and attending to their non-verbal clues with an open mind. It may be that people are saying things from which you can learn something new. Right speech includes right listening. Tomorrow: Reflecting upon Mental Action One week from today: Refraining from Frivolous Speech 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: Sit with the Tension

 

Sit with the Tension

Many teachers instruct practitioners to sit with curiosity and watch what arises without immediately trying to relieve uncomfortable sensations. Staying with the tension of a difficult thought or emotion reminds us that the experience will eventually pass. Lauren Krauze, “Anapanasati Meditation: Watching the Breath Without Controlling It” CLICK HERE TO READ THE FULL ARTICLE

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Via Daily Dharma: Not One, Not Two

 

Not One, Not Two

Subject and object—the perceiver and what is perceived—are not one, nor are they two. They are mutually dependent. Elizabeth Mattis Namgyel, “Tricycle Online Course: Finding Freedom”  CLICK HERE TO WATCH THE COURSE EXCERPT

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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 near enemy of appreciative joy is ordinary joy. (Vm 9.100)

Reflection The “sublime state” of appreciative joy does not simply mean joy as a pleasant mental feeling or the emotion of uplifted joy. It is not just feeling good but feeling good in a particular set of circumstances—when you observe or contemplate good things happening to others. Ordinary joy is self-referential, while appreciative joy is more universal and focused on the good fortune of others. Daily Practice Learn to discern the different ways joy can manifest in your experience. In particular, see if you can get a good felt sense of what the special quality of appreciative joy feels like. This is the emotion of feeling good about good things happening to other people. Practice calling to mind the goodness of others, and then settle into the emotion of wishing them well and appreciating their success in a way that is not about you. 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 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 mental neither-pleasant-nor-painful feeling, one is aware: “Feeling a mental 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 Of the three kinds of feeling tone—pleasant, painful, and neither-pleasant-nor-painful—it is the neutral feeling that can be the most difficult to discern. Pleasure and pain are obvious, especially at the extreme ends of the continuum, but as each gets more and more subtle they merge into the middle ground of a feeling tone that is not obviously either. Hold your attention on this neutral zone and simply notice what is there. Daily Practice See if you can become aware of the feeling tones that are arising in conjunction with the thoughts and mental images that pass through your mind. Some things feel good to imagine or think about, while some feel really bad. Bring your attention to the middle ground, where your thoughts are present but don’t have a strong feeling tone associated with them. Be content to simply be aware of thoughts coming and going. 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 gladdening the mind;” one practices: “I shall breathe out gladdening the mind.” 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 #DhammaWheel Questions? Visit the Dhamma Wheel orientation page.

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Via Daily Dharma: Diminishing Selfishness

Diminishing Selfishness

The practice of focusing on the welfare of others undermines the usual emphasis on oneself, thereby opening the possibility for progress toward diminishing the self’s inflated status, the primary impediment blocking the realization of the emptiness of all phenomena. Jeffrey Hopkins, “Breaking the Habit of Selfishness” CLICK HERE TO READ THE FULL ARTICLE

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Via Ram Dass - Love Serve Remember Foundation // Words of Wisdom - July 23, 2023 💌

 

"I've found that each meditation technique I've ever pursued has helped me by touching another space in my being. Somehow I've danced through them without getting caught in a value system that would say that a single meditative technique is the only way. You cannot, however, keep collecting methods all the way to enlightenment. Sooner or later, you will be drawn to one path or another, which is for you the eye of the needle, the doorway to the inner temple."

- Ram Dass -

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 sees perception as it actually is, then one is not attached to perception. 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 the emphasis was on how not knowing and seeing perception accurately can lead to attachment and the difficulties that it brings. Here the focus instead is on the benefits of understanding perception appropriately. Perception, the mental function of interpreting sensory data, is a natural and useful thing for the mind to do. In fact, it is a great ally helping us bring insight and understanding to the world of our experience. Daily Practice Practice making the step from mindfulness to insight. That is, when you are mindful of the sensations of the breath, for example, go on to notice that they are constantly changing and that it is the characteristic of all sensations to be impermanent and in flux. When observing the thoughts flowing through the mind, recognize they do not belong to anybody, but are interdependently arisen. This is perception facilitating right view. 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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