Via Daily Dharma: Communication for Mindfulness

Communication for Mindfulness

Communicating skillfully and sensitively with other people is essential on the road to getting some headspace. This could mean applying a greater sense of restraint, empathy, or perspective to your relationships—or maybe all three! Andy Puddicombe, “10 Tips for Living More Mindfully” CLICK HERE TO READ THE FULL ARTICLE

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Via Dhamma Wheel | Right Intention: Cultivating Lovingkindness

 

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RIGHT INTENTION Cultivating Lovingkindness 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 loving kindness, for when you develop meditation on lovingkindness, all ill will will be abandoned. (MN 62)  Lovingkindness is the way to purity for one who has much ill will. (Vm 9.108)

Reflection Since every hurtful emotion has a corresponding helpful one that acts as a potential antidote, take advantage of this fact when next you are feeling consumed by aversion. In any moment when you feel ill will, you have the option of feeling kindness in its place, and you will be better off replacing the one with the other. You don’t necessarily have to forgive anyone their actions; you need only to feel different inside yourself. Daily Practice Feeling grumpy? Annoyed as all get-out with someone? Furious over somebody’s hurtful words or actions and ready to kill them (figuratively speaking, of course)? Take a closer look: Who is getting hurt here? As much as you might wish for the harm of the other person, it is really only you who is being harmed by your ill will. Take a moment to change the script and see if you can develop some lovingkindness instead. It helps. Tomorrow: Refraining from False Speech One week from today: Cultivating Compassion 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 View: Understanding the Noble Truth of Suffering

 

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RIGHT VIEW Understanding the Noble Truth of Suffering When people have met with suffering and become victims of suffering, they come to me and ask me about the noble truth of suffering. Being asked, I explain to them the noble truth of suffering. (MN 77) What is suffering? (MN 9) Not to get what one wants is suffering. There comes the wish: “Oh, that we were not subject to birth, aging, sickness, death, sorrow, lamentation, pain, grief, and despair! Oh, that birth, aging, sickness, death, sorrow, lamentation, pain, grief, and despair would not come to us!” But this is not to be obtained by wishing, and not to obtain what one wants is suffering. (MN 9)

Reflection What exactly does psychological suffering feel like? It is the raw experience of craving itself, the yearning for something that you cannot have, the desperate need for something to go away that is afflicting you, the primal fear of the existential fragility of the human situation. The noble truth of suffering acknowledges all this, but also recognizes that this suffering can be understood and resolved, and thus holds out hope. Daily Practice Allow yourself to feel and explore the psychological pain of not getting what you want. It is not just the yearning for something you feel you need, like thirsting for water, but includes the desperate urge to get free of something afflicting you. Notice also that wishing to get what you want or for what you hate to go away is never effective. There is no escape from suffering except by going directly through the craving that causes it. Tomorrow: Cultivating Lovingkindness One week from today: Understanding the Noble Truth of the Origin 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: Taking Refuge

Taking Refuge

One takes refuge not from a position of strength, but from a position that acknowledges weakness.  Dharmavidya David Brazier, “Other-Power” CLICK HERE TO READ THE FULL ARTICLE

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Via Dhamma Wheel | Right Mindfulness and Concentration: Establishing Mindfulness of Mental Objects and the Fourth Jhāna

 

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RIGHT MINDFULNESS Establishing Mindfulness of Mental Objects 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 the awakening factor of tranquility is internally present, one is aware: “Tranquility is present for me.” When tranquility is not present, one is aware: “Tranquility is not present for me.” When the arising of unarisen tranquility occurs, one is aware of that. And when the development and fulfillment of the arisen awakening factor of tranquility occurs, one is aware of that . . . One is just aware, just mindful: “There is a mental object.” And one abides not clinging to anything in the world. (MN 10)

Reflection Sometimes the mind is tranquil, and sometimes it is not. One way to practice mindfulness of mental objects is simply to notice when the mental factor of tranquility is present and when it is not. It is okay to be aware of the times the mind is restless or bored or confused. These states are transient, like all others, and they will pass, to be replaced by moments of tranquility from time to time. Simply take note of all this. Daily Practice The next time you feel tranquil, attend carefully to what it feels like. This way you will know what to contrast it to when the mental factor of tranquility is gone, which will happen often enough. Observe the interplay of tranquility and lack of tranquility as they come and go. Eventually you will learn how to encourage tranquility to arise and how to sustain it when it has arisen. This is how your mindfulness skills develop.  RIGHT CONCENTRATION Approaching and Abiding in the Fourth Phase of Absorption (4th Jhāna) With the abandoning of pleasure and pain, and with the previous disappearance of joy and grief, one enters upon and abides in the fourth phase of absorption, which has neither-pain-nor-pleasure and purity of mindfulness due to equanimity. The concentrated mind is thus purified, bright, unblemished, rid of imperfection, malleable, wieldy, steady, and attained to imperturbability. (MN 4) One practices: “I shall breathe in contemplating relinquishment.” One practices: “I shall breathe out contemplating relinquishment.” 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 Suffering One week from today: Establishing Mindfulness of Body and Abiding in the First 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: Engaging the Whole

Engaging the Whole

When we engage the present, we engage the whole of our lives. When we plunge into the world, we accept the whole of what is. Jack Petranker, “The Present Moment”  CLICK HERE TO READ THE FULL ARTICLE

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