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 towards, 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)  Appreciative joy is the way to purity for one who has much discontent. (Vm 9.108)

Reflection Entangled as we are in a consumer economy that depends on the cultivation of desire and discontent, it can be hard to simply take joy in what we already have and feel joy in the good circumstances of others. Yet this can be practiced as an antidote to always feeling desire for one thing or another. Cultivate appreciative joy, or gladness for the happiness of others, at every opportunity and feel its cleansing and shielding effects. Daily Practice Discontent can be subtle and insidious. It can poison us slowly in small but steady doses, or erupt in episodes of jealously and resentment. By paying careful attention to the details of your experience, notice the next time you feel bad in some way about what others have or get. Now recognize that as a form of discontent and counter it with appreciative joy, deliberately taking pleasure in the good fortune of another person. 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: The Body Is Essential

The Body Is Essential

There is no other way to touch enlightenment other than in and through our bodies.  Reggie Ray, “Touching Enlightenment” CLICK HERE TO READ THE FULL ARTICLE

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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 sees formations as they actually are, then one is not attached to formations. 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 The aggregate of formations includes all our habitual volitional and emotional responses to whatever information the senses are presenting to consciousness. This is where we love or hate what is happening, where we yearn for something different or accept peacefully what occurs. This is where suffering either is born or dies, depending on whether we respond in the moment with craving or with mindful equanimity. Daily Practice Suffering is not built into any given situation but is optional. Stress is not caused by external stressors but is an internal reaction to circumstances. See if you can bring the profound wisdom of this insight into your lived experience by bringing the cessation of suffering to every moment. Find what it is that you are yearning for, turn that craving into mindful observation, and watch the suffering attached to that moment disappear. 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: The Nobility of the Path

 

Gratitude, the simple and profound feeling of being thankful, is the foundation of all generosity.

—Sallie Tisdale, dharma teacher and author

Via Daily Dharma: Social Mindfulness

Social Mindfulness

What is required of us in the social world is nothing less than vigilant mindfulness.    Charles Johnson, “The Dharma of Social Transformation”  CLICK HERE TO READ THE FULL ARTICLE

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Via Dhamma Wheel | Right Mindfulness and Concentration: Establishing Mindfulness of Feeling and Abiding in 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 common painful feeling, one is aware: “Feeling a common painful feeling.” When feeling an uncommon painful feeling, one is aware: “Feeling an uncommon painful feeling”. . . One is just aware, just mindful: “There is feeling.” And one abides not clinging to anything in the world. (MN 10)

Reflection Common feelings are those that come with ordinary experience, while uncommon feelings are connected with more subtle psychological and meditative experience. Remember, feelings in this context are not what we commonly think of as emotions; rather feelings refer to physical and mental sensations of pleasure and pain. Here we are directed to take note of the painful sensations with the equanimity of mindfulness. Daily Practice Pay close attention to what it feels like when something is painful, both physically and mentally, as a way of practicing the second foundation of mindfulness. This means you are not resenting or resisting the pain but merely taking an interest in it and investigating its nuances with a balanced mind. Pain need not be seen as “bad,” but rather can be explored as a different texture on the continuum of lived experience.  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 but with joy and the pleasure born of concentration. (MN 4) 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 Mushim Patricia Ikeda // FB: October 7-8, 2023, a hybrid conference, "Mindfulness: What's Next?"

 

  · October 7-8, 2023, a hybrid conference, "Mindfulness: What's Next?" from the Mangalam Research Center in Berkeley. For info and registration see https://www.mangalamresearch.org/special-events/

Presenters include Alan Senauke, Eli Brown-Stevenson, Mushim Patricia Ikeda, Jack Petranker, and more.