Revoked

Friday, September 29, 2023

Via Via Dhamma Wheel | Right Living: Abstaining from Intoxication

RIGHT LIVING
Undertaking the Commitment to Abstain from Intoxication

Intoxication is unhealthy. Refraining from intoxication is healthy. (MN 9) What are the imperfections that defile the mind? Negligence is an imperfection that defiles the mind. Knowing that negligence is an imperfection that defiles the mind, a person abandons it. (MN 7) One practices thus: “Others may become negligent by intoxication, but I will abstain from the negligence of intoxication.” (MN 8)

When I strive with determination, some particular sources of suffering fade away in me because of that determined striving; in this way suffering is exhausted. (MN 101)

Reflection

Any source of gratification, if indulged to an extreme, will transform into something that causes harm to you or others or both. Some of these impulses can be managed gently and naturally, but others may require determined effort. Striving with diligence can be seen as a defense mechanism, a way of keeping yourself safe from overindulgence. Sometimes you just have to tell yourself to stop.

Daily Practice

Identify the behaviors in your life that have the potential to escalate to a point of intoxication and negligence, in the broadest sense of these terms. Make a commitment to avoid allowing this to happen; sometimes that takes determination and making a deliberate effort. If the application of energy is grounded in the wise understanding of cause and effect, self-control can be seen as a gift to yourself.

Tomorrow: Maintaining Arisen Healthy States
One week from today: Abstaining from Harming Living Beings

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.

Donate »

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

Via Tiny Buddha \\ FB

Thursday, September 28, 2023

Via FB

Via FB // Thich Nhat Hanh

Acceptance does not mean we stop taking action to improve the world, to increase peace, increase love, equality, wisdom and justice. One can still take action, just that emotional acceptance reduces your personal drama with people and brings inner peace.... which makes you happier, and even more effective to help others. This is what Buddha taught. Thich Nhat Hanh explains here:

"If you don’t have peace within yourself, it is very difficult to work for peace. [During the Vietnam war] our thinking was, the other person is not our enemy. Our enemies are misunderstanding, discrimination, violence, hatred, and anger. With that kind of insight, we conducted the peace movement.

If you are filled with anger, you create more suffering for yourself than for the other person. When you are inhabited by the energy of anger, you want to punish, you want to destroy. That is why those who are wise do not want to say anything or do anything while the anger is still in them.

So you try to bring peace into yourself first. When you are calm, when you are lucid, you will see that the other person is a victim of confusion, of hate, of violence transmitted by society, by parents, by friends, by the environment. When you are able to see that, your anger is no longer there...”

~Thich Nhat Hanh~