Monday, December 11, 2023

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 visual forms as they actually are, then one is not attached to visual forms. 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 third noble truth declares that once suffering has been identified (the first noble truth) and its origin has been discovered (the second noble truth), it is possible to bring that suffering to an end. This is the great promise of the Buddhist path: that any time we are experiencing suffering, we can reverse or neutralize it with insight and practices that loosen the specific craving that causes the particular instance of suffering.
Daily Practice
Let's begin with focusing on the sphere of visual experience. So many of the things we see give rise to impulses of attachment, infatuation, and craving. When we want what we see, that visual object becomes the trigger for a brief episode of suffering. Notice, however, that this impulse to crave what we see need not have irresistible power over us. Practice noting the craving, then letting go of it. Notice the ensuing sense of well-being. 
Tomorrow: Cultivating Appreciative Joy
One week from today: Understanding the Noble Truth of the Way to the Cessation of Suffering

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Via Daily Dharma: Indispensable Love

 

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Indispensable Love 

Love is possible—do not be afraid of it. Love is indispensable to life, and if in the past you have suffered because of love, you can learn how to love again.

Thich Nhat Hanh, “Dear One, I am Here for You”


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Sunday, December 10, 2023

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Anicca Vata Sankhara - [Pali Chanting]

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Via Ram Dass - Love Serve Remember Foundation \\ Words of Wisdom - December 10, 2023 💌

 


The devotional path isn't necessarily a straight line to enlightenment. There's a lot of back and forth, negotiations if you will, between the ego and the soul. You look around at all the aspects of suffering, and you watch your heart close in judgment. Then you practice opening it again and loving this, too, as a manifestation of the Beloved, another way the Beloved is taking form.

Your love grows vast. In Bhakti, as you contemplate, emulate, and take on the qualities of the Beloved, your heart keeps expanding until you see the whole universe as the Beloved...even the suffering.

- Ram Dass
From Ram Dass – Here & Now – Ep. 178 – The Path of the Heart

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Beyond Form and Emptiness
By Sojun Mel Weitsman
How do we find freedom within the restrictive boundaries that we, and society, have created? Zen teacher Sojun Mel Weitsman writes that it’s possible, and offers a practice tip for getting there.
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Via Daily Dharma: Practice Is a Gift

 

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Practice Is a Gift

Our faith is expressed through our practice. Our practice is our time to remind ourselves we are worthy, we have buddhanature, we are safe at home right now in this moment. Each and every day, our practice is a gift to ourselves.

Mark Herrick, “Reflecting on Faith and Understanding in the Wealthy Man and His Poor Son”


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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 pleasant feeling, one is aware: "Feeling a pleasant feeling." . . . One is just aware, just mindful: "There is feeling." And one abides not clinging to anything in the world. (MN 10)
Reflection
The second basis on which mindfulness is established is feeling tone. This does not refer to our emotional life—feelings of affection or anger or dismay—but rather to the valence of feeling as pleasant or unpleasant or neutral (not obviously pleasant or unpleasant). The practice is to sit down deliberately for some time—even five minutes, if that is all you can manage—and simply notice pleasant and unpleasant sensations as they occur.
Daily Practice
As with mindfulness of breathing, the attitude with which you are aware of feeling tone is of great importance. The text is guiding us to be fully aware of a painful feeling, for example, without analyzing it or wishing it was not happening. Simply notice it as a brief episode of a particular feeling tone, without clinging in any way either to its going away if it is painful or to its coming again if it is pleasant. Just be aware of it.
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 brings inner clarity and singleness of mind, without applied thought and sustained thought but with joy and the pleasure born of concentration. (MN 4)
Reflection
The teachings around right concentration have to do with four phases of absorption, also known as jhānas. When the mind rests steadily on a single object of attention—which is quite difficult to do at first—it gradually disentangles itself from the various hindrances and becomes unified, peaceful, and stable. With this comes inner clarity and the dropping away of the internal use of language.
Daily Practice
You will know when you have entered into absorption of the jhānas because the state is accompanied at first by a great deal of physical and mental pleasure. The physical pleasure is described as being fundamentally different from any sensual gratification, and the mental pleasure comes naturally when the mind is free of the hindrances (phase one) and when it becomes concentrated or one-pointed (phase two).
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.
Tricycle is a nonprofit and relies on your support to keep its wheels turning.
© 2023 Tricycle Foundation
89 5th Ave, New York, NY 10003

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Plática Dhármica: Este Mismo Cuerpo
By Sensei Donna Kowal
La práctica debe implicar a todo nuestro ser, no sólo a la cabeza.
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Via Daily Dharma: Keep Coming Back

 

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Keep Coming Back

When you sit down to meditate, you never know what’s going to come up. Some days you’re hammered by relentless trivia; other days you’re caught in storms of anger or grief or fear. What’s important is just to keep coming back to the cushion, to keep opening the door to the possibility of peace and insight.

Anne Cushman, “Fifteen Weeks of Dharma Dating” 


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Saturday, December 9, 2023

Via GBF: New Talk: The 16 Bodhisattva Precepts

Our latest talk is now available: The 16 Bodhisattva Precepts, with Larry Robinson. 

Instead of seeing ourselves as separate from the world we observe, can we imagine that it is the Buddha looking out through our eyes, wishing the best for everyone and everything?

In this talk, Larry Robinson explains that in the Mayahana traditions, we sit and practice not to attain or accomplish anything, but to express our Bodhicitta, our true nature, and to connect with the underlying reality of all things: unity.

He explores in further detail the practices that help us reinforce our understanding of unity: the 16 Bodhisattwa precepts. Rather than commandments, these are guidelines for experiencing the world through the eyes of the Buddha; a roadmap for remembering who we really are.   
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Listen to the full episode on your favorite podcast player or the GBF website: 


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