Saturday, February 10, 2024

Via Dhamma Wheel | Right Effort: Developing Unarisen Healthy States

 


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RIGHT EFFORT
Developing Unarisen Healthy States
Whatever a person frequently thinks about and ponders, that will become the inclination of their mind. If one frequently thinks about and ponders healthy states, one has abandoned unhealthy states to cultivate the healthy state, and then one’s mind inclines to healthy states. (MN 19)

Here a person rouses the will, makes an effort, stirs up energy, exerts the mind, and strives to develop the arising of unarisen healthy mental states. One develops the unarisen energy awakening factor. (MN 141)
Reflection
The mental and emotional states that are healthy, leading away from suffering and toward greater clarity of understanding, do not always arise on their own and sometimes need a little help. In the sequence of awakening factors, investigation of states naturally gives rise to energy, because everything becomes so interesting, but the development of energy can also be instigated and encouraged as a deliberate practice. 

Daily Practice
Interesting how it is put in the text: that we need to stir up energy to develop energy. What this is pointing to is that sometimes we just have to reach down and decide that we will bring more energy to bear on a given situation. Perhaps it is blinking the eyes to overcome drowsiness or gritting the teeth boost our willpower to avoid a temptation. Energy is a factor that can be weak or strong. Here we practice strengthening it.

Tomorrow: Establishing Mindfulness of Mind and the Third Jhāna
One week from today: Maintaining Arisen Healthy States

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Friday, February 9, 2024

Via Daily Dharma: Facing Difficulties

 

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Facing Difficulties

Do not become annoyed when faced with difficulties. To do so merely adds difficulty to difficulty and further disturbs your mind. By maintaining a mind of peace and nonopposition, difficulties will naturally fall away.

Master Sheng-Yen, “Nonopposition”


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Where to Find Joy and How to Cultivate It
By Christina Feldman and Jaya Rudgard
Teachers Christina Feldman and Jaya Rudgard explain piti or joyfulness, one of the seven factors of awakening, and why it’s so important.
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Via Dhamma Wheel | Right Living: Abstaining from Misbehaving Among Sensual Pleasures

 


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RIGHT LIVING
Undertaking the Commitment to Abstain from Misbehaving Among Sensual Pleasures
Sensual misconduct is unhealthy. Refraining from sensual misconduct is healthy. (MN 9) Abandoning sensual misconduct, one abstains from misbehaving among sensual pleasures. (MN 41) One practices thus: "Others may engage in sensual misconduct, but I will abstain from sensual misconduct." (MN 8)

Sensual conduct is of two kinds: to be cultivated and not to be cultivated. Such sensual conduct as causes, in one who cultivates it, unhealthy states to increase and healthy states to diminish, such sensual conduct is not to be cultivated. But such sensual conduct as causes, in one who cultivates it, unhealthy states to diminish and healthy states to increase, such sensual conduct is to be cultivated. (MN 114)
Reflection
Misbehaving among sensual pleasures can include various forms of harmful sexuality, such as exploitation, causing humiliation, or sexual predation. It can also include all sorts of activities that are not sexual but involve sensual gratification. Our ability to inhabit a sensory and sensual world is not in itself a problem. The problem is that our senses can so easily lead us into attachments and aversions that cause difficulties.

Daily Practice
This practice is about the skillful use of the sense apparatus. Notice when sensory stimulation leads to craving and thus to grasping behavior. This is the path to suffering, as our senses lead us to wanting things we cannot have or hating things that are unpleasant. Notice also that there are ways to engage the senses that do not automatically lead to craving and grasping, and thus do not lead to suffering. Explore this.

Tomorrow: Developing Unarisen Healthy States
One week from today: Abstaining from Intoxication

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Questions?
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© 2024 Tricycle Foundation
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Thursday, February 8, 2024

Via FB / Zen Taoism Buddhism

 “Every minute someone leaves this world behind. Age has nothing to do with it. 

We are all in "the line" without knowing it.

We never know how many people are before us.

We can not move to the back of the line.

We can not step out of the line.

We can not avoid the line.

So while we wait in line:

Make moments count. Make priorities.Make the time.

Make your gifts known. Make a nobody feel like a somebody.

Make your voice heard. Make the small things big.

Make someone smile. Make the change. Make love.

Make peace.

Make sure to tell your people they are loved.

Make sure to have no regrets. Make sure you are ready…”

“Every minute someone leaves this world” 

by Marianne Baum




Via Daily Dharma: Staying Present with Practice

 

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Staying Present with Practice

When we start to practice meditation, we may be astounded by how often our mind is off musing and how rarely we are awake to the basic realities of life. But soon the practice quiets our mind, and we begin to understand the difference between staying present and spinning out into fantasy.

Elizabeth Mattis Namgyel, “The Power of an Open Question”


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A Letter from My Future Self, Encouraging Me to Practice
By Lama Karma
Buddhist teacher Lama Karma shares a letter to himself offering reassurance and guidance in motivating him to practice again.
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Via Dhamma Wheel | Right Action: Reflecting upon Mental Action

 


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RIGHT ACTION
Reflecting Upon Mental Action
However the seed is planted, in that way the fruit is gathered. Good things come from doing good deeds, bad things come from doing bad deeds. (SN 11.10) What is the purpose of a mirror? For the purpose of reflection. So too mental action is to be done with repeated reflection: (MN 61)

When you have done an action with the mind, reflect upon that same mental action thus: "Has this action I have done with the mind led to my own affliction?" If, upon reflection, you know that it has, then tell someone you trust about it and undertake a commitment not to do it again. If you know it has not, then be content and feel happy about it. (MN 61)
Reflection
So much of what we do is never revealed in speech or bodily action. All mental activity is also a form of action and has karmic consequences. It is also the case that we can cause harm through our patterns of thought, including harm to ourselves. Karma is simply the workings of cause and effect, and every action we perform is accompanied by an internal mental intention, which is the focus of today’s practice.

Daily Practice
Here is an opportunity to look over some of your own mental patterns of activity and see if there have been any that contribute to self-harm. Perhaps there are ways you criticize yourself too harshly or undervalue your capabilities or secretly sabotage yourself. This is the sort of thing one often shares with a therapist, but it can be equally healing to share these mental actions with a good friend or someone else you trust. 

Tomorrow: Abstaining from Misbehaving Among Sensual Pleasures
One week from today: Reflecting upon Social Action

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#DhammaWheel

Questions?
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© 2024 Tricycle Foundation
89 5th Ave, New York, NY 10003

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