Monday, March 11, 2024

Via Dhamma Wheel | Right Mindfulness and Concentration: Establishing Mindfulness of Mind and the Third Jhāna

 


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RIGHT MINDFULNESS
Establishing Mindfulness of Mind
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 mind is devoid of aversion, one is aware "the mind is devoid of aversion" … One is just aware, just mindful: "There is mind." And one abides not clinging to anything in the world. (MN 10)
Reflection
Mindfulness can be established and sustained by focusing on the quality of consciousness itself. Consciousness is colored in every moment by subtle or obvious emotional tones, in particular by various forms of greed, hatred, and delusion. These states are toxic, but the mind is often free of them for fleeting moments. Here we are invited to notice when the mind is free from hatred in its many forms.    

Daily Practice
Aversion is a quality of mind that comes and goes. Sometimes we are annoyed at something, and sometimes we are not. Sometimes we hate something and wish it would go away, and sometimes we do not. This is a practice of noticing the flickering moods of the mind, of becoming aware of the emotional strands that arise in the mind and then vanish. In particular, notice when your mind is free of any trace of aversion.


RIGHT CONCENTRATION
Approaching and Abiding in the Third Phase of Absorption (3rd Jhāna)
With the fading away of joy, one abides in equanimity; mindful and fully aware, still feeling pleasure with the body, one enters upon and abides in the third phase of absorption, on account of which noble ones announce: "One has a pleasant abiding who has equanimity and is mindful." (MN 4)

When one sees oneself purified of all these unhealthy states and thus liberated from them, gladness is born. When one is glad, joy is born; in one who is joyful, the body becomes tranquil; one whose body is tranquil feels pleasure; in one who feels pleasure, the mind becomes concentrated. (MN 40)
Reflection
Pleasure is as natural and inevitable a part of human experience as pain, and like pain it is not to be feared or avoided. The challenge is to not be carried away by either, and to abide with both with equanimity. The unhealthy pursuit of pleasure can lead to all sorts of problems, but there are some cases, like this one, when pleasure is an ally. There is a healthy pleasure that comes simply from the experience of a tranquil body.

Daily Practice
Pleasure can be a gateway leading from tranquility to concentration. Allow yourself to feel how pleasant it is to be calm. Temporarily free from the rush of restlessness, and not, for the moment, driven by all kinds of pressures to do and accomplish things, take some time to allow yourself to fully feel the deep pleasure of a calm and tranquil moment. This is the pleasure of being, not doing.


Tomorrow: Understanding the Noble Truth of the Way to the Cessation of Suffering
One week from today:  Establishing Mindfulness of Mental Objects and the Fourth Jhāna


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Via Daily Dharma: Turn Towards Dukkha

 

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Turn Towards Dukkha 

We can easily come to believe that dukkha is a sign of our failure or unworthiness. However, if we can learn to find the confidence to turn toward dukkha, many of the agitations in our life will calm. 

Christina Feldman and Chris Cullen, “An Appropriate Response”


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Lighten Up
By Bhikkhu Santi
According to Bhikkhu Santi, a New York City-based Thai Forest monk, meditation is only as hard as we make it. We don’t need to suffer more in our attempts to liberate ourselves from suffering. In fact, a little levity might get us a lot further in our practice. 
Read more »

Via Ram Dass - Love Serve Remember Foundation // Words of Wisdom - March 10, 2024 💌

 
 

As you quiet your mind just a little bit, you get so that you’re not automatically reacting to everything. You become what’s called responsive rather than reactive. In other words, something happens and there’s a moment when it’s just happening, you’re just with it. As your awareness expands to include more than your separate self, it’s as if you’re part of the gestalt of it all, and you experience the totality of it. And then, out of that quietness comes an act that is appropriate to that moment.

- Ram Dass


From Ram Dass Here & Now Podcast - Ep. 246 - How to Be Responsive, Not Reactive

Via White Crane Institute // Germany's PARAGRAPH 175 and THE GERMAN SYNODAL ASSEMBLY ON THE REFORM OF THE CATHOLIC CHURCH

 


1994 -

On this date Germany's PARAGRAPH 175 was finally revoked. Originally adopted in 1871, Paragraph 175 was a provision of the German Criminal Code that made homosexual acts between males a crime. The statute was amended several times. The Nazis broadened the law in 1935 and increased §175 StGB prosecutions by an order of magnitude; thousands died in concentration camps, regardless of guilt or innocence. East Germany reverted to the old version of the law in 1950, limited its scope to sex with youths under 18 in 1968, and abolished it entirely in 1988. West Germany retained the Nazi-era statute until 1969, when it was limited to "qualified cases"; it was further attenuated in 1973 and finally revoked entirely in 1994 after German reunification.


2023 -

THE GERMAN SYNODAL ASSEMBLY ON THE REFORM OF THE CATHOLIC CHURCH voted on this date  in Frankfurt, Germany, to bless same-sex couples, with 176 of the 202 assembly members voting for the proposal, including two-thirds of the bishops in attendance.

According to a report from the newspaper Donaukurier, same-sex blessings have already been going on in the German church — but were in a canonical grey area and took place in private, rather than openly in churches.

The move stands in direct contradiction to the Vatican, which has explicitly declared that “the Church does not have, and cannot have, the power to bless unions of persons of the same sex.”

The Vatican argued that while God and the Church can bless individuals, including homosexuals, it cannot bless sin, including sexual activity that takes place outside of a valid marriage.

The issue of same-sex couple blessings is one of the main demands from the German Synodal Path, a series of conferences of the Catholic Church in Germany since 2019 that have been looking to greatly transform the Church.

The Synodal Way has proposed radical reforms, such as ordaining priestesses, declaring homosexual acts not to be sinful, and allowing all priests to be married.


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Gay Wisdom for Daily Living from White Crane Institute

"With the increasing commodification of gay news, views, and culture by powerful corporate interests, having a strong independent voice in our community is all the more important. White Crane is one of the last brave standouts in this bland new world... a triumph over the looming mediocrity of the mainstream Gay world." - Mark Thompson

Exploring Gay Wisdom & Culture since 1989!
www.whitecraneinstitute.org

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[GBF] "Jewels From Our Dark Places" with Laura Burges

How can our practice inform encounters with dark times, when we feel loss or face a turning point with trepidation?
Laura Burges shares that we can find "fountains of joy" even in going to the places that scare us. Our practice is not separate from the dark places - we can turn towards the darkness and examine it clearly and experience the "soft heart of sadness" in being alive.
She draws a parallel with the Greek myth of Persephone whose time spent annually in Hades results in the joy reflected in the return of Spring each year. In fact, those times that challenge us most can be a garden for developing empathy and compassion for others in the world when they suffer.
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Listen to the full talk on your favorite podcast player or our website:

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Enjoy 800+ free recorded dharma talks at www.gaybuddhist.org/podcast/

Sunday, March 10, 2024

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Via Daily Dharma: True Presence

 

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True Presence

The most precious gift you can give to the one you love is your true presence.

Thich Nhat Hanh, “Love Is Being There”


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Writing as a Spiritual Practice
An Online Course with Sallie Tisdale
Cultivate an attitude of open-heartedness, curiosity, wonder, and fearlessness through writing with the help of author and Zen teacher Sallie Tisdale.
Enroll now »


Buddhist Film Festival
Presented by Tricycle
March 15-24, 2024
We invite you to join us for our first-ever Buddhist Film Festival from March 15-24, offering five feature-length films, five short films, and a live screening and Q&A with filmmaker Lana Wilson!
Get your ticket »

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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 healthy states, 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 joy-awakening factor. (MN 141)
Reflection
Happiness is a skill that can be learned, and it can be practiced again and again as a living presence. We are all capable of experiencing happy and healthy states of mind, but sometimes we need to remember to experience them as a conscious and deliberate act. At any point, we can in principle draw out of a pool of latent tendencies the active manifestation of a positive state such as joy, thus waking it up and bringing it to life. 

Daily Practice
Try the exercise of deliberately cultivating joy as an active and present state of mind. This does not mean pretending to be joyful as a kind of false overlay to feelings that are not joyful. It means consciously developing actual joy and allowing it to replace whatever other feeling might be in the mind at the moment. Joy is accessible; it is just a matter of remembering to get in touch with it as a living emotion.

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

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.

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