Wednesday, November 30, 2022
Wisdom...
From the soil of loving-kindness grows the beautiful bloom of compassion, watered with tears of empathic joy, under the cool shade of the tree of equanimity.
— Longchenpa
Tuesday, November 29, 2022
Perception & Devotion...
Respect and develop pure perception and devotion toward those who are practicing Dharma as the noble sangha. If you see faults in others, think that they’re the reflections of your own delusions. If you see good qualities in others, meditate on rejoicing over them. Disclose and expel your own faults. Generate virtuous qualities and act with astonishing perseverance. Be with holy people and abandon evil friends. Stay in solitary places and promise to pursue meditation. Make sure that whatever you do is consonant with Dharma practice.
— Longchenpa
Dhammapada Verses 256-270 - The Just
Verse 256: He is not just if he decides a case arbitrarily; the wise man should decide after considering both what is right and what is wrong. | |
Verse 257: The wise man who decides not arbitrarily but in accordance with the law is one who safeguards the law; he is to be called 'one who abides by the law (dhammattho)'. 258: He is not a wise man just because he talks much; only he who is peaceful, free from enmity, and does no harm to others, is to be called 'a wise man'. 259: He is not "one versed in the Dhamma (Dhammadhara)" just because he talks much. He who hears only a little but comprehends the Dhamma, and is not unmindful is, indeed, "one versed in the Dhamma". 260: He is not a thera just because his head is grey; he who is ripe only in years is called "one grown old in vain". 261: Only a wise man who comprehends the Four Noble Truths and the Dhamma, who is harmless and virtuous, who restrains his senses and has rid himself of moral defilements is indeed called a thera. 262: Not by fine talk, nor by good looks could one be a good-hearted man, if he were envious, miserly and crafty. 263: A wise man who has cut off, uprooted and removed these and has rid himself of moral defilements is indeed called a good-hearted man. 264: Not by a shaven head does a man become a samana, if he lacks morality and austere practices and tells lies. How could he who is full of covetousness and greed be a samana? 265: He who has totally subdued all evil, great and small, is called a samana because he has overcome all evil. He does not become a bhikkhu merely because he stands at the door for alms. He cannot become a bhikkhu because he acts according to a faith which is not in conformity with the Dhamma. 267: In this world, he who lays aside both good and evil, who leads the life of purity, and lives meditating on the khandha aggregates is indeed called a bhikkhu. 268 & 269: Not by silence does one become a muni, if one is dull and ignorant. Like one holding a pair of scales, the wise one takes what is good and rejects what is evil. For this reason he is a muni. He who understands both internal and external aggregates is also, for that reason, called a muni.
|
Sunday, November 27, 2022
Wednesday, November 23, 2022
Happy Thanksgiving...
Happy Thanksgiving to all!
May the nation find a way to be thankful for all that it is blessed with, and also a way to heal the deep political, economic, and cultural wounds that have been metastasizing for years.
We are all interconnected in profoundly deep and spiritual ways. Tapping into this interconnectedness can and will bring profound joy and contentment.
Isn't it time to stop "othering" those who look and talk differently or think differently than we do? We are a nation supposedly united. Isn't it time we started acting like it once again?
Tuesday, November 22, 2022
Thursday, November 17, 2022
Wednesday, November 16, 2022
Compassion...
Once we are determined to be free of our problems and their causes, we transfer our concern to others and, with compassion, develop the wish for them likewise to be free.
Dr. Alexander Berzin, Matt Lindén
Last Night We Again Witnessed Narcissism Rising...
PALM BEACH, Fla. — Donald Trump, the twice-impeached former president who refused to concede defeat and inspired a failed attempt to overturn the 2020 election culminating in a deadly attack on the U.S. Capitol, officially declared on Tuesday night that he is running to retake the White House in 2024.
The announcement at his Florida Mar-a-Lago Club came in a moment of political vulnerability for Trump as voters resoundingly rejected his endorsed candidates in last week’s midterm elections. Since then, elected Republicans have been unusually forthright in blaming Trump for the party’s underperformance and potential rivals are already openly plotting challenging Trump for the nomination.
So, the highly narcissistic former failed president who fomented an insurrection attempt against the duly elected government of the United States in 2020 has announced his third bid for the office he does not deserve to hold ever again.
We were only able to listen to a few moments of what immediately began as a fact free meandering through Trump's land of lies, half truths, and for the most part pure genuine bullshit.
When wisdom was passed out it seems that DJT was absent from the crowd. Now all we can hope for is that the majority of the nation exercises their wisdom in defeating the greatest domestic threat to our democratic republic in over 160 years.
To safely insure our democratic republic survives for another 200 years will likely require defeating the authoritarian republican ideology that has surfaced and metastasized over the last 42 years since RWR was president.
Telling - Almost two years on, Trump’s divisiveness has remained a defining feature of American politics, reshaping the Republican Party in his image as much as he has mobilized Democrats against him and strained the checks and balances in every branch and level of government. In exit polls by AP VoteCast, 54 percent of voters said they had an unfavorable view of Trump, including 44 percent who were “very unfavorable.” The same survey found 34 percent of midterm voters said they cast their ballot to express opposition to Trump, with 22 percent who said they were voting as an expression of support for him and 41 percent who said he wasn’t a factor.
Tuesday, November 15, 2022
Crazy Wisdom...
Buddhist yogi Drukpa Kunley is the embodiment of crazy wisdom. And while the stories of his behavior seem crazy to us, Drukpa Kunley’s outrageousness comes from a place of insight. From his point of view, we’re the crazy ones—trapped in our thoughts about reality and unable to see things as they actually are.
In this episode, Lama Liz Monson joins Kate and Alex to discuss the Tibetan roots of crazy wisdom. She introduces us to fifteenth-century Tibetan yogi Drukpa Kunley, describing his commitment to exposing religious hypocrisy and leveraging outrageous behavior to wake people up. Listen in to understand how crazy wisdom is misunderstood in the West and learn how the bawdy stories of Drukpa Kunley can lead us to a spiritual awakening.
Lama Liz Monson is the Spiritual Co-Director of the Natural Dharma Fellowship, a Dharma organization based in the New England area and the Managing Teacher at Wonderwell Mountain Refuge, a Buddhist meditation retreat center in Springfield, NH. She has been studying, practicing, and teaching Tibetan Buddhism in the Kagyu and Nyingma lineages for over thirty years. Liz holds a PhD in the Study of Religion from Harvard University and an MFA in Writing and Poetry from Naropa University. She is interested in developing practical methods for incorporating the Buddhist teachings into everyday life through the practices of kindness and compassion, through direct engagement in the natural world, and by focusing on ways to recognize the natural state in every moment of our lives. Liz is the co-translator of More Than a Madman: The Divine Words of Drukpa Kunley (Kuensel Press, 2014), a translation of the autobiography of the Tibetan yogi, Drukpa Kunley, and author of Tales of a Mad Yogi: The Life and Wild Wisdom of Drukpa Kunley (Snowlion, 2021). Liz is currently writing a book on Tantra for Shambhala Publications.
Some Folks Lose Big When They Lose...
As we await Trump's "big announcement this evening.
Friday, November 11, 2022
Thursday, November 10, 2022
Wednesday, November 9, 2022
Saturday, November 5, 2022
Friday, November 4, 2022
Subscribe to:
Posts (Atom)