134. Truly dangerous are gains, honours and fame. Concerning this, I have known a man, reading his mind, who even for the sake of a golden bowl filled with silver nuggets would not deliberately tell a lie. That same man have I seen at another time telling lies because his heart was obsessed by gains, honours and fame. Truly dangerous are gains, honours and fame.
Samyutta Nikaya II.233
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Even though I have only just begun to work with the practice of seeing my life as being booked ended by certain death with five days’ time, I am happy to report that doing so has proven to be great for my mental health. Against the backdrop of such an expiration date things which have previously held the mind’s attention in real drop away and I can work towards long term plans without the pressure of needing to see them through to completion.
I think the strangest part of it all is just why it works. I have no psychic intuition of impending doom and yet it feels very possible that I could die within the next five days. As such this practice may not work for everyone but, for those to whom death and dissolution seem ever so close, it is one that I highly recommend.
Posted in Anicca, Buddha, Buddhism, Dhamma, Maranassati, Theravada | Tags: death, impermanence
“At Savatthi. There the Blessed One said: “From an inconstruable beginning comes transmigration. A beginning point is not evident, though beings hindered by ignorance and fettered by craving are transmigrating & wandering on. A being who has not been your mother at one time in the past is not easy to find… A being who has not been your father… your brother… your sister… your son… your daughter at one time in the past is not easy to find.
“Why is that? From an inconstruable beginning comes transmigration. A beginning point is not evident, though beings hindered by ignorance and fettered by craving are transmigrating & wandering on. Long have you thus experienced stress, experienced pain, experienced loss, swelling the cemeteries — enough to become disenchanted with all fabricated things, enough to become dispassionate, enough to be released.”
Happy Mother’s Day to all of my mothers!
Posted in Buddha, Buddha Vacana, Buddhism, Dhamma, Theravada | Tags: gratitude, mother's day, mothers
The party few weeks have been especially difficult and I have been coming to the formal practice from a place of almost no joy. In fact, there is a sense of heaviness and dread every time I sit down and try to force myself to follow the breath and bud-dho. So this morning I made a decision: I would sit in a way that respected this suffering and would bring the poets of the brahmaviharas to the dukkha.
We’re their trumpets and angels? Not quite but the acknowledgement of the suffering and my wish to be free of it were more than enough to help style the heart and give it a few, precious moments of peace.
Nidukkho homi.
The party few weeks have been especially difficult and I have been coming to the formal practice from a place of almost no joy. In fact, there is a sense of heaviness and dread every time I sit down and try to force myself to follow the breath and bud-dho. So this morning I made a decision: I would sit in a way that respected this suffering and would bring the poets of the brahmaviharas to the dukkha.
We’re their trumpets and angels? Not quite but the acknowledgement of the suffering and my wish to be free of it were more than enough to help style the heart and give it a few, precious moments of peace.
Nidukkho homi.
127. It is good from time to time to review one’s own faults; it is good from time to time to review another’s faults. It is good from time to time to review one’s own attainments; it is good from time to time to review another’s attainments.
Anguttara Nikaya V.159
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Mercy is a strange word that seems to imply the very real potential for causing harm and the styling of the hand that would do so. As I reflected in the theme of today’s post, however, there seems to be no better or apt term to describe the unique type of forbearance required in one’s relations with one’s employees. And this seems to me no less true despite how crass and impolite it may sound.
Time and again when dealing with the people who work for me I find myself on a precipice over which I could fall into total aversion as a result of what I perceive to be their inability or unwillingness to follow instructions. It is precisely here that there is a need for mercy and for more creative ways of redirecting them in order that they accomplish their duties. For the time being out is enough for me to have noticed the aversion and to have seen the need to respond with gentleness and kindness even if I’m not sure how that will translate into action as yet.
125. There are two things that burn the conscience. What two? Say a person has done immoral acts of body, speech or mind, or has failed to do virtuous acts of the body, speech or mind. When he thinks of this he burns with remorse.
Anguttara Nikaya I.49
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As much as I wince when I see the term “self-loathing” there is perhaps no better way to describe my current perception of my behavior and conventional self. Yes, I know there is no self on an intellectual level but, in my heart, I am yet a putthujana subject to the decisions of one who had not yet realized the truth. The point is simply that I need to make friends with myself all over again.
For reasons that I won’t get into, I have fallen away from my metta practice and have been going through the motions as far as breath practice is concerned. And the results in my daily life are pretty appalling. Fault finding, criticism, shapes of tongue and a general lack of patience seem to characterize my behavior and leave me feeling more remorseful and bitter than before. Yet, there is a way out and it is, for me at least, the brahmaviharas. So, last night I spent my evening session doing forgiveness negotiation for myself and then for others and the heart was just a little softer at the end.
Mary I practice rightly and remember that the Dhamma is meant to alleviate suffering, not cause it.
Posted in Buddha, Buddhism, Dhamma, Dukkha, Forgiveness, Metta, Theravada | Tags: forgiveness, metta, self-judgement, self-loathing
Improving Lives through Generosity
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Cattāri Brahmavihārā 