Right Livelihood: Week 4 Right Livelihood as a practice of stewarding the mind & the world, Livelihood & happiness, Gift economy The Buddha’s traditional teachings on resource management: 1. Four causes for the destruction of wealth: debauchery, drunkenness, gambling, and association with evildoers 2. Four causes for the increase of wealth: abstaining from debauchery, from drunkenness, and from gambling, association …
Free Inquiry & Discernment Kalama Sutta: Knowing for yourself from your direct experience “Come, Kalamas. Don’t go by reports, by legend, by traditions, by scripture, by logical conjecture, by inference, by analogies, by consistency with your own laws, by probability, or by the thought, ‘This contemplative is our teacher.’ When you know for yourselves that ‘these mental qualities are …
Right Livelihood: Week 3 Traditional definitions of this path factor: 1. Avoiding the following five kinds of livelihood: dealing in weapons, living beings (slave trade, force labor, child labor, prostitution, etc.), in meat production and butchery, in poisons and in intoxicants 2. Dishonest means in gaining wealth such as practicing deceit, treachery, soothsaying, trickery, and usury. Formal Practice …
Right Livelihood Week 2 Balanced Livelihood & Inquiry into how do we actually spend our time Samma Ajiva = Right Livelihood Ajiva literally means that which is for the purpose of life or that which supports life. Samma Ajiva = that which supports life in a skillful, balanced and wholesome way. Formal Practice Suggestions to build up and deepen samadhi …
Right Livelihood Week 1 What we consume: Wants vs. Needs Reflections & Daily Life Practice 1. Let’s start with getting in touch with our attitude and motivation toward what we use, buy and consume as well as our impact on the world when we choose what to eat, what to wear, where to live. Reflect on your motivation using …
Right Action Week 4: Right action on the social scale. Motivation. Implicit bias. Formal Practice Suggestions to build up and deepen samadhi – Keep up with your formal daily practice. Sit every day this week for at least 30 minutes. Practice awareness with breathing or one of the Brahmaviharas practices to build up your samadhi (samadhi = concentration, unification, …
Right Action Week 3: Third Precept I undertake the training to refrain from misuse of sexuality and the senses. (I undertake the training to practice renunciation.) “Aware of the suffering caused by sexual misconduct, I undertake to cultivate responsibility and learn ways to protect the safety and integrity of individuals, couples, families, and society. I am determined not to engage …
Right Action Week 2: I undertake the training to refrain from taking that which is not given. (I undertake the training to practice generosity.) Formal Practice Suggestions During your formal practice notice if any of the following thoughts, fantasies and/or impulses arise: taking what is not freely given, taking more that is offered, how to get something before someone else …
Right Action Week 1: First Precept I undertake the training to refrain from intentionally taking life. (I undertake the training to maintain respect for life.) Formal Practice Suggestions Notice the arising of any “negative” (critical, judgmental, cruel, aversive, demeaning, etc.) thoughts toward others and/or yourself. Notice what it feels like, how it affects your heart and body. Consider putting …
Right Speech Week 5: Skillful Listening Skillful listening: attuned & receptive, compassionate & tolerant Formal Practice Suggestions 1. Keep up your daily meditation practice. We are in the process of cultivation of awareness that leads to wisdom. This takes dedicated daily practice. 2. This week keep your formal meditation practice simple with cultivation of awareness of breathing. Return to the …
