Tricycle Daily Dharma May 5, 2013

Our Mutual Dependency To open yourself up to need, longing, dependency, and reliance on others means opening yourself to the truth that none of us can do this on our own. We really do need each other, just as we need parents and teachers. We need all those people in our lives who make us feel so uncertain. Our practice is not about finally getting to a place where we are going to escape all that but about creating a container that allows us to be more and more human, to feel more and more.   - Barry Magid, “No Gain”

Tricycle Daily Dharma May 4, 2013

Keeping our Understanding Alive The seeds of anger are always there. But when you notice, when you keep alive your understanding, they have no chance to manifest. Understanding is something that stays with you, and practicing the precepts, practicing meditation, helps you deepen your understanding all the time.   - Thich Nhat Hanh, “Interbeing with Thich Nhat Hanh”

Tricycle Daily Dharma May 3, 2013

Stay Vigilant The crucial point is to maintain constant vigilance over and awareness of our mental state so that, at the moment that afflictive emotions rise up, they will not trigger a chain of deluded thoughts. Thus, we neither let desire overwhelm our mind, nor do we repress it while leaving it intact in a hidden corner of the mind. We simply become free from its alienating power.   - Matthieu Ricard, “Working With Desire”

Tricycle Daily Dharma May 2, 2013

Eliminating Thoughts of Unworthiness Without cultivating love for ourselves, regardless of how much discipline we have, regardless of how serious we are about practice, we will still stay stuck in the subtle mercilessness of the mind, listening to the voice that tells us we are basically and fundamentally unworthy. We should never underestimate the need for lovingkindness on the long and sometimes daunting path of learning to awaken.   - Ezra Bayda, “The Three Things We Fear Most”

Tricycle Daily Dharma May 1, 2013

Training Skillful Intentions The teaching on karma starts with the principle that people experience happiness and sorrow based on a combination of their past and present intentions. If we act with unskillful intentions either for ourselves or for others, we’re going to suffer. If we act with skillful intentions, we’ll experience happiness. So if we want to be happy, we have to train our intentions to always be skillful.   - Thanissaro Bhikkhu, “Head & Heart Together”

Tricycle Daily Dharma April 30, 2013

Learning How to Live Not only is it of profound importance for each of us to understand in a deep way the law of impermanence but it’s also quite practical. It’s not merely metaphysical or something to be argued about in philosophy seminars and coffee shops. Learning the law of impermanence can be done there, too, but the Buddhist teaching is designed to help us learn how to live.   - Larry Rosenberg, “The Weather is Just the Weather”

Tricycle Daily Dharma April 29, 2013

Working with Habits Changing ourselves involves learning how to develop those states, behaviors, and dispositions that are healthy, while allowing the unhealthy ones to atrophy from neglect.   - Andrew Olendzki, "Turning the Corner"