understanding

Noble Eightfold Path

Gill Washington Buddhist Writings, Spirituality , , , , , 0 Comment

Right Understanding
Right Thinking
Right Speech
Right Action
Right Livelihood
Right Effort
Right Mindfulness
Right Concentration

 

1. Right View

See things as they truly are without delusions or distortions
for all things change. Develop wisdom by knowing how things
work, knowing oneself and others.

2. Right Intention

Wholehearted resolution and dedication to overcoming the
dislocation of self-centered craving through the development
of loving kindness, empathy and compassion.

3. Right Speech

Abstinence from lies and deceptions, backbiting, idle
babble and abusive speech. Cultivate honesty and
truthfulness; practice speech that is kind and benevolent.
Let your words reflect your desire to help, not harm others.

4. Right Action

Practice self-less conduct that reflects the highest
statement of the life you want to live. Express conduct
that is peaceful, honest and pure showing compassion
for all beings.

5. Right Livelihood

Avoidance of work that causes suffering to others or that
makes a decent, virtuous life impossible. Do not engage
in any occupation that opposes or distracts one from the
path. Love and serve our world through your work.

6. Right Effort

Seek to make the balance between the exertion of following
the spiritual path and a moderate life that is not over-zealous.
Work to develop more wholesome mind states, while gently
striving to go deeper and live more fully.

7. Right Mindfulness

Through constant vigilance in thought, speech and action
seek to rid the mind of self-centered thoughts that separate
and replace them with those that bind all beings together.
Be aware of your thoughts, emotions, body and world as they
exist in the present moment. Your thoughts create your reality.

8. Right Concentration

Through the application of meditation and mental discipline seek
to extinguish the last flame of grasping consciousness and develop
an emptiness that has room to embrace and love all things.

More Buddhist writings on Allspirit

 

Teaching

Gill Washington Kahlil Gibran, Poems, The Prophet , , , 0 Comment

Kahlil Gibran

From The Prophet

THEN said a teacher, Speak to us of Teaching.

And he said:

No man can reveal to you aught but that which
already lies half asleep in the dawning of your knowledge.

The teacher who walks in the shadow of the
temple, among his followers, gives not of his
wisdom but rather of his faith and his lovingness.

If he is indeed wise he does not bid you enter
the house of his wisdom, but rather leads you to
the threshold of your own mind.

The astronomer may speak to you of his understanding
of space, but he cannot give you his understanding.

The musician may sing to you of the rhythm which
is in all space, but he cannot give you the ear which
arrests the rhythm nor the voice that echoes it.

And he who is versed in the science of numbers
can tell of the regions of weight and measure, but
he cannot conduct you thither.

For the vision of one man lends not its wings to
another man.

And even as each one of you stands alone in
God’s knowledge, so must each one of you be alone
in his knowledge of God and his understanding of the earth.

Read more  Kahlil Gibran poems

Index of poets on Allspirit

 

Pain

Gill Washington Kahlil Gibran, Poems, The Prophet , , 0 Comment

Kahlil Gibran

From The Prophet

AND a woman spoke, saying, Tell us of Pain.

And he said:

Your pain is the breaking of the shell
that encloses your understanding.

Even as the stone of the fruit must break,that its
heart may stand in the sun, so must you know pain.

And could you keep your heart in wonder
at the daily miracles of your life, your pain
would not seem less wondrous than your joy;

And you would accept the seasons of your
heart, even as you have always accepted
the seasons that pass over your fields.

And you would watch with serenity
through the winters of your grief.

Much of your pain is self-chosen.

It is the bitter potion by which the
physician within you heals your sick self.

Therefore trust the physician, and drink
his remedy in silence and tranquillity:

For his hand, though heavy and hard, is guided
by the tender hand of the Unseen,
And the cup he brings, though it burn your lips,
has been fashioned of the clay which the Potter
has moistened with His own sacred tears.

Read more  Kahlil Gibran poems

Index of poets on Allspirit

 

The Secret of Perfect Relationships

Gill Washington Guy Finley, Poems , , , 0 Comment

 

Guy Finley

The less we learn to long for — or depend upon —
Special understanding from others,

The less we will suffer for not receiving this.

The less we suffer over what others

Seem incapable of giving to us,

The less unhappy will we find ourselves

In these unanswered moments of our lives

Spent in the company of friends and foes alike.

The less pain we have over what life appears to deny us,

The more at peace we naturally become with ourselves.

The more of this serenity we grow to know within ourselves,

The easier it becomes for us to give to others

This harmony founded in our New Understanding.

Whenever we give others this new order of Understanding

Without asking for anything in return,

Those we greet with this Gift are silently touched; they are moved

By this willingness to put their concerns before our own.

And it is this one action that awakens in them . . .

Their sleeping need to respond in kind.

Happiness is the wholeness found in conscious kindness.

This is the secret of perfect relationships.