Reducing Informational Warfare: Skillful Guidelines For Wholesome Internet Intake

Just like anywhere else, the abominable censoring of Internet speech never helps. Since responsibility of consuming online information clearly rests with the consumer it seems high time for some helpful guidance surrounding conduct, information gathering and exposure when online.

While Intel agencies gather copious amounts of raw (mis/dis)information then apply various methods of discernment to determine a course of action (or inaction). As a individual, is this strategy best? Probably not.

How about treating information like food? This is only a start.

So what does a self-responsible, self-empowered digital diet – while leaving the digital tongue of producers intact – look like?

image

For sage wisdom why not turn to the ultimate master of living a liberated, happy and enlightened life in this very world, Siddhartha Gautama, the historical Buddha.

The headings below express various areas of applicable online life followed by potentially relevant teachings and words from the Buddha in blockquotes.  

First, A Prerequisite

image

“… putting aside greed & distress with reference to the world”

https://www.accesstoinsight.org/tipitaka/dn/dn.22.0.bpit.html

When greed (e.g., lusting after the best and most info) – or distress (e.g., the compulsion to express who and what is wrong) – motivates much of our time online we can rapidly succumb to a vortex of unwholesome, seething emotions. Before using the Internet incline towards a cool, level head by temporarily suspending greed and stress involving world affairs. Pick them up later if you must.

What To Pay Attention To

“Now, Kalamas, don’t go by reports, by legends, by traditions, by scripture, by logical conjecture, by inference, by analogies, by agreement through pondering views, by probability, or by the thought, ‘This contemplative is our teacher.’ When you know for yourselves that, ‘These qualities are skillful; these qualities are blameless; these qualities are praised by the wise; these qualities, when adopted & carried out, lead to welfare & to happiness’ — then you should enter & remain in them.”

https://www.accesstoinsight.org/tipitaka/an/an03/an03.065.than.html

Skillful Qualities For Online Activities

“As for the qualities of which you may know, ‘These qualities lead to utter disenchantment, to dispassion, to cessation, to calm, to direct knowledge, to self-awakening, to Unbinding’: You may categorically hold, ‘This is the Dhamma, this is the Vinaya, this is the Teacher’s instruction.’”

https://www.accesstoinsight.org/tipitaka/an/an07/an07.079.than.html

“As for the qualities of which you may know, ‘These qualities lead to dispassion, not to passion; to being unfettered, not to being fettered; to shedding, not to accumulating; to modesty, not to self-aggrandizement; to contentment, not to discontent; to seclusion, not to entanglement; to aroused persistence, not to laziness; to being unburdensome, not to being burdensome’: You may categorically hold, ‘This is the Dhamma, this is the Vinaya, this is the Teacher’s instruction.’”

https://www.accesstoinsight.org/tipitaka/an/an08/an08.053.than.html

No Need For An Act Of Will

The Internet does not always require a response or action:

“For a dispassionate person, there is no need for an act of will, ‘May I realize the knowledge & vision of release.’ It is in the nature of things that a dispassionate person realizes the knowledge & vision of release “In this way, dispassion has knowledge & vision of release as its purpose, knowledge & vision of release as its reward. Disenchantment has dispassion as its purpose, dispassion as its reward. Knowledge & vision of things as they actually are has disenchantment as its purpose, disenchantment as its reward. Concentration has knowledge & vision of things as they actually are as its purpose, knowledge & vision of things as they actually are as its reward. Pleasure has concentration as its purpose, concentration as its reward. Serenity has pleasure as its purpose, pleasure as its reward. Rapture has serenity as its purpose, serenity as its reward. Joy has rapture as its purpose, rapture as its reward. Freedom from remorse has joy as its purpose, joy as its reward. Skillful virtues have freedom from remorse as their purpose, freedom from remorse as their reward.

“In this way, mental qualities lead on to mental qualities, mental qualities bring mental qualities to their consummation, for the sake of going from the near to the Further Shore.”

https://www.accesstoinsight.org/tipitaka/an/an11/an11.002.than.html

Discerning Truth On The Internet

“…There are five things that can turn out in two ways in the here-&-now. Which five? Conviction, liking, unbroken tradition, reasoning by analogy, & an agreement through pondering views. These are the five things that can turn out in two ways in the here-&-now. Now some things are firmly held in conviction and yet vain, empty, & false. Some things are not firmly held in conviction, and yet they are genuine, factual, & unmistaken. Some things are well-liked and yet vain, empty, & false. Some things are not well-liked, and yet they are genuine, factual, & unmistaken. Some things are an unbroken tradition and yet vain, empty, & false. Some things are not an unbroken tradition, and yet they are genuine, factual, & unmistaken. Some things are well-reasoned and yet vain, empty, & false. Some things are not well-reasoned, and yet they are genuine, factual, & unmistaken. Some things are well-pondered and yet vain, empty, & false. Some things are not well-pondered, and yet they are genuine, factual, & unmistaken. In these cases it isn’t proper for a knowledgeable person who safeguards the truth to come to a definite conclusion, ‘Only this is true; anything else is worthless.“

https://www.accesstoinsight.org/tipitaka/mn/mn.095x.than.html

Qualit(ies) most helpful for the final attainment of the truth: Conviction –> visiting –> growing close –> lending ear –> hearing –> remembering –> penetrating the meaning –> coming to an agreement through pondering –> desire –> being willing –> contemplating –> exertion –> final attainment of the truth . . . via https://www.accesstoinsight.org/tipitaka/mn/mn.095x.than.html

Embracing Non-harm

image

“Whenever you want to do [while you are doing, and having done] a bodily action [verbal action, mental action], you should reflect on it: ‘This bodily action [verbal action, mental action], I want to do [are doing, and have done] — would it [is it, was it] lead to self-affliction, to the affliction of others, or to both? Would it be [is it, was it] an unskillful bodily action, [verbal action, mental action] with painful consequences, painful results?’ If, on reflection, you know that it would lead [is leading, has lead] to self-affliction, to the affliction of others, or to both; it would be an unskillful bodily action [verbal action, mental action] with painful consequences, painful results, then any bodily action [verbal action, mental action] of that sort is absolutely unfit for you to do. But if on reflection you know that it would not cause self-affliction, to the affliction of others, or to both; it would be a skillful bodily action [verbal action, mental action] with pleasant consequences, pleasant results, then any bodily action [verbal action, mental action] of that sort is fit for you to do.”

Ambalatthika-rahulovada Sutta: Instructions to Rahula at Mango Stone (with my edits/additions in brackets in order to condense the text)

Handling Online Abuse

image

….the brahman Akkosaka[1] Bharadvaja heard that a brahman of the Bharadvaja clan had gone forth from the home life into homelessness in the presence of the Blessed One. Angered & displeased, he went to the Blessed One and, on arrival, insulted & cursed him with rude, harsh words. 

When this was said, the Blessed One said to him: “What do you think, brahman: Do friends & colleagues, relatives & kinsmen come to you as guests?”

“Yes, Master Gotama, sometimes friends & colleagues, relatives & kinsmen come to me as guests.”

“And what do you think: Do you serve them with staple & non-staple foods & delicacies?”

“Yes, sometimes I serve them with staple & non-staple foods & delicacies.”

“And if they don’t accept them, to whom do those foods belong?”

“If they don’t accept them, Master Gotama, those foods are all mine.”

“In the same way, brahman, that with which you have insulted me, who is not insulting; that with which you have taunted me, who is not taunting; that with which you have berated me, who is not berating: that I don’t accept from you. It’s all yours, brahman. It’s all yours.”

“Whoever returns insult to one who is insulting, returns taunts to one who is taunting, returns a berating to one who is berating, is said to be eating together, sharing company, with that person. But I am neither eating together nor sharing your company, brahman. It’s all yours. It’s all yours.”

“The king together with his court know this of Master Gotama — ‘Gotama the contemplative is an arahant’ — and yet still Master Gotama gets angry.”[2] [Akkosaka thinks that the Buddha is cursing him — and thus angry — when actually the Buddha is simply stating a fact in line with the law of kamma.]

[The Buddha:] Whence is there anger for one free from anger, tamed, living in tune — one released through right knowing, calmed & Such. You make things worse when you flare up at someone who’s angry. Whoever doesn’t flare up at someone who’s angry wins a battle hard to win. You live for the good of both — your own, the other’s — when, knowing the other’s provoked, you mindfully grow calm. When you work the cure of both — your own, the other’s — those who think you a fool know nothing of Dhamma.

https://www.accesstoinsight.org/tipitaka/sn/sn07/sn07.002.than.html

Online Spats: The Compulsion To Be Right And Win Arguments

“Winning gives birth to hostility. Losing, one lies down in pain. The calmed lie down with ease, having set winning & losing aside.”

https://www.accesstoinsight.org/tipitaka/kn/dhp/dhp.15.than.html

“Fear is born from arming oneself. Just see how many people fight! I’ll tell you about the dreadful fear that caused me to shake all over: 

Seeing creatures flopping around, Like fish in water too shallow, So hostile to one another! — Seeing this, I became afraid. 

This world completely lacks essence; It trembles in all directions. I longed to find myself a place Unscathed — but I could not see it. 

Seeing people locked in conflict, I became completely distraught. But then I discerned here a thorn — Hard to see — lodged deep in the heart. 

It’s only when pierced by this thorn That one runs in all directions. So if that thorn is taken out — one does not run, and settles down.“

https://www.accesstoinsight.org/tipitaka/kn/snp/snp.4.15.olen.html

Cūlaviyūha Sutta — Smaller Discourse on Quarreling from Sutta Nipāta 4.12

Question
Each attached to their own views,
They dispute, and the experts say,
“Whoever knows this understands the Dhamma,
Whoever rejects it is imprefect.”

Arguing like this, they disagree, saying
“My opponent is a fool, and is no expert”
Which of these doctrines is the truth,
Since all of them say they are experts?

Buddha
If by not accepting another’s teaching
One became a fool of debased wisdom
Then, honestly, all are fools of debased wisdom,
Since all are attached to views.

But if people are washed by their own views,
With pure wisdom, experts, thoughtful,
Then none of them has debased wisdom,
For their views are perfect.

I don’t say, “This is how it is”,
Like the fools who oppose each other.
Each of them makes out that their view is the truth,
So they treat their opponent as a fool.

Question
What some say is the truth,
Others say is false.
So they argue, disagreeing;
Why don’t the ascetics teach one truth?

Buddha
Indeed the truth is one, there’s not another,
about this the One who Knows
does not dispute with another,
but the Samaṇas proclaim their varied “truths”
and so they speak not in the same way.

Why do they speak such varied truths,
these so-called experts disputatious—
Are there really many and various truths
Or do they just rehearse their logic?

Buddha
Indeed, there are not many and varied truths
differing from perception of the ever-true in the world;
but they work upon their views with logic:
“Truth! Falsehood!” So they speak in dualities.

Based on what is seen, heard,
On precepts and vows, or what is cognized,
They look down on others.
Convinced of their own theories,
pleased with themselves,
They say, “My opponent is a fool, no expert.”

They consider themselves expert for the same reasons
That they despise their opponent as a fool.
Calling themselves experts, they despise the other,
Yet they speak the very same way.

And since perfected in some extreme view,
puffed with pride and maddened by conceit,
he anoints himself as though the master-mind,
likewise thinking his view’s perfected too.

If their opponent says they are deficient,
They too are of deficient understanding.
But if they are wise and knowledgeable,
Then there are no fools among the ascetics.

“Anyone who teaches a doctrine other than this,
Has fallen short of purity and perfection.”
This is what followers of other paths say,
Passionately defending their very different views.

“Here alone is purity,” so they say,
“There is no purity in the teachings of others.”
This is what followers of other paths strongly assert,
Each entrenched in their own different path.

Strongly asserting their own path,
What opponent would they take to be a fool?
They would only bring trouble on themselves
By calling an opponent a fool of impure teachings.

Convinced of their own theories,
Comparing others to oneself,
They get into more disputes with the world.
But by leaving behind all theories,
They don’t have any problems with the world.

Cūlaviyūha Sutta — Smaller Discourse on Quarreling from Sutta Nipāta 4.12

Ending War And Conflict

image

“Hatred is never appeased by hatred in this world. By non-hatred alone is hatred appeased. This is a law eternal.”

https://www.accesstoinsight.org/tipitaka/kn/dhp/dhp.01.budd.html

Shakyamuni Buddha tried to head off an impending war between the ancient countries of Magadha and Kapilavattu, home to his own Shakya clan. He tried logic and persuasion and, at last, he sat zazen under a dead tree by the side of the battlefield.

…Since it was very hot, (the king of Magadha) couldn’t understand why the Buddha was sitting under a dead tree; usually people sit under beautiful green trees. So the king asked, “Why do you sit under the dead tree?” The Buddha calmly said to the king, “I feel cool, even under this dead tree, because it is growing near my native country.” This really pierced the king’s heart and he was so greatly impressed by the message of the Buddha’s action that he could go no further. Instead of attacking, he returned to his country. But the king’s attendant still continued to encourage him to attack and finally he did so. This time, unfortunately, Shakyamuni Buddha didn’t have time to do anything. Without saying a word, he just stood and watched his country and his people being destroyed.

The Buddha failed to stop the battle because, as Dogen wrote, “The mind of a sentient being is difficult to change.”

http://www.pbs.org/thebuddha/blog/2010/apr/6/vowing-peace-age-war-part-4-alan-senauke/

Wise Speech

image

Abstaining from lying, abstaining from divisive speech, abstaining from abusive speech, abstaining from idle chatter.

https://www.accesstoinsight.org/tipitaka/sn/sn45/sn45.008.than.html

“…spoken at the right time. It is spoken in truth. It is spoken affectionately. It is spoken beneficially. It is spoken with a mind of good-will.”

….

“…knows to be factual, true, beneficial, and endearing & agreeable to others, he has a sense of the proper time for saying them.”

https://www.accesstoinsight.org/ptf/dhamma/sacca/sacca4/samma-vaca/index.html

A couple of additional considerations when seeking information:

Can an informational source intoxicate in a way leading to headlessness of the above?

Can suggestions (and/or methods) for response from each source – along with any viable solutions – pass through the gates/guidelines above?

[This article is an edited version originally published elsewhere: August 15th, 2018 11:13pm]

An Alternative To The Unnecessary Risk And Peril Of A Goal Obsessed Lifestyle

Shortcut to this post: https://tinyurl.com/goalsandcorevalues

There’s nothing wrong with setting goals. Bruce Lee once said, “A goal is not always meant to be reached. It often serves simply as something to aim for.” It’s important though to be aware of developing any tunnel vision while striving towards goals. Focusing nearly exclusively on our goals can contribute to more easily ignoring – and blinding us to – the importance of other matters and situations. Some may even desire certain goals so intensely that they result to harm or neglect to achieve them. And if we construct an identity based on “our” goals, then cling to – and expect achievement of – those goals then any roadblocks and/or failures can amplify frustrations and unhappiness. 

There’s also external downsides. If our goals are known publicly, it is easier to influence, manipulate and incentivize our behavior by targeting those desires to further sometimes malignant agendas. For example, the rich and powerful may offer to help achieve your goal(s) more quickly in exchange for doing some of their dirty work. More insidious yet: offering up and promoting malicious goals to the public masses (by painting deceptive pictures of widespread acceptance; commonplaceness and/or currently established popular behavior without disclosing hidden purposes behind the offers and promotions.)

While setting goals it may be helpful to investigate the intent underlying each goal. Why is this goal important and worth the time and effort? [Keep asking this question for each answer you get until you get to the root, or can no longer answer.] From whom or where did this goal come from? What amount of lasting satisfaction will come from this goal? Is it helpful, wholesome, skillful and wise to automatically and continuously set goals (before and) after achieving a goal — frantically directing life from a goal-after-goal treadmill?

Obviously we all still need to take care of ourselves, pay the bills and be responsible. Perhaps superior non-goal-centric alternatives exist though. Like identifying (a handful of) core values — what’s really important in life — as a reference and guide for relationships and making choices. Life becomes satisfyingly smoother when our deepest and highest aspirations direct our energy, thinking, speaking, acting and lifestyle choices.

[Originally published elsewhere: August 24th, 2018]

A heart-centered article by Phillip Moffitt that includes goals and values as related to trust

Dharma Questions: Intent

This irregular “Dharma Questions” series deals with “dharma” meaning both the truth of the nature of reality and some Buddhist teachings. Please see this post on the intensions for questioning and not questioning. Amongst other things these questions can be, but not necessarily:

  • thought experiments
  • borderline musings not meant to be answered
  • from laziness of not contemplating or researching them yet

Intent

  1. How and why does intent work?
  2. Is retro-causal intention setting possible. If so, is doing so wise and skillful?
  3. Can intention be amplified and/or intensified‪?
  4. Is ignorance the same as unawareness? Do either ignorance or unawareness relate to amount or quality of consciousness?
  5. If there is no existence on an ultimate level, what changes (i.e., what suffers and is not-self)?
  6. If there’s (an) intention on why breath is required for life; essential to and for life; and a (near continual) requirement — what is such an intention? Why not require life to do something like rubbing gum drops on your neck in such and such a manner instead of breathing air?

`When one understands the nutriment of mental volition one understands the three forms of ‘thirst’ (taṇhā).’ *

[* S II (PTS), p. 100. The three forms of ‘thirst’ are: (1) Thirst for sense-pleasures,
(2) Thirst for existence and becoming, and (3) Thirst for non-existence, as given in the definition of samudaya ‘arising of dukkha’..]

Walpola Rahula – What the Buddha Taught p. 31

UPDATE: The following comes from an archive of a now deleted blog. While much of it seems to run contrary to the above, it’s still interesting enough to repost:

Unity Intention: Tapping massive combined intent

Intent is powerful. Whether we’re aware of it or not, intent underlies nearly everything.

The Upanishads say, “You are what your deepest desire is. As your
desire is, so is your intention. As your intention is, so is your will.
As your will is, so is your deed. As your deed is, so is your destiny.”

Usually discussion of intentions is on an individual level. What would happen if we could sift through every intention ever made, selecting and setting any that resonate with us?

Well some say the Akashic records would hold such information. Even if we can’t read them, just the powerful and simple act of imaging we have access to every intention ever made while also imagining we could set any intention we would approve of. And imagine doing so consciously (even though we may not be conscious of such a process.)

Let’s take it a step further. Imagine this as a spiritual database of sorts. We can access all these intents while adding our every new intention to it. Now imagine charging all those intentions we agree with and set with our signature frequency and energy. We would be sending loving energy to all who choose the same intentions whereby forming connections between people and making mutual intentions more likely to come about. All with imagination.

This discourse describes the link between fabrications and consciousness in dependent co-arising, and shows how intention and underlying obsessions—with ignorance of the four noble truths being the basis for all obsessions—play a role in constituting awareness of the present moment.

Staying near Sāvatthī … (the Blessed One said,) “Monks, what one intends, what one arranges, and what one obsesses about1: This is a support for the stationing of consciousness. There being a support, there is a landing of consciousness. When that consciousness lands and grows, there is the production of renewed becoming in the future. When there is the production of renewed becoming in the future, there is future birth, aging-&-death, sorrow, lamentation, pain, distress, & despair. Such is the origination of this entire mass of suffering & stress.

“If one doesn’t intend and doesn’t arrange, but one still obsesses (about something), this is a support for the stationing of consciousness. There being a support, there is a landing of consciousness. When that consciousness lands and grows, there is the production of renewed becoming in the future. When there is the production of renewed becoming in the future, there is future birth, aging-&-death, sorrow, lamentation, pain, distress, & despair. Such (too) is the origination of this entire mass of suffering & stress.

“But when one doesn’t intend, arrange, or obsess (about anything), there is no support for the stationing of consciousness. There being no support, there is no landing of consciousness. When that consciousness doesn’t land & grow, there is no production of renewed becoming in the future. When there is no production of renewed becoming in the future, there is no future birth, aging-&-death, sorrow, lamentation, pain, distress, or despair. Such is the cessation of this entire mass of suffering & stress.”

Intention
Cetanā Sutta  (SN 12:38)

Wisdom Snippets: Hope

Most of us can obviously see the upside in the concept of hope. How about diving in a little deeper?

Hope says, “Wow. Things are bad. May as well just smoke some Hopium & in the future maybe, somehow, there could be a chance of things getting better.” But you gotta keep smoking Hopium. Hope puts off facing what needs attention, investigation & action now for a future crapshoot.

“Hope, when bold, is strength. Hope, with doubt, is cowardice. #Hope, with fear, is weakness.”

~ G. I. Gurdjieff

“Hope” implies issues, but what if you saw problems as gifts? “Hope” implies a chance to fail but there’s no failure if you learn from it.

“It is attachment to the pleasant, and resistance to the unpleasant that keeps us on the roller coaster of hope and fear.”

~ Joseph Goldstein

Free yourself from “I hope this happens” & “I hope that doesn’t happen”… I’m ready once and for all to let life happen…“In spite of my ______ the will of my heart is to be open” because nothing in my reality is more powerful than love.

The Will of Your Heart by Matt Kahn

Therapeutic success (and forgiveness) means giving up all hope for a better past

“Hope is the projection that if I work hard, if I apply myself to gaining something, getting something then I’ll be happy in some kind of a lasting or meaningful way. … as nice as the things we succeeded at, that we’ve gotten have been the heart remains tight wanting more. And this is what really begins, if we let it, to break our heart open — is really seeing that our basic habit of going to hope and going to fear ends up leading to disappointment and that sense of betrayal. What is really betraying us is what we think will help turns out to not be helpful.”

~ Mark Nunberg https://overcast.fm/+OjJN-i-C8

“Tis utterly impossible
To reach by travel the world’s end;
But there is no escape from pain
Until the world’s end has been reached.
It is a sage, a knower of the worlds,
Who gets to the world’s end,
and it is he
Whose life divine is lived out to its term;
He is at peace who the world’s end has known
And hopes for neither this world nor the next” (S I 62).

— from Path of Purification VII.36 (Nyanamoli, trans)

Wait Without Hope

I said to my soul, be still, and wait without hope
For hope would be hope for the wrong thing; wait without love,
For love would be love of the wrong thing; there is yet faith
But the faith and the love and the hope are all in the waiting.
Wait without thought, for you are not ready for thought:
So the darkness shall be the light, and the stillness the dancing.
Whisper of running streams, and winter lightning.
The wild thyme unseen and the wild strawberry,
The laughter in the garden, echoed ecstasy
Not lost, but requiring, pointing to the agony
Of death and birth.

— T.S. Eliot

Addressing (CV) Fears

Wholeness! I trust anyone who comes across this blog post will find value in the following approaches to dealing with fear. If not, please reach out for assistance and/or keep searching. This post may be updated as new material presents itself. Please only take what is useful and helpful and discard the rest.

Tara Brach: Guided Reflection on Bringing RAIN to Fear

Tara Brach put together a free Pandemic Care Resources package which includes the above meditation.

World Peace Prayer via Energetic Synthesis

I lovingly command every function in my entire body to be fully directed in the intent, consent and authority of my highest expression, my Christ-Self, God-Self. All contents, structures and devices within my body and consciousness, known or unknown to me now are completely governed by the Law of One, in Cosmic Sovereign Law. I AM God-Sovereign-Free!

Energetic Synthesis March 2020 Newsleter

Free transcript of the Physical Health Upgrade meditation at EnergeticSynthesis.com

… cleanse your energy field throughout the day by saying silently or out loud: “May the energy I’m sensing from others be cleared away, transmuted completely, and return to Source now. And so it is.” 

~Matt Kahn

Phase I: Re-establish your equilibrium

Calm yourself using whatever strategy works best for you. Examples of how you might do this include focusing on your breath or your feet touching Earth. One person I know holds one hand with the other and imagines that the universe is embracing her; another calms herself by looking up at the sky. Next, name what’s going on and acknowledge that you’re upset. Can you identify the aspect of yourself that is upset? Allow the part of you that knows you’re upset to comfort the part that’s upset with compassion and loving-kindness.

Phase II: Remember your intentions

Once you’ve returned to equilibrium, reconnect with your intentions. As you begin to remember your intentions, you become less and less defined by the difficult experience. You have more clarity of mind; although it may not be clear to you what to do, you remember what you’re about. I call this “self-remembering.”

Phase III: Redirect your attention

Lastly, as your clarity returns and you re-engage with life from your intentions, begin to redirect your attention. What dharma insights can you apply to this difficult situation? For instance, you might reflect on the impersonal nature of life. Although you are having a personal experience, it is just causes and conditions that are creating this experience. This too is going to change because everything changes. Life is hard; therefore, it’s not a mistake that your life is hard in this moment. This insight alone can be a source of great comfort.

Self-Soothing during Difficult Times

All is Love. Fear is Illusion. All beings are Free. Truth can never be destroyed.

whatonearthishappening.com
  • The Mantra of Infinite Courage:

Only transformation is happening to me

Denny and I did Corona-19, Hypertension And Qi | (2/23/2021 — “Ask Us Anything – LIVE” With Denny K Miu)

Corona-19, Hypertension And Qi | (2/23/2021 — “Ask Us Anything – LIVE” With Denny K Miu)

Refuge

Where, or in what do you take refuge now? What provides a sense of comfort, safety and stability? Shopping? Sex? Social media? Food? Gaming? TV? Money? Chasing approval and fame? Drugs and/or alcohol? Or perhaps it’s more positive things like friends, family, nature, heath, spiritual practices, values. Or a mix of positive and negative.

While I still don’t consider myself a Buddhist, I study and engage in various mediation practices often labeled as Buddhist. There are three refuges in Buddhism: Buddha, Dharma and Sangha.

Outwardly, taking refuge in the Buddha may mean deriving comfort, protection and inspiration from the historical Buddha put forth by his words and actions. And to me, it also has an internal component: committing to awareness; honesty/integrity/authenticity; and awakening for the wellbeing of all. Refuge in the Buddha also means honoring and respecting and associating with wise elders, teachers and those beings who likewise embody these qualities. Refuge in Buddha is held in check by the Dharma and Sangha.

In addition to referring to Buddhist teachings, to me, taking refuge in the Dharma means truth, reality and how things actually are — internally and externally — and making effort not to shuck-off or shy away from truth, reality and how things actually are as long as doing so leads away from suffering. Again, Dharma is balanced by Buddha and Sangha.

Externally, Sangha points to those actively engaging with the lived example of the historical Buddha and the Dharma — both aiming to do so when gathering (together) and on their own. In a general sense it is also being grateful and blessed with an interest and commitment/resolve to Buddha and Dharma so much so that one’s internal and external conduct is aligned with Buddha and Dharma thus bestowing to all beings (including one’s self) goodness, skillfulness, wholesomeness, wisdom, and beautiful qualities of the heart.

What would you like to take refuge in?

What is Integrating Presence?

Integrating Presence today looks like allowing for the process of embodying heart-centered awareness — balancing holistic wisdom with the love flavors of unimpeded friendliness; compassion; vicarious joy; and equanimity — leading naturally to true freedom while unfolding our innate courage as we align into wholeness upon our continuing progressive evolution into completing our full potentials and capacities. Or just to enjoy the beautiful side effects: greater focus, calm, memory, immunity, kindness, sleep, lessening of pain and addictions, and promoting emotional, mental and physical wellbeing.