What comes before mindfulness? Right effort

What is the meaning of Right Effort in Buddhism? (LotusBuddhas)

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What Comes Before Mindfulness? Right Effort and the Buddhist Path to Enlightenment

Effective Effort: How to Inner Garden

Western Theravada Buddhist monk Ajahn Sona (the abbot of Birken Forest Buddhist Monastery, British Columbia) published a paperback late in 2023. It has 5 out of 5 stars with 8 ratings, asking: What comes before the practice of mindfulness?

It's not a trick question, even though mindfulness is always in season, always of benefit [if done correctly and not practiced incorrectly while thinking it's mindfulness, which is where people get in trouble.]

Ajahn Sona answers just as one might think the Buddha would. Right Effort comes before mindfulness.

• 

  Noble (Aryan) = "Enlightening"

  [Only this isn't exactly true. The Noble or Ennobling (Enlightening) Eightfold Path, in spite of its name, is not a step-by-step guide to practice. One does not one day wake up, develop Right View, and then carry on through the remaining seven factors. It's nothing like that. Every factor supports every other factor. They co-arise, to a greater or lesser degree, simultaneously. They interdepend. They mutually support. So just as one is practicing fourfold Right Effort -- one is carrying on mindfully and boosting all of the other factors right at that moment.

1. the effort to prevent the arising of unwholesome states (eliminating harmful and unwholesome mental states that have already arisen);
2. the effort to generate wholesome states (like the Seven Factors of Enlightenment, guarding the sense doors, restraining the sense faculties);
3. the effort to maintain wholesome mental states that have already arisen;
4. the effort to keep these states free of delusion, to develop, increase, cultivate, and perfect them.]

Back cover of book

Right Effort is a sadly neglected factor of the Noble Eightfold Path. There are endless retreats about "mindfulness," but the sixth factor of the path, Right Effort, is woefully underappreciated and not talked about enough in Buddhist circles.

It's one of the most inspiring and beautiful of the path factors, full of so many clear instructions about how to navigate in the inner world and in the outer world.

Ajahn Sona teaching at Birken Forest

This Dharma book is an attempt to bring Right Effort out of the shadows of its glamorous sister, beautiful Right Mindfulness, by going back to the basic sutras of the Pali language canon and examining the language of the Buddha around this essential training.

[Remember, if one were practicing Right Effort correctly, one would be practicing mindfulness. and the practice of Right Mindfulness is essential to the Buddha's practice as a whole.]

• BOOK: What Comes Before Mindfulness? Right Effort and the Buddhist Path to Enlightenment
• Who is Ajahn Sona? Books, biography, latest update
• Ajahn Sona (Birken); Amber Larson and Dhr. Seven (eds.), Wisdom Quarterly

New Sharon Salzberg book: Finding Your Way

Sharon Salzberg (IMS, Barre, Mass.); Amber Larson, Dhr. Seven (eds.), Wisdom Quarterly

Young American Sharon Salzberg went to India and met the enlightened teacher Dipa Ma.

The new book makes a great inspirational gift

Today is the last chance to pre-order Sharon Salzberg's new book, Finding Your Way. This beautiful little gift book comes out into the world on Tuesday, Oct. 10th! All pre-orders in the US are eligible for a free poster inspired by the book.

The book pairs full-color illustrations with short essays about different topics. Everything is distilled into bite-sized pieces for contemplation.

• PRE-ORDER HERE

Salzberg's publisher is offering a 20% discount with code "SHARON" on pre-sales made directly through their website, so get the book at a reduced price from them before Oct. 10th, 2023.

Details are on the SharonSalzberg.com website. Celebrate the launch of Finding Your Way with Sharon and the Insight Meditation Society (IMS) Book Club.

A virtual class is happening on Oct. 10th. Register RIGHT HERE for this FREE event.

With metta,

Team Sharon (edited by Wisdom Quarterly)

• VIRTUAL BOOK LAUNCH (10/10/23) Insight Meditation Society Book Club

Greta Thunberg laughing and smiling (video)

Greta Thunberg, Russell Howard; Crystal Q., CC Liu, Pfc. Sandoval (eds.), Wisdom Quarterly

Time traveler or reborn with same features as may happen when someone dies suddenly? (WQ)

Greta brings youth fury to the Madrid climate summit | World Economic Forum (weforum.org)

• COP 29: UN Climate Change Conference 2022
• The new Culture of Evil Think | Meer

Greta Thunberg as she's never been seen before: memes, beans, climate activism book

Is it climate alarmism to save the planet?

(Russell Howard) Nov. 5, 2022. From The Russell Howard Hour, in this extended interview, Russell sits down with one of the strangest voices in the fight to ease the climate crisis, Asperger syndrome (or autism spectrum) activist Greta Thunberg.

They talk about all things from beans to time travel to activism.

The Facts and the Solutions

And she has a new book, The Climate Book, a handbook by numerous authors for anyone who wants to know more about the climate crisis.

ABOUT: Welcome to the official Russell Howard channel. Subscribe. Follow the show on Twitter. Follow Russell on Twitter. Become a fan on the official Facebook page. Watch new episodes every Thursday at 10:00 pm on Sky1 #RussellHoward.

• Websites: Greta Thunberg - Facebook
• theyearofgreta.com (illustrated)
• Greta Thunberg (@GretaThunberg)/Twitter
• Greta Thunberg (@gretathunberg) Instagram
• Fridays for Future (climate movement)
• GretaThunberg.com(?)

Is this photo proof that Greta Thunberg is a time-traveler here to save the world? (artnet.com)

Greta Thunberg-inspried climate strike in Geneva, Switzerland, Sept. 2019  (MHM55)

Write at home (NPR poetry contest)

Family Guy; Pfc. Sandoval, Seth Auberon, Dhr. Seven, Ashley Wells, Sheldon S., Wisdom Quarterly

Breaks in the clouds reveal chemtrail lines.

National Poetry Month is coming, and National Public Radio is on top of it. Rare black voice Michel Martin, nearly drowned out by the white noise that is NPR, announced a call for Twitter submissions for original tweet-length poems (140 characters max even if Twitter now allows more).

Catch All Things Considered (Weekend Edition, March 22, 2020).

When to start writing

There sure are a lot of chemtrail over LA.

"It was a dark and rainy night," every great novel launches with a great opening line. "It was the best of times, it was the worst of times." Maybe the greatest was by penned by Jane Austen:

"It is a truth universally acknowledged, that a single man in possession of a good fortune must be in want of a wife" (Pride and Prejudice).

It's raining now after the authorities and their corporate allies bombarded the skies over Los Angeles with chemtrails more than usual. Weeks of rain during a lockdown, shelter in place, "safer at home," soon to be curfew, crackdown, Martial Law declaration, we have to "flatten the curve" of this non-infectious disease.

Cell phones killing us and our environment?

Non-infectious? It's not a new germ. It's being caused by 5G wifi, HAARP, cell towers, radio towers, radar, and other microwaves polluting the environment.

Such pollution has already killed off most of the birds that used to darken the skies, brought bees to the brink of extinction, helped cause our recent weather-modification-drought and beetle infestation, which killed more trees than a forest fire, and seems to be the source of this rare extended rainstorm pattern.

Chemtrails over L.A.

5G toxicity isn't a problem. It's done on purpose.

EMFs (electromagnetic fields electrifying the atmosphere) are the cause of diseases like flu pandemics, cancer, heart disease, and so on, not the only cause but the primary cause.

EMFs either allow animal diseases to cross over by weakening our human immune system -- Wuhan, China was the first city to fully deploy 5G -- or is a "disease" condition itself: Cells assaulted by microwaves expel toxins from this "poisoning."

Stop mass microwave radiation (Stop5G.net)

What they expel comes in the form of bits of protein we call "viruses." Rudolf Steiner knew better a century ago; Arthur Firstenberg (The Invisible Rainbow) explains the scientific tests done to prove viruses were not transmissible routes of infection.

Electric waves are killing us.

Why? Dr. Thomas Cowan explained what's happening on March 12, 2020 at the Health and Human Rights Summit in Arizona: A virus is not a cause of disease but the consequence of it, the result of poisoning as the cell clears the problem expelling DNA, RNA, and protein strands.

These dead bits of code are not taking over the cell to magically replicate themselves. It is the cells shedding.

"Welcoming the Unwelcome" (Pema Chodron)

Shambhala Publications (shambhala.com); Ashley Wells, Crystal Q. (eds.), Wisdom Quarterly

The Teaching is not simple. In sum it is clear: "Do all that is good. Purify the mind/heart."

Welcoming the Unwelcome: Wholehearted...

From the bestselling author of When Things Fall Apart, an open-hearted call for human connection, compassion, and learning to love the world just as it is during these most challenging times.

In her first new book of spiritual teachings in over seven years, American-born Buddhist nun Pema Chödrön offers a combination of wisdom, heartfelt reflections, and the signature mix of humor and insight that have made her a beloved figure to turn to during times of change.

In an increasingly polarized world, she shows us how to strengthen our abilities to find common ground, even when we disagree, and influence our environment in positive ways.

American nun Pema Chodron

Sharing never-before told personal stories from her remarkable life, simple and powerful everyday practices, and directly relatable advice, Pema Chodron encourages us all to become triumphant bodhisattvas -- compassionate beings -- in times of hardship.

Welcoming the Unwelcome: Wholehearted Living in a Brokenhearted World includes teachings on the true meaning of karma, recognizing the "basic goodness" [Buddha nature] in ourselves and the people we share our lives with -- even the most challenging ones, transforming adversity into opportunities for growth, and freeing ourselves from the empty and illusory labels that separate us.

She also provides step-by-step guides to a basic sitting meditation and a compassion meditation that anyone can use to bring light to the darkness we face, wherever and whatever it may be. More

• The 9 Levels of Consciousness, a Tibetan Buddhist perspective (OperationMeditation.com)

God Doesn't Believe in Atheists

Winston Smith (Amazon reviewer, London)

Is New Atheism a religion?

In I Don't Believe in Atheists, Chris Hedges claims that the New Atheists are mistaken in thinking that human nature is perfectible and that a Utopian future is possible in which rationality and science can replace religious thought.

He says that we should acknowledge that human nature is intrinsically flawed and can never be perfected. He claims that the New Atheists are blaming religion for the problems in the world and that this can lead to a belief that to rid the world of its problems and achieve a Utopian future, we must rid the world of religion.

This way of thinking, he says, has dangerous precedents. Hedges believes that there is place for religious thought in helping us understand the non-rational aspects of existence: Not everything can be explained by science; the meaning of human existence is ambiguous and ultimately unknowable. [This is the sort of agnosticism Vincent Bugliosi champions in The Divinity of Doubt.]

I'm an atheist, and I agree with him. Unfortunately, to make this important point, I think he's attributed opinions to people -- [famous atheists] Dawkins, Harris, Dennet, Hitchens -- that they don't necessarily hold.

There are parts of the book that appear to be non-sequitur arguments [which Bugliosi says is the biggest flaw in the New Atheism]. However, this book is still well worth reading. It's the third five star book of his I've read (the other two being Empire of Illusion and American Fascists). Source

Devin's advocate (chud.com)

Divinity of Doubt: The God Question

The author has been making the rounds on L.A. radio. Today he visited Vromans (independent) Bookstore in Pasadena, the city he did his research in. He was cogent, hilarious, and drew the largest crowd we at Wisdom Quarterly have ever seen for an author signing.

In his most controversial book yet, famed prosecutor of murderers Charles Manson, O.J. Simpson, George W. Bush, and Lee Harvey Oswald, attorney Vincent Bugliosi turns his critical eye on both religious believers and the atheists who reflexively oppose them.

The fearless attorney who most memorably prosecuted Manson indicts both camps, calling them out for the intellectual shortcuts each takes to arrive at their convenient conclusions.

In the process, he argues lucidly and persuasively why agnosticism (not knowing or asserting that some things are not knowable) -- and a healthy skepticism toward certainty of all kinds -- is the most responsible position to take with regard to such eternal questions as the existence of God.

With his trademark wit and humor, Bugliosi sets a new path that urges us to recognize the limits of what we know and what we cannot know about the ineffable mysteries of existence.

Roswell reveals US human experimentation

Bill Weir is a hack who probably did not read the book. Reader Mike (UFOgeek.com) says only about 1% of the book speaks of the new Roswell theory, whereas 99% contains other information concerning what went on in Area 51 including the men, atomic bombs, spy planes, and other things, some brought to light for the very first time. Annie Jacobsen did a wonderful job on this book regardless of Weir's dissembling.

ROSWELL, New Mexico (AP) – The world famous Roswell "incident" was no UFO. Rather [the latest deceptive claim is that it was] a Russian spacecraft with "grotesque, child-size aviators" developed in human experiments by infamous Nazi doctor and war criminal Josef Mengele, according to a theory floated by investigative journalist [and Area 51 author] Annie Jacobsen. [She is only reporting misinformation from her officially placed anonymous source.]

Is it true Roswell UFO was actually a Russian craft?


July 1947, then German designers of stealth technology the Horton Brothers were hunted down all under the purview and direction of American Nazi sympathizer V. Bush (from the famous Bush dynasty).

Jacobsen's book, Area 51: An Uncensored History Of America’s Top Secret Military Base, is about the secretive Nevada base called Area 51. One chapter offers the new Roswell theory, citing an anonymous source who says Joseph Stalin recruited Mengele and sent the craft into US air space in 1947 to spark public hysteria [as happened during the War of the Worlds radio incident].

Like past theories, Jacobsen writes that the US government was involved in a cover-up of the UFO report, which has spawned space alien legend and turned this southern New Mexico town into a tourist attraction. Bill Lyne, who self-published a book called Space Aliens From The Pentagon in 1993, agrees that the Roswell incident was faked. But he thinks the hoax was perpetrated by the US government -- not the Russians.

Roswell UFOs were originally reported to the media then denied ever after with cover story after cover story as suits the Pentagon and US clandestine services.

"They’re just saying what I’ve been saying all along, that it was a hoax," he told the Santa Fe New Mexican. "But that Mengele stuff is a bunch of hogwash because Mengele was recruited by the CIA (rather than the Russians), and he was actually brought to Albuquerque."

Clifford Clift of the Mutual UFO Network (Mufon) in Greeley, Colorado, said he has not seen Jacobsen’s book but has read other articles that suggest the Roswell incident involved German technology. "After researching the claim, I found little truth in this theory," he said.

"It is a stretch. One of my concerns is if they wanted to create panic, why in New Mexico and not New York where there are more people to panic? I would suggest it is another conspiracy theory and, heavens, Mufon knows about conspiracy theories. They do sell books."

The US recruited Mengele for Human Experimentation
Annie Jacobsen appeared on Coast to Coast on Sunday, May 30, 2011 to discuss her book and facts not revealed by Terri Gross on NPR's "Fresh Air." While the entire story is specious, it led to the revelation that Nazi doctor Mengele was recruited by the US as well as working for Russia. His human experimentation not only involved eugenics but the creation of atrocities from dwarves and others the Nazis regarded as "subhuman." She went on to reveal the existence of DUMBs (deep underground military bases) in the form of tunnels that extend nearly a mile down; she was not able to substantiate the presence of vast bases in the area. However, she concluded that every famous myth is at least rooted in truth.

• Nazi graveyard discovered in Amazon rainforest
• Aerospace Research Investigation Reporting Agency (arira.org)
  

First Generation Buddhism in America

“Theravada Buddhism has never gotten proper attention in the literature devoted to Buddhism in the West. Wendy Cadge here observes two Theravada communities in the U.S. to reveal how American Buddhists actually live out their religions. She also offers new and important input into how we think about the role of religion in American society during times of globalization. Heartwood [by Wendy Cadge] will add tremendously to our understanding of the Buddhist tradition in America” — Charles Prebish, Penn State University.

The origin of Theravada Buddhism in America can be traced to a speech made by Anagarika Dharmapala at the World Parliament of Religions meeting in 1893. Born in 1864 in Sri Lanka (then called Ceylon), Don David Hewavitharne became a celibate layman and adopted the title Anagarika Dharmapala, meaning “homeless one,” “guardian of the Dharma.”

Heavily influenced by [Colonel] Olcott (1832–1907) and [Madame] Blavatsky (1831–1891), Theosophists who first visited India and Ceylon from America in 1878 and 1880, Dharmapala spent his life spreading Buddhism around the world. At the Parliament, Dharmapala spoke about how Buddhism, Christianity, and scientific approaches to the world overlap, saying that the “Buddha inculcated the necessity of self-reliance and independent thought,” and “accepted the doctrine of evolution as the only true one.”

Theosophists and others in the United States were influenced by elements of Theravada Buddhism in the late nineteenth and early twentieth centuries. Groups of Burmese and Sri Lankan monks visited the United States before the first Theravada Buddhist organization was formed in Washington, D.C., in 1966. The Washington Buddhist Vihara and the Buddhist Study Center in New York, the first two Theravada Buddhist organizations in the United States, were... More>>

• Heartwood: The First Generation of Theravada in America

Going ROUGE (not Rogue)

(OR Books) Going Rouge: An American Nightmare

“The only truthful and revealing Sarah Palin book on the market — accept no imitations!” — Naomi Klein

Sarah Palin has many faces: fundamentalist Christian, sex symbol, Republican ideologue, fashion icon, “maverick” populist, hockey mom. But, above all, Palin has become one thing: an American obsession that just won’t go away.

Edited by two senior editors at The Nation magazine, this sharp, smart, up-to-the-minute book examines Palin’s quirky origins in Wasilla, Alaska, her spectacular rise to the effective leadership of the Republican Party, and the nightmarish prospect of her continuing to dominate the nation’s political scene.

“A superb collection...an engaging read from start to finish....You will read far more about the real Sarah Palin in Going Rouge than you ever will in her own memoirs.” — Geoffrey Dunn, The Huffington Post

• "Going Rouge" parody of Palin (NPR.org)
• NPR: Listen to the Story

Going for Rogue: Buddhists for Sarah Palin?

Jerry Kolber (ThreeDollarDinner) more at The Interdependence Project (Beliefnet.com)

Some Buddhists love Barack Obama (a Buddha-like politician). Could others feel the same for pseudo-feminist Sarah Palin? Would they consider going for refuge? Her book Going Rogue has just come out. And she's using the release as another opportunity to prove why she is just another in a long line of folks who have squandered the power of having national attention.

Rather than looking deep into the unifying ideas of her own Christian tradition and transforming her fear, selfishness, and separateness into a positive force in national politics, she continues to peddle and parade...her insecurities in the guise of false morality.

What made her famous a year ago, after going crazy before going rogue (TPM TV)

She does this all while watching over her shoulder for the scantily clad shadow figure of baby daddy Levi Johnston [who's now appearing nude in Playgirl magazine]. This is a great thing for Buddhists.... I am considering starting a club where anyone can come offer compassion to metamorphose anger at public figures into something useful and transformative -- the "Buddhists for Sarah Palin" club. Anyone want to join?

Eat, Pray, Love. Then What?

Author Elizabeth Gilbert, Gilbert with journey mates, and Julia Roberts as Gilbert.

Mr. Dorje Andersson (WQ Book Reviewer)

Elizabeth Gilbert's Eat, Pray, Love is a remarkable feel-good read -- particularly for females. Every woman around the office lavished attention on any other female holding a copy. They could not get enough, praise enough, nor (it seemed) envy one another enough. I thought, it's not for me. It's obviously not for any man. But eventually, I browsed through it. I saw her talk about it. (See short video below).

And as with all great spiritual literature, I was drawn in. There is much for a man to be put off by but far more that intrigues. Ms. Gilbert's description of meditation is spot on. Her explanation of the attendant phenomena as kundalini awakens on her trip to India is compact and fascinating. I venture to guess that her guru is a man, yet for the best she leaves her unnamed.

Starting off as a gastronomic journey in Italy, searching for love and fulfillment -- or anything to fill the void after a divorce -- she travels as she goes along a momentous internal journey so many thoughtful people embark on. It is the Heroine's (and Hero's) Journey Siddhartha Gautama is famous for successfully completing. This is a remarkable read, and readers are quickly rewarded with much to learn from this author. And now there's a follow up:

Eat, Pray, Love. Then What? Get [re-]Married.
Motoko Rich (NY Times, Aug. 20, 2009)

A year after completely scrapping a 500-page follow-up to “Eat, Pray, Love,” Elizabeth Gilbert has delivered a new book that Viking will publish in January.

Titled “Committed: A Skeptic Makes Peace With Marriage,” the book is a memoir of a tumultuous year that came 18 months after “Eat, Pray, Love” leaves off, as well as a meditation on wedlock.

Ms. Gilbert, 40, said the book, which recounts how she came to marry the Brazilian-born Australian lover she met in Indonesia in “Eat, Pray, Love,” was not just a straightforward memoir of what happened and how she felt about it. More>>

Elizabeth Gilbert Takes On Marriage
Catherine Strawn (Aug. 21, 2009)
Elizabeth Gilbert’s memoir, Eat, Pray, Love, was published in 2006, and her followup book was touted in the back of at least 200,000 copies of the book.

Tentatively titled Weddings and Evictions, it was described as a memoir about Gilbert’s “unexpected journey into second marriage” and was supposed to hit shelves in 2009. But Gilbert scrapped her 500-page draft of the book and told her publisher she needed more time. What she had wasn’t working.

Because Eat, Pray, Love had been such a huge success, staying in the top spot on the New York Times bestseller list for 57 weeks, Viking wanted the followup to come out as quickly as possible. But her editor gave her another year, and this second draft, now called Committed: A Skeptic Makes Peace With Marriage will be published in January.

The delay wasn’t such a bad idea, in my opinion, since “Eat, Pray, Love,” the movie version starring Julia Roberts, Billy Crudup, and Javier Bardem, is currently filming in New York City, and Gilbert is back on everyone’s minds. More>>

Wisdom Publications

Johnny Diaz (Globe Staff, 5/17/09)

Tim McNeill, Wisdom Publications, beside Dalai Lama poster (Globe/Wendy Maeda)

SOMERVILLE -- Walk inside the offices of Wisdom Publications in Davis Square and the Dalai Lama's smiling face greets you in every room. The Tibetan Buddhist leader's image adorns book covers, photographs, and posters inside this nonprofit, which is literally a publishing house: The offices are in a two-story 1920 mansard-roof Victorian house.

Welcome to the Dalai Lama's primary publisher in Boston and one of the largest English-language Buddhist-dedicated literary companies in the world, selling 200,000 books a year from a catalog of 300 titles in 34 languages. The Dalai Lama's books are regular top 10 best-sellers in the company's collection: In all, Wisdom has published 14 books with the Dalai Lama, who is believed to be a manifestation of the Buddha of compassion and a reincarnation of 13 previous Dalai Lamas.

"He is our biggest celebrity author," said Tim McNeill, Wisdom's publisher and chief executive who this month released the Dalai Lama's newest book, The Middle Way: Faith Grounded in Reason... More>>

• Harvard slaying victim identified as Salem State student
• Man dies after being shot at Harvard

Talking about Jihad with Dalai Lama
Boston Globe (5/7/09)‎
The Dalai Lama made his point visually, as well as verbally, pulling off his wrist his Buddhist prayer beads -- called a mala -- while referring to Muslim...

• Dalai Lama defends "misused" Jihad (Islam Online)
• "God Talk" -- Enough Already? (Huffington Post)
• The Dalai Lama: A Good Showman but an Empty Robe (OpEdNews)