After doing the Pilgrimage of 62, I wanted to add a new dimension to my practice.

It occurred to me that my Dharma friend Tashi posts some really amazing things on his website, and I let them go to waste. I read them, click the “Like” button,  and think to myself…wow, that’s so cool. Hope I remember it.

Of course, I don’t.

I asked Tashi a while back if they could be recited as prayers in a daily practice. It turns out that anything can be recited. I should have known have that. In samsara, they’re called “commercials”. And mind eats them up.

I’ve decided to go through the pages of Great Middle Way and choose the things that really resonate with me, and bring them into my recitation practice for twenty-one days at a time. I’m going to make my own set of “Moments Sponsored by the Dharma”.

I’ll use these posts to track thoughts that come up.

My first Sponsored Moment was “Ten Things to Understand“. You can read my experiences with that here. Next up is…

This Whole Mass of Suffering…

Whatever feeling arises, whether painful or pleasant,

or neither painful nor pleasant,

one does not seek gratification through feeling

or remain attached to it.

As one does not do so, craving for feeling ceases.

With the cessation of craving comes cessation of clinging;

with the cessation of clinging, cessation of becoming;

with the cessation of becoming, cessation of birth;

with the cessation of birth, aging and death,

sorrow, lamentation, pain, grief, and despair cease.

Such is the cessation of this whole mass of suffering.

—Buddha Shakyamuni, Middle Length Discourses (M. 38)

Stay tuned for more Moments Sponsored by the Dharma…and feel free to share your thoughts on This Whole Mass of Suffering…