{"id":2128,"date":"2025-01-05T04:00:00","date_gmt":"2025-01-05T10:00:00","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.grzesina.net\/meditation\/?p=2128"},"modified":"2025-01-04T23:44:37","modified_gmt":"2025-01-05T05:44:37","slug":"january-5-whatever-youre-doing-dont-make-it-worse","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.grzesina.net\/meditation\/january-5-whatever-youre-doing-dont-make-it-worse\/","title":{"rendered":"January 5 – Whatever you’re doing, don’t make it worse"},"content":{"rendered":"\n

Dear Friends,<\/p>\n\n\n\n

In a talk by Gil Fronsdal, he summarizes the four wise efforts as:<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\n

If you’re not making it worse, don’t.
If you are making it worse, stop.
If you’re not making it better, make it better.
If you are making it better, keep doing it.<\/p>\nTalk: First Right Effort and Metta
https:\/\/www.audiodharma.org\/talks\/9608?code=YLNL<\/a><\/cite><\/blockquote>\n\n\n\n

The first wise effort involves preventing unwholesome or unskillful mental states from arising. This requires cultivating healthy desires and clear intentions that align with the well-being of the heart and mind.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Metta, translated as loving kindness, goodwill, friendliness, is a skillful way to foster this effort.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Gil shares, “there’s something about this kindness, friendliness, goodwill that has very powerful protective force and in terms of the working of our inner heart kindness is a protective force from the unskillful states to get the upper hand or even to arise.”<\/p>\n\n\n\n

On this heart-practice Sunday, I invite you to explore kindness meditation in a way that resonates with you–whether through repeating phrases, radiating kindness outward, or simply abiding in a felt sense of goodwill. For this latter approach, Ying Chen offers a gentle guided meditation:
Happy Hour Guided Meditation Field of Metta 34:55
https:\/\/www.audiodharma.org\/talks\/20697<\/a>
(Note that about half-way through, there is a sound of a siren for about a minute.)<\/em><\/p>\n\n\n\n

As you engage with these practices, consider reflecting on how kindness and wise effort can shape your inner and outer worlds. I invite you to share in the comments or send me an email.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

With heartfelt good wishes,
Andrea<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Dear Friends, In a talk by Gil Fronsdal, he summarizes the four wise efforts as: If you’re not making it worse, don’t.If you are making it worse, stop.If you’re not making it better, make it better.If you are making it better, keep doing it. Talk: First Right Effort and Mettahttps:\/\/www.audiodharma.org\/talks\/9608?code=YLNL The first wise effort involves preventing unwholesome or\u2026 Read More »<\/a><\/span><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_jetpack_newsletter_access":"","_jetpack_dont_email_post_to_subs":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_tier_id":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paywalled_content":false,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":"","jetpack_post_was_ever_published":false},"categories":[372],"tags":[334,28,41,373],"class_list":["post-2128","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-jan-2025","tag-effort","tag-gil-fronsdal","tag-metta","tag-ying-chen"],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.grzesina.net\/meditation\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2128","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.grzesina.net\/meditation\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.grzesina.net\/meditation\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.grzesina.net\/meditation\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.grzesina.net\/meditation\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=2128"}],"version-history":[{"count":4,"href":"https:\/\/www.grzesina.net\/meditation\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2128\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":2132,"href":"https:\/\/www.grzesina.net\/meditation\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2128\/revisions\/2132"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.grzesina.net\/meditation\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=2128"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.grzesina.net\/meditation\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=2128"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.grzesina.net\/meditation\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=2128"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}