Search results for: "Skillfulness"

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  2. The Desire for Things to Be Different
     … But you don’t just look, you learn how to manipulate them, as events, in a skillful way. The word the Buddha uses for ignorance, avijjā, can also mean lack of skill. Vijjā, knowledge, can also mean skill. So bring some skill to these factors, and you can find that you can undercut a lot of the things that would lead to those unskillful … 
  3. The Skill of Renunciation
     … If we process them with skill, then we don’t have to suffer. There’s no weight on the mind. So we’re here to learn a skill. Think about any manual skills you’ve developed in the past: What qualities were needed? One is that you learned the basic steps. Then, two, you tried your hand. And then, three, you looked at the … 
  4. Training in Commitment & Reflection
     … As you stick with a practice, you find that you gain a sense of what range is really skillful. We’re here to learn a skill. The skill depends on committing yourself to doing the practice as best you can and then reflecting on it. This is how the Buddha taught Rahula, his son, from the very beginning. If there’s anything you want … 
  5. In Search of What is Skillful
     … It’s in the definition of ardency where the distinction between skillful and unskillful becomes important: You’re ardent to abandon what is unskillful, you’re ardent to develop what is skillful. That fits in with the Buddha’s way of looking for the unexcelled state of peace: the search for what is skillful. At the same time, the evaluation factor in the first … 
  6. To Take Danger in Stride
    All skillful qualities, the Buddha said, are rooted in heedfulness. Heedfulness is a recognition that there are dangers. The world is a dangerous place. Your mind is a dangerous mind. But it also learns how to take those dangers in stride, realizing that there are skills that you can develop to minimize the dangers. And even though outside dangers are always there, you can … 
  7. Injustice
     … So when you feel anger coming up, you’ve got to recognize it not as the motive force that’s going to bring about meaningful change in the world, but as an obstacle to skillful change, skillful action. Anger blinds you. You say things that you later realize were not skillful; you do things that you later realize were not skillful. But at the … 
  8. Mindfulness the Seamstress
     … And you want to develop these skills before you do breath meditation, because you’re going to be trying to notice things. As you’re developing these skills, you’re getting good use of mindfulness, keeping in mind that image: either earth or water or fire or wind or space. The way the Buddha explains space—he says space isn’t established anywhere. In … 
  9. Dhamma for Laypeople
     … You need to have that skill of dispassion. So as we get practice here - and this is why we call it practicing meditation, because we’re practicing skills that we’re all going to need as we go through life – we’re getting practice in learning how to die. That contemplation we recite frequently, about being subject to aging, illness, death, and separation, and … 
  10. Rebirth is Relevant
     … So fortunately it’s something we can deal with right here, right now, trying to direct our cravings and desires in a skillful direction. This is why the Buddha has us employ desire to get the mind to settle down. That’s a skillful desire. The desire to abandon unskillful mind states is a skillful desire. The desire to find awakening is a skillful … 
  11. Expert’s Mind
     … But if your views deal with what are you doing, what kind of actions are skillful, what kind of actions are not skillful, they focus your attention where it really can make a difference—where it really can be of use. The rest of the path then follows on that. You make up your mind that you’re going to act on intentions that … 
  12. Honoring the Noble Ones
     … When he talked about it, he described it as the quest for what is skillful. When he left home, he left in quest of what is skillful. When he was disappointed with the teachings that he received at that time, he left the teachers in quest of what is skillful. When he gave up on his austerities, he continued in his quest of what … 
  13. Factors for Awakening
     … As you practice mindfulness in this way, you’re already beginning to develop analysis of qualities, seeing which mind states or which breath states or breath patterns are skillful and which ones are not. And you learn how to foster the skillful ones. This is another area where conviction comes in. As the Buddha says, if it weren’t possible to develop skillful qualities … 
  14. Meditation as a Skill
    Meditation is a skill, and as with any skill you want to watch very carefully what you’re doing so that you can learn how to do it better. In this case, you start out by not doing much. Take a couple of good long, deep in-and-out breaths, and ask yourself: Where do you feel it in the body? We’re not … 
  15. Slowing Down to Look
     … The mindfulness is to keep in mind that you always want to do the skillful thing, always want to go with the skillful intention. The alertness is to see, “Okay, what are the signs by which I can tell which is skillful and which is unskillful?” You want the insight to see things as they arise and the mental stability that you don’t … 
  16. Proactive Mindfulness
     … Then the skillful qualities we’re working on will develop on their own accord. You’re taking a proactive role but you have to learn how to be skillful in being proactive. Think about other skills you’ve developed in the past and the qualities of mind that you brought to those skills, whether it was playing a musical instrument, learning to be a … 
  17. The Seven Factors for Awakening
     … They’re always skillful. Then he goes on to describe how the rest of the factors for awakening depend on the situation. Three of them are energizing: There’s analysis of qualities, which tries to figure out what exactly is skillful, what is unskillful, seeing things in terms of cause and effect, particularly seeing what you’re doing in terms of cause and effect … 
  18. Resources for Endurance
     … Even though it may have been a good intention, it wasn’t skillful. Skillful intentions have to be free from delusion. To get past delusion, you have to take the results into consideration as well. This is how we learn whether our intentions are skillful or not. You look at the results of your actions. That’s the test of everything in the Buddha … 
  19. Skills for Living & Dying
     … This is a really useful skill to develop while you’re meditating and as you go through life. A lot is said about bringing your meditation into daily life, and it’s true: The skills of meditation are not meant to be practiced only while you’re sitting here with your eyes closed. You’ll be able to get some control, so that you … 
  20. Shame & Compunction
     … Your actions—you want to have skillful actions. Your speech—you want to have skillful speech. Your thoughts—you want to have skillful thoughts. Try to approach life the same way that you would approach a craft: You want to perfect your skills. And given that you’ve developed a certain level of skill already, you don’t want to be sloppy in your … 
  21. Change Your Mind
     … What’s interesting about the passage is that he talks about being mindful to give rise to skillful states, and to protect the skillful states that you’ve already given risen to. Instead of just watching things arise and pass away, you’re trying to give rise to skillful things and to prevent skillful things from passing away. This is an important principle, because … 
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