Search results for: "Becoming"

  1. Page 101
  2. Together but Separate
     … But you have to keep coming back, coming back, no matter what state of becoming you create in the mind, whether it’s about the past, about the future, about possibilities, about impossibilities. It’s as if there’s a rubber band that connects you to the body so that no matter how far away that mental world goes, it gets snapped back to … 
  3. Change Your Habits
     … But if you realize that the mind meditating right now is the same mind that speaks to other people, that runs your body, makes plans for the future and thinks about the past—it’s all the same mind—then the question becomes: What habits of mind are you developing as you go through the day? The Thai word for habit, nisai, comes from … 
  4. Overconfidence & Underconfidence
     … After a while, you find that cleaning this up and straightening that out outside becomes a habit, and you start cleaning things up and straightening things out inside as well. So you’re not just looking for the major highlights: jhana, noble attainments. Just little things, like noticing that when you would normally slip off the breath, you say, “No, I’m not going … 
  5. Two Types of Dukkha
     … Otherwise, if you force yourself simply to accept, accept, accept, it just becomes depressing. So work on your concentration, work on your insight to gain a sense of well-being and joy. You’ll begin to see exactly where you’re adding to the suffering, exactly how you’re clinging, where your cravings are. This is why the Buddha began his teaching career by … 
  6. Your Desire to Practice
     … But when you can be all-around aware of the body, you become all-around aware of the mind. Areas that used to be subconscious or buried under many layers of denial are suddenly open. And sometimes it is unpleasant to have them open. But if you have a comfortable spot in the body and a comfortable spot in the mind, it gives you … 
  7. Something New
     … The more you take advantage of that opening, the wider it grows—and the more it becomes habitual to bring something good into the world with every moment, instead of the same old garbage you’ve been bringing into the world for who knows how long. We do have this chance to make a difference, to make a good difference. So make the most … 
  8. The Four Noble Truths
     … You turn the light of your awareness on them, just watch them without letting them sneak in and become part of you, and they wither away. Other’s don’t, and you’ve got to do something about them. You’ve got to argue with them. You’ve got to explore: Exactly where is this mental state wrong? Where is its appeal? In other … 
  9. Take the Buddha Seriously
     … This is what becoming is all about: You take on an identity. But you can take on many different identities in very quick succession, so you have to figure out which identity in the mind is the wisest, the one that really does want long-term welfare and happiness, and is willing to do whatever is needed. That’s an identity you want to … 
  10. Solo Practice
     … And then the focus moves inward so that you become more and more observant of your mind. You see what the mind does, you see it in action. And when you see that it’s creating suffering and that the suffering is unnecessary, that there are other things you can do to react to that particular set of circumstances, then that particular cause of … 
  11. A Trained Observer
     … But what you can create are the conditions for it to become likely to happen. That’s all dependent on learning how to make this sense of the observer strong and independent, and not colored by anything it knows.
  12. Treasures from the East
     … She stops off and sees the Buddha, he teaches her, and she becomes a non-returner. That wasn’t in the afternoon program, but that’s what happened. So just because you’re unlikely doesn’t mean that you’re not possible as a student of the Buddha. Always keep that in mind. That’s a treasure. And as with all treasures, things that … 
  13. Let Go Like a Millionaire
     … This becomes important when you find yourself holding on to things that you think are constant. You have to tell yourself, “Even if it’s constant, the fact that I’m holding on means there’s something wrong.” Because being in the position of clinging—which the Buddha defines in terms of feeding on things—the fact that you have to feed on something … 
  14. Mistakes
     … They become habitual. And the Buddha’s pointing out that we do these things in ignorance, and because we’re in ignorance, we cause suffering for ourselves, for the people around us. In other words, we’re making mistakes. The attachment itself is a kind of mistake. We do something, thinking we’re going to get good results out of it, but we’re … 
  15. The Meaning of Insight
     … It’s in seeing this that insight becomes complete. And this is what insight is good for. This is what it means. Sometimes you hear that insight is seeing things in terms of the three characteristics. But then the three characteristics or, more properly, the three perceptions: What are they good for? If you simply say, “Well, everything is impermanent,” what does that tell … 
  16. Guardian Meditations
     … Then think of it down the line as it gets older and dies and becomes a corpse. All the stuff you find disgusting in a corpse are right here, right now, anyhow already, it’s just that they’re disguised by the fact that there’s breath and warmth in the body. Once the breath and the warmth are gone, what we’ve got … 
  17. The Path of Action
     … This is where right view becomes part of right effort. And then you have to be alert to what’s actually happening in your mind. The states that are running through your mind: Are they skillful or are they unskillful? Should you give them credence or should you try to undercut them? So it’s a combination of right view and right mindfulness that … 
  18. Joy in Effort
     … You stress and strain with your heart firmly set on the time someday in the far distant future when you’ll finally become awakened. The other approach is to realize that the Dhamma is all around you in the present moment. You just relax into the present moment and there you are. Now, if those were the two only alternatives, the second would obviously … 
  19. Patience & Sensitivity
     … You’re trying to use his concepts as tools for opening up, becoming sensitive to areas you weren’t sensitive to before. It’s like people who learn how to be professional tasters. They have to learn a huge vocabulary for the subtle differences in tastes. The subtleties are there, but if you don’t have a vocabulary to describe them, you’re not … 
  20. Body & Food
     … He says, you take the body and you take it apart to all its pieces, again and again and again until it becomes second nature. Every time you see a body, you think about what’s inside that body, so that lust doesn’t have a chance to arise. Then you put things back together again and test where exactly, at what point, does … 
  21. Different Minds, Different Bodies
     … When you can get those parts to open up and develop a sense of fullness and ease, it becomes a lot more compelling. So remember, there are variations in the raw material you bring to the meditation each time you sit down, which will require variations in the techniques, variations in your approach. But this is a basic principle with any skill. Sometimes, when … 
  22. Load next page...