Search results for: "Skillfulness"

  1. Page 117
  2. Make Yourself Small
     … In other words, seeing things in terms of cause and effect, skillful and unskillful: That was how he was able to approach awakening. Now, notice there were no personal narratives in that last knowledge. He got out of his personal narratives by stepping back and looking at the universe as a whole, seeing large-scale patterns. So if a memory comes up about something … 
  3. Calm & at Ease
     … As the Buddha said, if it were not possible for people to drop unskillful habits and to develop skillful ones, there’d be no point in his teaching. So he taught, which means, okay, there is a point—which means that you can change. So even though the Dhamma sometimes seems forbidding as it points out that “this is unskillful, that’s unskillful,” its … 
  4. Enlarge Your Mind
     … So, one of the skills in learning how to get past any state of becoming that weighs down the mind is to look for those raw materials. As the Buddha says, becoming is based on clinging, clinging is based on craving, craving is based on feelings. You want to chase it back to those feelings. What is the actual sensation that provoked you into … 
  5. The Uses of Right Concentration
     … As you get the mind in and out of concentration, try to notice these changes, because this skill enables you to notice how perceptions and feelings have an impact on your sense of your body and mind. They determine how you experience the breath, how you experience your body, how you experience yourself in the context of the world. So you want to be … 
  6. Be Decisive
     … That requires some skill. But there’s a huge element that’s just a matter of being decisive, saying, “Yeah, this is what I really want and this is why I’m going to stick with it.” You’ve got the breath here, you’ve got all the instructions on how to deal with the breath so as to settle down. And you don … 
  7. The Guarantee of Concentration
     … All the skills of meditation depend on good solid concentration. And it’s the case that you practice it for a while and then, when you move on to insight practice, you can drop the concentration. You’re providing the foundation for insight, you’re providing the context, the environment for insight to happen when you get the mind to stay still. And then … 
  8. Two Eyes, Not Just One
     … Regard this as a skill. Regard this as something you want to develop. It’s like a kind of gaze that they say hunters have where they’re aware all around. Someone was writing about his time with the Inuit. He was saying that when he was with the hunters, he felt like the hunters were wearing the landscape like clothing. They were sensitive … 
  9. Overcoming Fear
     … That the Buddha recommended as a skillful fear. So, when the mind is settled down and you want to bring up the issue of fear, these are the kinds of questions you should ask: “What are you clinging to? Is losing it inevitable?” If so, you’ve got to learn how to prepare. That means preparing your mind and also preparing your determination that … 
  10. Feeding Off of Others
     … You’re doing it, though, in a very skillful way, a harmless way. But when you get to the meditation, it’s purely an internal affair. There will be some outside influences emanating from your meditation. As you become a more stable person, other people around you will appreciate that. The energy you radiate will be more positive. But by and large, it’s … 
  11. Worth
     … You’re gaining practical skill in that right here, right now, as you stay with the breath. So keep that in mind. This is not just an interesting exercise. It’s a life and death matter: how you train your mind. Because at that point, what you’re really going to need is a well-trained mind, so that you don’t cause yourself … 
  12. Stick with It
     … So as the mind settles down like this, the important skill is learning how to maintain this sense of well-being and to stick with it as consistently as possible. This is where you develop the qualities of mindfulness and alertness. Mindfulness is what reminds you what to do now and also why you’re doing it. It’s not just a matter of … 
  13. Choosing Sides
     … It sees things that are skillful and works toward giving rise to them. It actively gets involved in making things arise and making things pass away. So you are taking sides as you practice. Hopefully, you’re taking sides with the right side—right view and all the way down to right concentration—because it really does make a difference. When the Buddha talks … 
  14. In the Light of Karma
     … You can start engaging in your verbal fabrications—all the thoughts and conversations of the mind—in a skillful way. Bring them to a focal point right here with the breath. Learn how to figure out what’s going on here in the body, what positive things you can do with this energy you’ve got here, so that there’s a sense of … 
  15. Self Power, Other Power
     … Find which parts of yourself, which sense of self within you, which skills you can develop within you, you can depend on. In the beginning, they may not seem all that dependable. We were talking yesterday about walking along a path and seeing little plants that look like grass. You look down and if you don’t look carefully at them, they’re just … 
  16. Furnishing Your Home for the Mind
     … When you develop this skill, you can take this strength back with you. It’s useful to have a quiet set of surroundings to work on it, but as you get more used to it you find this really is where you feel at home. And there’s no need to leave it. You can be with the breath and still be aware of … 
  17. The Value of Concentration
     … This is one the reasons why the Buddha said that heedfulness lies at the base of all skillful qualities. It’s heedfulness that gets you started on the path and it’s heedfulness that keeps you on the path, realizing that it’s so easy to slip off or to find a spot in the path you like and just lie down and stop … 
  18. Borrowed Wealth
     … And even though that sense of ease may pass, you’re actually developing a skill as to how to bring it back again. This means that you’ve got access to a pleasure that’s more under your control, and it’s a pleasure that goes straight to the mind. It doesn’t have to go through the eyes, the ears, or the tongue … 
  19. May I Look After Myself with Ease
     … At the same time, try to develop the skills that allow you to find well-being. When the Buddha was making the statement about finding well-being inside, he just wasn’t promoting an empty platitude. There are skills you develop that allow you to find the clothing, food, shelter, and medicine that the mind needs. That’s what it means to look after … 
  20. Vitakka & Vicara
     … looking at the activities of the mind and asking yourself, “Where does this particular activity fit in the framework that the Buddha gives for dealing with skillful and unskillful thoughts?” And “unskillful,” here, doesn’t necessarily mean wrong. You can be very right about something but you can hold onto your rightness in the wrong way. You have to be especially careful when your … 
  21. Limitless Compassion, Limited Resources
     … And a large part of the skill we have to develop in the practice lies in learning how to balance these things out.
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