Search results for: "Form"

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  2. To Comprehend Suffering
     … These are the activities of form, feelings, perceptions, thought-fabrications, and consciousness. But theimportant word there is the clinging, because there are places where he says that the aggregates on their own are experienced by arahants. Arahants have form, feelings, perceptions, thought-fabrications, consciousness, but they don’t suffer, because they don’t have the clinging. So, the first noble truth: To comprehend dukkha … 
  3. Stay with the Knowing
     … It is a form of becoming, but it’s a useful form of becoming. It allows you to see a lot of things that other forms of becoming don’t. In particular, it pulls you back a little bit from your knee-jerk reactions and especially from the knee-jerk reactions where you’re totally confident that you know what to do—and you … 
  4. Getting the Most Out of the Present
     … Goodwill, he said, is a form of wealth, as are conviction and a sense of shame—the sense that certain actions are beneath you. That’s a form of wealth. Compunction, the attitude that’s not apathetic about the results of your actions that really does want to do things well; virtue, learning, right-effort: These things are forms of wealth that we develop … 
  5. A Concentration Checklist
     … Even so, Anuruddha said to the Buddha that he would try to get his mind to stay centered, and he was actually having visions of light and forms, but then they would disappear. He wondered why. The Buddha talked about how he himself, as he was practicing before his awakening, would have visions of light and forms, but then they would disappear. So he … 
  6. Prerequisites for the Practice
     … They’re qualities that we all have, at least in potential form, simply that he developed them to a very heightened form. But we can do that, too. What that means is that you’re convinced in the power of your actions, in the power of your mind to change itself. That’s a quality you look for in your admirable friends. And you … 
  7. Love Me, Love My Defilements
     … Form de-forms—in other words it keeps changing. Feelings feel, perceptions perceive, fabrications fabricate the other aggregates into actual aggregates, and consciousness cognizes. These things are defined by their activity. And these activities are the raw materials from which we create our sense of self. In our delusion we tend to think of “self” as a thing we’re stuck with, either for … 
  8. Conviction in the End of Suffering
     … So these things all go together, and believing in them is a form of wealth and strength. Again, we sometimes think if you believe in things you can’t yet see, it’s very easy to be fooled. It’s a position of weakness. But the Buddha points out that conviction in the power of your actions gives you energy to be willing to … 
  9. Refuge
     … So these different forms of becoming—even though eventually, some day, you’ll have to abandon them—are necessary parts of the path. After all, the path is not the goal. That’s something that has to be stated over and over again. Some people say, “I’ve got to let go. I’ve got to see that there’s no self or whatever … 
  10. Pride in Your Craft
     … When you first pour cement, you need the forms. If you take away the forms before the cement has hardened, it flows out all over the place. There comes a point, though, when the cement is hard enough that you can take the form off, and the cement stays where it is. So it’s in this process of trying to get the mind … 
  11. Perceptions of Self & Not-Self
     … On the one hand, there’s the teaching that, as we chanted just now, form, feeling, perceptions, thought fabrications, and consciousness are all not-self. The six senses are not-self. The eye, ear, nose, tongue, body, and mind are not-self. But then, as he pointed out, there’s the phrase another passage that we chant again and again, “I am the owner … 
  12. The Six Properties
     … Name-and-form comes before contact. Perceptions are part of name-and-form. And there are perceptions in the factor of fabrication that comes before that. So you can use these topics on various levels: as means to gain a sense of dispassion and saṁvega, to induce a sense of solidity in the mind, to solidify your concentration, and to learn lessons about the … 
  13. Goodwill Plus
     … You can think of it in terms of the factors of name in name-and-form. On the side of form, you’ve got the different elements or properties of the body. Of course, you’re focusing on the breath element, to get it steady, easeful, nourishing. Then you look at the mental factors. There are perceptions and feelings, and here the Buddha adds … 
  14. Breathing Easy
     … The Buddha calls it the pleasure of form, the pleasure that comes from inhabiting your inner sense of the form of the body. It’s like that old Peanuts cartoon where Linus comes up to Lucy and says, “Feel how cold my hands feel.” She says, “Oh yeah, they are cold. But how do you know how cold they are when you’re inside … 
  15. Curious About the Process
     … The Buddha lists one factor he calls name and form. Form is how you sense the body from within in terms of the four properties. And you want to get sensitive to that. We move the energy around in the body, but oftentimes we move it around in a way that’s going to cause trouble because we’re not paying attention. But as … 
  16. Happiness Without Conflict
     … It’s based on your inner sense of the form of the body, which can be very intense—the pleasure that comes as you focus on the breath like this—but it doesn’t conflict with anybody else. Nobody else is going to try to come in and get your sense of your breath. Other people can see you breathe. They can hear you … 
  17. Feeding Frenzy: Dependent Co-arising
     … Prior to contact you’ve got the senses, and prior to the senses you’ve got name and form. Name and form are crucial here, particularly name, for it includes feelings, perceptions, intentions, attention, and the contact among these things in the mind. This is why the Buddha focuses the practice of the path right here, at the processes of name. You’ve got … 
  18. Determined Goodwill
     … This is why the Buddha says that the desire to see someone suffer is actually not just a form of wrong resolve, but also a form of wrong view. So there’s some discernment built into the attitude of universal goodwill. And if you’re really going to be determined on it, you have to maintain that view, maintain that resolve. You know the … 
  19. The Pleasure of Concentration
     … As Ajaan Mun used to say, any form of goodness that’s without drawbacks is genuinely good. And there are so few forms of goodness in the world that are good in that way. Now that you found one of them, make the most of it.
  20. Goodwill as Right View
     … But there’s an interesting passage where the Buddha says that ill will is also a form of wrong view, the implication being that goodwill is a form of right view. The view underlying ill will, of course, is that you would gain something by seeing somebody else suffering. Right view is that you gain something by wishing everybody to be happy. We live … 
  21. Focus on Your Intention
     … In other words, there is a potential for form coming from your past actions, there’s a potential for feeling and so on, and through our intentions, we take that potential, and turn it into an actual aggregate for the sake of having that aggregate. Of course, that aggregate then is for the sake of what? Well, it depends on the intention. As the … 
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