Search results for: "Becoming"
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- Doing… This is why all the forest ajaans say that when you actually get there, the question of self or not-self becomes irrelevant, because self and not-self are defined around control. And here, the issue of control or no control becomes irrelevant. This is why the Buddha focused so much attention on action, because it’s through looking at your own actions and …
- The Buddha Teaches a Yakkha… As for the Buddha’s final answer, that’s become a famous set of dhammas, or qualities. It’s listed in a Dhamma textbook in Thailand as a set of qualities appropriate for lay people, but they’re appropriate for everybody. The late king of Thailand, Rama IX, when they celebrated the 200th anniversary of the founding of Bangkok, gave a talk to the …
- Inner Critics… The whole point of this training, though, is that you ultimately become able to see for yourself; you become a more reliable observer. Both the French therapist and the Buddha saw the inner critic as someone who was always willing to give you a free pass, or at least would give you a free pass on some really important things where you didn’t …
- The Skills of Truth & Calm… Remember the Buddha said that our trouble is that we have cravings that lead to becoming. With every problem that comes up to us—about what we want, about what we don’t want—we create a state of becoming around it. We’re like beavers. Whatever the problem facing the beaver, his solution is one thing: build a dam to make a lake …
- A Refuge from the Winds of the World… So in putting aside greed and distress with reference to the world, it’s not that we become uncaring. It’s just that we make our minds more stable. And then when we’re stable, we’re able to provide a lot more for other people. Of course, we’re born into the world with a lot of needs. This is why we have …
- Death Without Drama… We try to get at our experience of the body, feelings, and mind before they’ve turned into becomings. When they’re still just a potential for a becoming with narratives, we turn them into a becoming with concentration, which doesn’t have narratives. If you were to be asked, “What was the narrative of your concentration today?” the answer would be, “Well, I …
- A Home of Your Own… Because those things become the quality of the mind. They’re embedded within it. So what kind of actions do you want to take with you to make a long-lasting fixture in your home? You want them to be acts of generosity, acts of virtue, acts of discernment. Those are the best things for decorating your house inside. With them, it becomes easier …
- Clinging, Addictions, Obsessions… who you are; what kind of person looks for food in a certain way; what kind of person eats certain kinds of food; what kind of person is going to be benefiting from the food; what kind of person you’re going to become as a result of eating in a certain way. We’re all very much attached to these things. You see …
- When the Mind Is Still… You’re learning about becoming. Becoming is taking on an identity in the world of experience. Our major becoming, of course, is our identity as human beings in this human world. But there are also becomings in the mind and they happen all the time. A thought comes up, it looks appealing, it looks intriguing, it has some allure of some kind. Even if …
- Circumspection… How does it do that? As I said earlier, the mind is constantly engaging in becoming. When you’re practicing mindfulness, there’s a level of becoming right there. When you’re practicing concentration, there’s a level of becoming right there. You create these worlds out of the raw material of your physical sensations and mental activities, and doing this involves blocking out …
- Self-Reliance… This is how you become your own mainstay. Because there is that principle in the practice: “The self is its own mainstay. Who else could your mainstay be?” Who else could you depend on to become more skillful? You’ve got to learn how to do it yourself. You learn ideas of how to be skillful, suggested techniques in Dhamma talks, in books, but …
- Addictive Thinking… It takes a while for your center of gravity to shift so that the state of concentration does become more normal. The state of being in the present moment, mindful and alert, becomes more normal. If you ever worked on a physical skill—sports, carpentry, music—you know that originally, the moments where everything just seems to come together are few and far between …
- Exploring Contentment… In that way, the principle of contentment and not-contentment becomes a single principle. So keep trying to explore that frontier, because that’s where these two principles do become one. And they really do work toward a happiness that’s worthy of contentment on the deepest possible level.
- Treasure Island… After all, he’s telling you that your sense of self in the world is a state of becoming—and we’re trying to get past becoming. Wherever there’s becoming, there’s going to be suffering. So even though you may have a strong sense of your idea of what your self is and what the world is, is it reality? He asked …
- Friends with the Breath… As you work and play together with the breath, you become friends, you become companions. So instead of taking your thoughts of past and future as your companions—which we do most of the time—now the breath becomes your companion: someone to work with, someone to play with, all the time. You’re never really alone. This way the body and the mind …
- More Wisdom for Dummies… Once you realize that you can have the choice not to be foolish, not to cause harm, then the next step is to want to find out what you can do to become wiser. One of the basic principles the Buddha lays down is that you see which duties fall to you and which ones don’t. If you’re wise, you take up …
- When Things Aren’t Going Well… Many of the elements of dependent co-arising have the potential to become path factors. Attention, in name-and-form, can become appropriate attention. Fabrication can become the comfortable breathing and directed thought and evaluation of right concentration. So it’s all right here. When you get bored or discouraged with the practice, remind yourself that it’s because you’re not paying careful …
- Metta Math… Is there anything you can do to help that person become more skillful—to want to become more skillful? You probably know the folktale of the Sun and the Wind. They got into a discussion one day, and then into an argument: Who was stronger? Who had more power? The Wind said, “I’ll show you that I’m stronger. See that man down …
- The Joy of Growing… So basically the Buddha’s asking that we become adult, we become mature, we grow up. Among the world religions, Buddhism seems to be unique in that it expects us to be adults. We’re not told to simply obey. We’re not told to place our hopes in somebody else doing all the work for us. We’ve got to do the work …
- The Problem of Suffering… You pick up the Buddha’s teachings as they become necessary, as they become useful. But the first thing is to get the mind to settle down. As the Buddha once said, right concentration is the heart of the path. And his most detailed instructions on meditation are those on breath meditation. Watch the breath, he says, as it comes in, goes out. Be …
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