Search results for: "Dhamma"

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  2. An Island above the Flood
    When the Buddha says to make the Dhamma your refuge, he’s very clear about the fact that that means making yourself your refuge. One of the terms he uses, ‘to make the Dhamma your island,’ means that you make yourself your island. The image, of course, is of an island in a flood, and the flood is fourfold: the flood of sensuality, the … 
  3. Know the Dhamma by Its Results
     … There’s one passage where his stepmother comes and asks for a brief Dhamma teaching that she can take and practice, and he answers with eight principles as to what kind of actions, what kind of teachings, what kind of practices count as Dhamma and what kinds don’t. They fall into three sets. The first set has to do with qualities that you … 
  4. Serial Clinging Is Still Clinging
     … And especially watch out for the voice that says, “I’m learning how to be unattached.” That’s very seductive, and it sounds as if it’s got the Dhamma on its side. This is one of the things you have to watch out for all along, because the defilements know how to sound like Dhamma sometimes. They can take a Dhamma teaching that … 
  5. Lavish Goodwill
     … It says, “Unlimited is the Buddha, unlimited is the Dhamma, unlimited is the Sangha.” They’re unlimited in their goodwill. Of course, the Buddha and the Sangha have goodwill. As for the Dhamma: You have to remember that when the Buddha taught the Dhamma, he was very selective in what he chose to teach, out of all the things he gained in his awakening … 
  6. In Tune
     … That’s not the formula for practicing the Dhamma. The formula for practicing the Dhamma is: “Whatever is required, I’m ready to do it.” That’s what it means to be in tune. So as we practice living with one another, keep that in mind. The purpose of being here together is to work in harmony. The purpose of chanting together is to … 
  7. Mindful All the Way
     … But in terms of the Dhamma, the true Dhamma was available. There were people who were practicing it, happy to teach it. The ajaans were those who took advantage of that. So don’t go by appearances. Just tell yourself, “I want to find a place where I can hear the true Dhamma and practice the true Dhamma.” As long as you focus on … 
  8. A Promise to Yourself
     … Then there’s the Dhamma as a governing principle. Think about how fortunate you are that you live in a place where the Dhamma is available. The people in the Buddha’s time, on first hearing the Dhamma, would exclaim at how magnificent it was. The things that used to be murky are now clear. Things that were in the dark are now brought … 
  9. Shame & Acceptance
     … So he looked to the Dhamma. “This,” he said, “is the only way my life is going to have any meaning, is going to go anywhere at all.” As he said, “I must not have much merit, so I’ve got to make as much as I can.” That was his original impulse to practice the Dhamma, realizing that he didn’t have much … 
  10. Ironclad Technique vs. No Technique
     … This is how you become independent in the Dhamma. This is how your commitment and your reflection lead you to attaining the Dhamma, a Dhamma you can really depend on.
  11. Happiness – Yours & Others’
     … This, of course, puts you to the test as well, because if you’re going to give a fair evaluation of the Dhamma, you have to give the Dhamma a fair test. And you have to develop the dhamma of mindfulness, alertness, all your powers of observation to make sure that your actions actually do fall in line with what the Buddha taught. This … 
  12. The Joy of Renunciation
     … Convert those skills to fabricating motivation to practice the Dhamma, to finding joy in the Dhamma, joy in investing in the long-term. As the Buddha said, delight in the Dhamma, delight in abandoning, delight in developing: These are among the forms of delight that lead to the total end of the defilements, total freedom from the mind. But it’s a delight that … 
  13. Test Everything
     … So it’s not a matter of changing the Dhamma to suit our preferences. We have to change ourselves to fit in with the Dhamma. This is one of the principles that Ajaan Suwat would talk about an awful lot. He said that it was one of Ajamn Mun’s favorite topics: practicing the Dhamma in line with the Dhamma. In other words, the … 
  14. Dispassion Is Freedom
     … In each case, the Buddha says, you see when you take on a particular dhamma—and here “dhamma” can mean a teaching, a mental quality, or an action—and if it leads to a certain type of quality that’s not in line with the Dhamma, then you know it’s not really Dhamma. In other words, you test things through your actions. Now … 
  15. Heightened Skillfulness
     … Māgha Pūjā,* *we’re told, is the day of the Sangha, but it’s also the day of the Dhamma, because without the Dhamma there wouldn’t be the Sangha. Without the Sangha to carry out the Dhamma, we wouldn’t have it today. So they always go together. So what was that Dhamma? It starts with avoiding all evil. Anything that’s unskillful … 
  16. Delight
     … The first in the list is delight in the Dhamma—the fact that there’s a Dhamma teaching us that there is an end of suffering, and that it can be attained through human effort. This Dhamma explains how we suffer, why we suffer. It explains the big issues of life: aging, illness, death, separation. It gives reliable guidance in how to act, how … 
  17. Recollecting the Devas
     … This means listening to the Dhamma, reading the Dhamma, and memorizing what you can. This is especially important in our modern culture because there is so much in modern media that goes against the Dhamma and they have so many ways of sneaking their messages into your head. All those commercial jingles that seem to be jingling and jangling around your head when you … 
  18. What Made the Buddha Exclaim
     … One, is a sense of awe at the Dhamma, how amazingly good the Dhamma is, and how when people are trained in the Dhamma how amazing they become as well. This gives rise to a sense of confidence that this really is a good path with a really good goal. The other thing that makes him exclaim is a sense of samvega. He sees … 
  19. The Uncertain Present
     … That’s why we take refuge in the Buddha, the Dhamma, and the Sangha, so that we can become members of the noble Sangha, too. The Dhamma the Buddha taught, of course, is in words. It, too, is a construct. But just as the path is a construct, the words of the Dhamma are a construct that points out, points out to certainty. That … 
  20. A Full Life
     … This is what the Dhamma is all about. As the Buddha said, the taste of all the Dhamma is release— just as the taste of all the water in the oceans is salty, the taste of all the Dhamma is release. They all come together at the goal. We’re starting out from different places, but we’re all heading in the right direction … 
  21. Looking Inward
    Ajaan Lee once said, “The path of the Dhamma is looking inside.” When you look outside, it’s the world. The mind that’s concerned with things outside, that’s part of the world as well. It’s when you look inside—that’s when there’s Dhamma. So this is where our practice focuses. Notice where the path lies: It lies in our … 
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