Search results for: "Skillfulness"
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- Goodwill Is Respect… The Buddha says that it’s through their skillful actions that they’ll find happiness. That’s one of the reasons why he says that if you really care about your happiness, you not only refrain from harming other people, but you also don’t get them to do harm. And you try to discourage them from doing harm. But how well do you …
- You Are Not Redundant… But even if you don’t go that far, the fact that you do decide to be as skillful as you can in how you run your mind: That’s taking a huge step right there. So it’s important that we not let ourselves be defeated by the world, especially when we see that the leaders of the world don’t seem to …
- Food for Endurance… Then we can ask ourselves: “Which of these ways is the most conducive to keeping the mind happy, keeping the mind acting in skillful ways?” Choose that perception; choose those feelings. Then you can feed on those. That’s the food of intention. It’s in this way that we can create happiness from within, because we live in a world where we have …
- Concentration Teamwork… The Buddha said that one of the secrets to his awakening was to not be content with the skillfulness that he’d already attained. So when the pleasure comes, don’t content yourself with the first hit of pleasure. See it instead as a sign that things are settling down properly and that you’ve finally found a good place to work, just like …
- Equanimity After Victory… The Buddha’s most frequent images in the Canon are of people who are engaging in battle, people who are searching, people who are trying to master skills, all of which require effort. So it’s good to remember that we’re here battling with our defilements. We have to adjust our attitude as to what it means to be a warrior. Nowadays, most …
- The Good Heart’s Attachments… Now, for the sake of the path, there are some views and habits and ideas of yourself that are worth holding on to for the sake of mastering the skills that lead to something even better. But there are a lot of things out there, you realize, that “If I hold onto them, there’s going to be harm.” The question is, are you …
- The Missing Truth… As for skillful qualities, those start with the factors for awakening: mindfulness, your analysis of what’s going on in the present moment, your persistence, a sense of rapture, calm, concentration, equanimity. Those are things you try to give rise to when they’re not there. When they are there, you try to maintain them. This is how all four of the establishings of …
- How the Breath Helps You to Die Well… There are all sorts of useful side skills that you can develop as you focus on the breath. And all of this is meant to teach you a lot, not only about the body but even more about the mind and how it relates to the body. As the mind gets really, really still, things begin to separate out. As you begin to meditate …
- Ajaan Suwat’s Gift… We suffer from them because of our own lack of skill, our own lack of understanding. So the cause is inside, but the solution can also be found inside, in the qualities you develop: virtue, concentration, and discernment, based on a foundation of generosity and goodwill. Right here is where the real work has to be done. And when the work is done here …
- Ups & Downs… You stay confident in the fact that at least right now you’re trying to do something skillful. You’re not harming anyone; you’re trying not to harm yourself. You focus more of your attention not on the ups and the downs but simply on doing what you’re supposed to do. Ajaan Maha Boowa talks about a period in this practice where …
- Building Character… We had that phrase in the chant just now about right effort—learning how to generate desire to abandon unskillful qualities and to develop the skillful ones. In other words, you have to talk yourself into liking what you’re doing and to see the practice as an opportunity to develop good qualities all around. There are good qualities to be developed by meditating …
- All-around Alertness… Partly because the mind likes being with comfortable sensations, and partly because you realize you’re developing a skill. That’s part of the sense of well-being, part of the pleasure that comes with the meditation. As you’re learning how to figure out your own mind, you’re seeing connections that you didn’t see before. When the Buddha talks about giving …
- Fire… Then work on the necessary skills – like right now, as you’re working on the breath. There are different ways you can work with the breath. You can consciously tell yourself, “Okay, now I’m going to lengthen the breath,” – or “shorten the breath” and see how the body reacts. See how the mind reacts. And how about the quality of how heavy or …
- At Home in Jhana… In the meantime, the happiness of jhana depends on being mindful, being alert, being persistent in your efforts to be as skillful as possible in maintaining the state. Ultimately, as you get really good at maintaining this state, you get to the point where you understand it thoroughly, so thoroughly that you can go beyond it. That’s the true peace, the true happiness …
- Medicine – Timely & Timeless… Even though part of Jivaka’s knowledge covered the medicinal uses of every plant he encountered, that wasn’t the entirety of his skill. A lot of his expertise lay in his strategies: how to deal with difficult patients, how to treat difficult diseases. So when the Buddha was saying he was a doctor, he was saying that he was very strategic. When he …
- Mindful & Grateful for Lessons in Freedom… What makes it skillful mindfulness or right mindfulness is when you remember the right things: things that are useful. Like as we’re meditating right now: We’re remembering that it’s a good thing to stay with the breath. We remember the different instructions that tell us what we can do with the breath and what we can do with the mind so …
- Concentration Work… If you go just for the quiet breath all the time, it saps your strength.” An essential skill in meditation is learning how to read what your body needs. Give it more energy when it needs more, even though that may not seem as quiet and refined as you’d like. You’ve got to take care of both the body and the mind …
- Mental Experiments… And you learn a lot of other skills as well in the course of practicing generosity and virtue. For one thing, you learn deferred gratification, realizing that there are solid pleasures to be gained from putting aside or forgoing quick and easy pleasures that end quickly and easily as well. As you find yourself able to forgo the easy pleasures, you gain a sense …
- Lifting the Mind… They’ve done studies with school children and found that the most important skill that the kids need to learn, in order to learn, is how to observe themselves, how to monitor themselves. It’s called meta-cognition. That’s when the child reads a page and then stops and asks him- or herself, “Okay, did I understand that?” If he didn’t understand …
- Fires of the Mind… In fact, if you get yourself all tied up about remorse about the past, then it’s hard to do skillful things in the present moment because your energy is being siphoned off. Just make up your mind, “Okay, what I did in the past is past; what we’re going to focus on now is the present moment.” On the one hand, there …
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