Search results for: "Thought"

  1. Page 130
  2. In Accordance with the Dhamma
     … Things that may seem kind and compassionate and wise in the short term, when you take the long-term perspective, are not as kind or compassionate as you thought. And the part of the mind that’s attached to them is something you have to learn how to let go. You have to raise your sights as to what true well-being is and … 
  3. All Winners, No Losers
     … If you find out that there was harm even though you thought there wouldn’t be any harm, resolve not to make that mistake again. Talk it over with someone who’s more advanced on the path to get some ideas on how not to repeat the mistake.” In other words, don’t be so proud that you’re not willing to admit your … 
  4. Safety in Awareness
     … So he focused all his energy on teaching what he thought was really important. The theme he kept returning to again and again and again was the theme of refuge: that it’s through our path of practice that the mind really does find a safe place. He, of course, had had his body all battered up, paralyzed from the base of his spine … 
  5. Control from Within
     … anabhissaro—“There is no one in charge.” It’s a scary thought. We’d like to think that there’s some sort of Providence that ultimately will take care of everybody, or that things will ultimately work out for the best. But all you have to do is glance through any book on the universe with pictures that the Hubble telescope has shown us … 
  6. A Much Better Place
     … those who can see the danger coming before it comes; and then there are those who have to be slapped in the face with a danger before they realize, “Yes, this is dangerous here!” Of course, it’s best for us to see ahead of time the danger of identifying, say, with forms, feelings, perceptions, thought-constructs, consciousness, all the things that go into … 
  7. Inner Refuge
     … Whether we consciously spread thoughts of goodwill to other beings or not, the fact that we’re training our mind is a sign of goodwill for ourselves and that we wish well to other people: that we’re going to take responsibility for our minds, we’re going to learn how to develop reliable qualities inside. The benefits that come from that are not … 
  8. Strength to Be Good
     … All you have to do is think, “longer breathing,” and it’ll breathe a little bit longer; “shorter breathing,” it’ll be a little bit shorter; “deeper,” “more shallow,” "heavier,” “lighter.” It’ll respond to your thoughts. And you can take advantage of that. Try to gain a sense of what the body needs right now in terms of its energy, and adjust the … 
  9. A Home & a Mobile Home
     … Other thoughts, even** **though they may be there in the mind, don’t have to take over. And as you don’t pay attention to them, they lack their food. Because this is what feeds them: when you pay attention. So even if you just pay attention to them enough to chase them away, they’ve got you. It’s worth noting that that … 
  10. Self-Doubt
     … If the candidate hadn’t thought about it, he or she was out. A good surgeon has to learn how to look back on a mistake and to analyze it to see: Where was the weak point? Then he or she has to figure out how to compensate for that weak point the next time around. That’s precisely the attitude you need as … 
  11. Prevention
     … And learn how to get good at this so that as soon as the thought that the body is beautiful comes up, you have an alternative perception that can cut it off. The more you’ve practiced beforehand, the quicker you can do this. This is not going to totally solve the problem of lust but at least it helps you keep it at … 
  12. The Wisdom of Ardency
     … For instance, there are times when you’re angry at someone and you hear that you should have thoughts of goodwill, but you find it really hard to have goodwill. Well, the Buddha gives you an alternative: Remind yourself that when you’re angry, you’re going to say and do stupid things, and if your enemy finds out, the enemy is going to … 
  13. To Be Sure
     … You should use that thought as a spur to practice. Think of the Buddha’s determination that he wouldn’t let himself rest content with skillful qualities until they had delivered him someplace that really was certain. The other secret to his awakening—which he doesn’t mention that much but is implicit in the story—was his ability to self-correct, to observe … 
  14. True Happiness Starts with Giving
     … They thought he was reminiscing about all the pleasures of his time as a king. So they reported this to the Buddha. The Buddha sent for Bhaddiya and asked him, “What do you have in mind when you say, ‘What bliss, what bliss!’?” Bhaddiya said, “Before, when I was king, I had to have guards posted inside the palace and out, inside the city … 
  15. A Path for a Noble Desire
     … If you thought that that was all there was in the world, you’d go for it. There’d be no question. But here the Buddha’s saying there’s something else. There is a noble happiness and it can be found by following this path. The Buddha lays out duties with each of these truths. The truth of suffering is something he says … 
  16. Thinking About Rebirth
     … She thought I was saying “bumbling on.” Yet samsara is just that, though: bumbling on. We’re all ad-libbing our lives. We learn lessons and then we forget them, and then we learn them again and forget them again. This is what everybody’s been doing. If you want to settle the issue of who’s right in a situation, who’s the … 
  17. Be Precise
     … There may be something hiding behind what you thought was a perfectly fine idea, a perfectly justified idea. You have to dig down to find the real reason, and when you find it, you’ll ask yourself, “Well, why go for that?” It’ll obviously be not worth going for. This is one of the reasons why, when we’re getting the mind concentrated … 
  18. It’s What You Give
     … If you’ve been putting bad thoughts, bad deeds, and bad words into the system, it’s like having to drag a cart behind you. The cart is heavy, and its wheels will crush the footprints you leave behind. In other words, whatever good you try to do will get crushed by the bad things you’ve done. Whereas if you put good things … 
  19. Bad Friends Inside
     … Their thoughts get spinning. And they enjoy the feeling. What do they enjoy? Actually, they enjoy the release that comes after the tension. But that’s like going out into the desert so that you can come back and really enjoy a glass of water. You put yourself through a lot of grief before there’s a little bit of a payoff. So by … 
  20. Suppressed Emotions
     … We often believe that our emotions are a given, that they’re purely visceral, that they come prior to our thoughts, but that’s not necessarily so. A lot of unspoken or poorly articulated attitudes have gotten buried in our minds — a lot of unskillful habits of dealing with pain, say, that come from way back when. Those are the things that fuel our … 
  21. Perfections as Priorities
     … In the back of their minds, there’s always the thought, “Well, if I’m not happy, it’s because I’m not trying hard enough in every possible direction.” That’s crazy-making. You’ve got to focus on what’s really worthwhile in life, which means resisting a lot of the currents in our culture, because our culture seems to be all … 
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