Search results for: "Skillfulness"

  1. Page 132
  2. A Concentration Checklist
     … This ability to perform self-correction is one of the most important skills in the path. It’s like learning how to stand on one leg in yoga. There’ll be a wobbling back and forth, back and forth, but you learn how to correct—and that’s how you keep your balance. It’s the same with the concentration: There will be a … 
  3. Worries & Regrets
     … If we couldn’t develop skillful ones in their place, he wouldn’t have taught us to do so, either. It’s because we can make these changes: That’s why we’re practicing. That’s why he taught. In addition to recognizing your mistakes, try to develop goodwill. Goodwill is your protection for the future, in the sense that the things you really … 
  4. Using What You’ve Got
     … The breath isn’t the troublemaker, it’s not the problem, but it’s a great place to focus to develop the skills you need to deal with subtler problems, subtler issues. A very simple way of seeing the power of perception is trying to keep this perception of breath in mind during all of your activities, not only while you’re sitting here … 
  5. Strength from the Basics
     … He had worked on his really basic skills in the meditation: how to stay with the breath where to focus in the body, the different places where you can focus. When you’ve got the strength, explore all the possibilities of the breath, so that when you need them, the very strong spots will be there. When some of your physical abilities get impaired … 
  6. Verbal Fabrication
     … Think of your use of language as a skill that you have to master. And it’s not just being able to talk a lot. As the Buddha says, the ability to talk a lot doesn’t mean you’re wise. But if you can learn to talk to yourself in ways that are true and beneficial and timely, you take this troublemaker and … 
  7. Conviction in the End of Suffering
     … All of these are good skills to master, and they don’t save all their rewards for the end. They give you rewards all along the way. It’s simply that the reward at the end is of a totally different order. As I said, it’s beyond your expectations. So the conviction that allows you to get there is a form of wealth … 
  8. What You Bring to the Meditation
     … You want to learn something here and try to master a skill. The ardency, in turn, requires four other qualities in order to succeed. The first is desire. You really have to want to do this well. You realize that the mind is in a mess if it’s not trained, and that you’re causing problems not only for yourself but also for … 
  9. Secluded from Sensuality
     … So craving for becoming and craving for non-becoming do play a role—as you’re trying to master the skills of concentration. The same with clinging: There’s no role for sensual clinging on the path, but there is a role for habits and practices. You’ve got the habits of the precepts, and you’ve got the practices of concentration. Views, right … 
  10. To Comprehend Craving
     … We come to the present moment not because it’s the goal of the practice, but because it’s the place where we get to work on the skills we’ll need at the moment of death, so that we can see and master our cravings clearly right here, right now. This is one of the reasons why we create this state of becoming … 
  11. Look Around as You Follow the Trail
     … We’re working on a skill that requires you to commit to doing it and then reflect on the results. Then you do it better the next time. There may be setbacks, but you learn not to be discouraged by the setbacks. Realize that what you’re doing right now is important. There are people who complain, “Nibbāna is something that has nothing to … 
  12. The Human Condition
     … Instead of taking these things personally, you use the gains, you use the status, for whatever purposes you find skillful. When you lose these things, you can learn lessons. You can turn loss to a useful purpose as well. At the very least, you learn who your true friends are, both inside and out. If you got complacent when you were wealthy and powerful … 
  13. Dhamma Is a Quality of the Heart
     … And the process of developing the skillful qualities and abandoning the unskillful ones: What’s that going to do to your awareness? It’s going to do something good, really good, but beyond that, you can’t anticipate it. The Buddha simply reassures you that we’re not committing spiritual suicide here. We’re not blanking out. There is a kind of awareness that … 
  14. The Right Medicine
     … All the teachings are skillful means for that end. All the teachings are meant to be taken as strategies. Once you’ve used the strategies and gotten the proper results, you really are going to cherish them. You see that this is the most precious medicine that human beings can pass on to one another: knowledge of these strategies. But to really appreciate them … 
  15. Immersed in the Body
     … Remember, this is a skill: taking this stance, maintaining this stance, being concentrated in the body, but concentrated with an expansive sense of ease so that it doesn’t become oppressive. Work at filling the body with your awareness so that if they were going to take a picture of your sense of self, of the mind’s sense of self, it would be … 
  16. Grief & Regret
    Ajaan Suwat would often comment on the need while you’re meditating to have some respect for what you’re doing, because this is an important skill that we’re working on, and it’s really good for the mind. In the Buddha’s words, you need to have some respect for concentration. That means several things. On the one hand, it means you … 
  17. The Buddha Teaches a Yakkha
     … One is the principle that skillful actions should be developed, unskillful actions should be abandoned. And actions there covers not only physical actions, but also the words you say and the thoughts you think. The other categorical teaching is the four noble truths and the duties appropriate to them: to comprehend suffering, abandon its cause, realize the cessation of suffering, by developing the path … 
  18. You Should Heed These Shoulds
     … They’re activities to be done—skills to be mastered. After all, the mind is an active entity. It’s constantly shaping the present moment. And it needs instructions on how to do it skillfully, because right now it’s causing suffering by shaping the moment in a very ignorant way. The Buddha responds to this need by giving you examples, ideas, opening opportunities … 
  19. Appreciating Merit
     … As the Buddha said, even one moment of a skillful thinking generates a lot of merit. One moment of goodwill, even just the amount of a finger snap, generates a lot of merit. So learn how to appreciate these things, nurture them. Think of them as little seeds that can grow into large trees if you take care of them. So have a sense … 
  20. Stay Centered
     … how unskillful thoughts get connected, how skillful thoughts get connected, how that continuous sense of the center can get connected. As Ajaan Lee said, “When you see cause and effect, that’s when you have real insight.” If you just see causes but without the effects, that’s not insight. Or, just the effects but not the causes: That doesn’t count, either. Real … 
  21. Part III : Daily Life
     … So make sure you have the strengths you need in order to maintain the desire to be skillful. Because the world can tear away at that very easily if you’re out looking for your nourishment in the world. That’s the other reason we try to find nourishment inside, because the more independent we are here, the less we open ourselves up to … 
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