Search results for: "Aggregates"

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  2. The Power of Intention
     … So you can see, you start out with some ordinary aggregates, or potentials for aggregates, and you can turn them into a state of concentration through the power of your intention. Now, the point will come when you begin to realize that, okay, the intention to maintain the concentration is good, but it still has its drawbacks. It requires constant nourishment, requires constant feeding … 
  3. The Desire for Things to Be Different
     … Back in medieval India, when they introduced the four noble truths in the basic textbooks for Buddhist doctrine, they would start with the five aggregates; move quickly to the three characteristics, and then get to the four noble truths. In other words, they started with a picture of reality: Reality is composed of aggregates, and the aggregates are marked by the three characteristics. The … 
  4. Respect for Tranquility & Insight
     … And they pointed out that just being with awareness is what? It’s your aggregate of consciousness. If you’re staying there, you’re clinging to consciousness. You’re clinging to the aggregates. The stress may be subtle, but it’s there. In that case, you want to learn how to peer into it and see: What are you doing? When does the stress … 
  5. To Escape the Prison of Time
     … Then there’s the fact that there is an awareness that’s there even as the aggregates fall away. After all, the aggregates are, as the Buddha said, “near and far, past, present, and future.” In other words, they’re in the coordinates of space and time, but there’s still an awareness even after those coordinates fade away. So there’s no reason … 
  6. Reflect on What You’re Doing
     … It’s also the principle by which you gain discernment, as ultimately you get to the point where you see that no matter what the level of concentration, it’s made up of aggregates. In the case of the form jhanas, you’ve got the body, which would be the breath. Feelings would be a feeling of ease, well-being, or equanimity. The perception … 
  7. Mind Reading
     … The forest ajaans talk a lot about how we don’t need to contemplate all five aggregates. You can focus on one, and the lessons you learn about one particular aggregate will then seep into the others. Perception tends to be the aggregate they focus on most. What image are you holding in mind? How do you understand what’s going on there? Which … 
  8. Long-Term Welfare
     … This is why we have the teachings on the five aggregates, the three characteristics. You look at whatever pleasure you’ve been depending on, and you take it apart, to see what it’s made of. The more carefully you look at it, the more you realize there’s really nothing there in the building blocks for this big edifice of whatever happiness you … 
  9. Even Animals Can Be Trained
     … You’re on this side of the river where he says you’ve got the dangers of your attachment to the aggregates and sense media: the way you identify things on this side of the river as your self. And then they turn on you. But then there’s the other side of the river, where you’re safe. There’s no nibbana raft … 
  10. In Times of Danger and Fear
     … the five clinging-aggregates. What are the aggregates? They’re activities, activities of the body and of the mind. They’re things we’re doing, habits we’ve developed, and as with most habits, we tend to cling to these things without really knowing what we’re doing. The Buddha’s solution is to observe carefully what you’re doing so that you don … 
  11. For the Sake of the Deathless
     … There’s a passage where he defines the different aggregates as verbs. Even form deforms. We know form through its activities. And fabrication fabricates all the aggregates for a purpose, for the sake of something. And as the Buddha saw rightly, it’s for the sake of happiness. The thing is, we have to keep on fabricating because the happiness we’ve gained from … 
  12. Moods Are Not-Self
    Moods Are Not-Self April 4, 2022 Sometimes you wish the Buddha had included moods as the sixth aggregate because they’re something we hold on to really tightly. Of course they’re there in the aggregates. They come under fabrications. These are states of mind and body that get put together. But we’re so used to our moods that we don’t … 
  13. Uncertainty
     … The Buddha taught people who have five aggregates. You’ve got five aggregates. The Buddha taught people who were tired of suffering. You have to ask yourself: “Have you had enough?” Listen for the voice that says, “Yes, I’ve had enough. I want to find a way out.” That’s the voice you hold on to.
  14. Friends with the Dhamma Wheel
     … So what are the duties? With regard to the first noble truth, the truth of suffering—which is that suffering is basically the five clinging-aggregates—the duty is to comprehend that. That means understanding it so well that you have no more passion, aversion, or delusion around it. We don’t think that we’re passionate for suffering, but after all, the Buddha … 
  15. Fear of Mistakes
     … Look at the Buddha’s analysis of how we construct the present moment with all the different aggregates. He says there’s a potential coming in from the past, and then, with the process of fabrication, we fabricate those potentials into an actual experience of aggregates. What are the processes of fabrication? One: the way you breathe. Two: the way you talk to yourself … 
  16. The Strength of Conviction
     … You can use these basic skills of mindfulness, concentration, and discernment, along with the lessons you learn from them about perception, about feeling, fabrication—all the aggregates, all the components of your mind: It’s through learning these lessons that you can find your way out. This was one of the Buddha’s great insights: that these aggregates we carry around can be fashioned … 
  17. Gather ’Round the Breath
     … Ajaan Lee talks about two types of aggregates. There are those that basically head outside, interested in forms outside, feelings and perceptions of those forms, thoughts about those forms, and your awareness of those forms. Then there are those that hover around your mind. So focus on the second kind. There are feelings right here hovering around your sense of awareness, perceptions that hold … 
  18. Meaning & Importance
     … Khemaka** **said, that hovers around the aggregates, lingers around the aggregates. But the fact that you have seen the deathless helps you to realize that this lingering sense of “I am” is something you actually want to let go of in the future. You won’t be willing to let go of this until you’ve seen that there really is something better. That … 
  19. Pull Yourself Up by Your Fetters
     … Everybody hears about things being inconstant, stressful, and not-self, so they want to let go of the five aggregates right away. But we need to hold on to the five aggregates in order to develop the path. The things that are stressful, you learn how to make easeful. The things that are inconstant, you learn how to make constant. The things that are … 
  20. A Good Foundation
     … There’s a theme in the teachings of the forest masters that when working with the five aggregates, you don’t have to work on all five at once. You focus on one and then, as you focus on that one, you begin to realize that the insights you gain there will have implications for the others. We see this again and again and … 
  21. Just One Person
     … After all, you’re doing your aggregates right now. You’re doing your feelings. You’re doing your perceptions, your thought fabrications, your consciousness. You’ve even been doing your sense of the body. This is why the Buddha said that all of the aggregates depend on the fourth one—fabrications. That’s what takes the potentials coming from your past actions and turns … 
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