Search results for: "Nibbana"

  1. Page 14
  2. A Mind Without Inertia
     … When the Buddha says that the mind in nibbana no longer has to feed, it doesn’t correspond to our ordinary ideas about pleasure and happiness. Our habitual way of looking for happiness is to keep feeding on sights, sounds, smells, tastes, tactile sensations, ideas, relationships, intentions. And so when he talks about the mind not feeding, it sounds like it’s being starved … 
  3. You Can’t Eat the Buddha
     … You don’t grasp onto them saying, “Please stay here and suffer so I can feel good about being compassionate.” That’s just another way of saying, “Even though it hurts you to stay, please be here for me when I need you.” The Buddha’s final nibbana was the opposite of that, and it was an amazing act of kindness. He showed us … 
  4. Saṃvega & Pasāda
     … Or as Ajaan MahaBoowa said, if you could take nibbana out and show it to everybody, that would be the number one thing that people would desire throughout the world. Unfortunately, we can’t see it. Even the Buddha couldn’t take it out to show us, but he does give us an indication of how good it is. He says you practice concentration … 
  5. Samvega First
     … That’s one of the qualities of nibbana that the Buddha emphasized again and again. It doesn’t change on you. It’s not deceptive. It’s not the sort of thing that looks good in the beginning and then turns on you, like so many other pleasures of the world. It’s good all the way through. So try to get your mind … 
  6. Inconstancy
     … What it comes down to, of course, is that the highest level of reliability would be nibbana. That’s something that doesn’t go through any processing in the mind. It’s unprocessed, you might say. Everything else in the world is processed. We talk about the problems with processed food, but the processed experiences of the mind are a lot worse, because they … 
  7. The Roles of Equanimity
     … When the Buddha talks about nibbāna, he doesn’t say it’s the highest equanimity. You do have the equanimity toward the rest of the world, because you’re not feeding on it anymore. And that’s because the experience of awakening itself is the ultimate happiness. This is a principle that we see throughout the practice: Equanimity, to be solid, has to be … 
  8. The Cool Fire of Jhana
     … This is where the image of nibbana comes in. That’s where there’s no fire, no burning at all, even the cool fire of jhana. But it’s through the cool fire that you get to the place where the fire goes out. So learn how to light this fire, tend to it, and put it to use.
  9. Keep Your Options Open
     … Now, as we’re meditating, we’re not focusing on nibbana. If you’re practicing jhana, you’re not even focusing on jhana, you’re focusing on your breath, but you’re focusing on the breath not for its own sake—it’s for the sake of the concentration, and you’re developing the concentration for the sake of something unfabricated. Always keep that … 
  10. Put Your Heart into It
     … Buddha talks about nibbana as being the unafflicted and the unafflictive, which means that when you find it, the happiness there doesn’t harm you, doesn’t harm anybody else. That’s when you’re totally harmless. That’s where we’re aiming. So, harmlessness is not a vague notion. The Buddha is very precise in what he means, and the goal he points … 
  11. Rooted in Desire
     … the one thing, nibbana. That’s when you can put the whole issue of desire aside.
  12. Savor Your Breath
     … After all, nibbana is the ultimate pleasure—the ultimate happiness, the ultimate sukha: bliss, happiness, well-being. You get to appreciate it first by learning how to appreciate what feels good right here, right now, in the body. So try to develop your sensitivity here. Learn how to savor what’s pleasurable here, because that sensitivity will reorient you, give you new ideas about … 
  13. Honest & Observant
     … The Buddha can’t pour knowledge of nibbana into your head. If he could, he’d have had everybody line up, and that’s how he would have spent his life. What he was able to do was to teach people how to learn for themselves, how to watch, how to figure things out, and how to become more and more trustworthy as observers … 
  14. The Treasure Hunt
     … There were three knowledges that preceded his attainment of nibbana: knowledge of previous lives, knowledge of beings passing away and being reborn in line with their karma, and then knowledge of the four noble truths. Those first two knowledges were not all that certain; there was still an element of possible doubt. Visions of previous lifetimes don’t necessarily mean you actually had previous … 
  15. A Refuge from Karma
     … It’s one of the reasons why one of the epithets for nibbana is refuge. It’s refuge on the highest level. We get there by starting with refuge on the external level, really listening to the Buddha, listening to the Dhamma, listening to the Sangha. As the Buddha said, in his second knowledge he saw beings of the world being reborn in line … 
  16. Reading & Meditating
     … As Ajaan Fuang once said, “If nibbāna were something we could take by force, we’d have all gone there a long time ago.” It requires getting the mind really still and seeing what happens when the mind gets really still. When you’re very observant of what happens, you’ll find that things begin to separate out on their own. It’s like … 
  17. Noble Right Concentration
     … I think there are some thirty some names for nibbana, but it doesn’t matter what you call it. The fact is it’s there. And it’s worth all the work that goes into the practice to arrive there. So it’s through this pattern of commitment and reflection that we learn about cause and effect, and we gain a knowledge that is … 
  18. The Pursuit of Pleasure
     … It starts with right concentration and goes on and culminates in nibbana. That’s the kind of pleasure we try to use as our path, because this pleasure is not intoxicated. The mind is not dulled. It’s a pleasure that comes from a sharp mind, learning how to use your powers of observation to sharpen the mind, at the same time that you … 
  19. Equanimity in Action, Equanimity at Rest
     … It’s the level of concentration from which he entered total nibbana, so it’s a good place to rest, to get your bearings. It’s at this point where your equanimity can be totally all-around. But of course, you can’t stay here forever. So a large part of the skill of equanimity is realizing when you can be at rest with … 
  20. The Management of Suffering
     … Trying to find happiness, short of nibbana, is a gamble. Think about it: In the relationships we have with people who are dear to us, we’re feeding off of them, they’re feeding off us. When the relationship goes well, you’re okay with the idea that they’re feeding off of you because you get some satisfaction feeding off of them in … 
  21. Unburdensome, Part 2
     … Remember the chant we have: “Those who show respect in welcoming guests are right in the presence of nibbāna.” So the Buddha’s not encouraging people to be misanthropes, trying to run away from society. The way things are arranged by the rules, you have time to be alone, but you also have time to be respectful when people come to you with requests … 
  22. Load next page...