Search results for: "Becoming"
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- Admirable Friendship… And the whole question of self-image becomes very sensitive, very painful. So when we say that you’re looking at yourself, remember you’re not looking at your “self.” You’re looking at your thoughts, words, and deeds. Try to look at them as objectively as possible, get the whole issue of “self” out of the way, and then it becomes a lot …
- Beyond Gratitude… This is how your discernment becomes more all-around. It’s based on the determination that you’re not going to let yourself get hoodwinked by whatever comes up. Sometimes you find yourself equal to the task and other times not quite so equal to the task, but still you do what you can. That’s how discernment grows. This is how you become …
- To Escape the Prison of Time… So the possibility of stepping outside of becoming, putting an end to becoming and going beyond it: That’s something you take on as a working hypothesis. In other words, you place your bets on the idea that a deathless happiness is possible. That’s a safer hypothesis than saying it’s not possible. If you believe it’s not possible, you’re never …
- A Path of Skills… If you simply sit there wanting, wanting, wanting to get the results but without actually putting together the causes, the desire becomes a problem. But if you focus your desire on the causes, it becomes a part of the solution. Here we’re trying to create a state of concentration in the mind. You have to want the mind to settle down, which means …
- Cutting Edge Perceptions… Then you see that the present moment becomes a lot lighter. Your sense of the body becomes a lot lighter. The sense that you’re weighed down by things gets relieved. So try to take things moment by moment, sensation by sensation, and have a sense that they are discrete moments, discrete sensations, so that they don’t build up. In that way, you …
- Balance & Release… But the pushing becomes another type of becoming. As the Buddha said, craving for non-becoming leads to more becoming. The image of the middle path can be the middle point of a spectrum or it can be off the spectrum entirely. Release comes in getting off the spectrum. In balancing between excessive energy and deficient energy, you bring the mind into the middle …
- Self-starting… But the whole thrust of the teaching is, “What are you doing right now?” Or as the Buddha says in one of his questions for daily reflection, “What have I become as days and nights fly past?” Look at what kind of person you’re becoming, given the habits you’ve been picking up, the habits that you’ve been training yourself in—regardless …
- Acceptance… This becomes possible because you become more and more sensitive to what’s actually here, what’s actually going on. Things have been going on all the time, but you just haven’t noticed them because your sensitivity hasn’t been developed enough. So that’s the sense in which there’s a gradual slope leading to a sudden drop-off. And the really …
- W.W.B.R.… You’re getting into a state of becoming, and when you’re in that state of becoming, the world looks very different from what it does when you’re out of that state of becoming. It’s like waking up from a dream. You realize, “That was just a dream.” While you’re in it, you’re all concerned. You’re in an airport …
- Protecting the Mind from Itself… He said, “Virtue is primarily a matter of the heart, of the mind, because it’s a matter of your intentions.” When you understand virtue in that way, then the precepts don’t just become ceremonial. They become an active part of training your mind. That’s because you’ve got to exercise restraint not only over what you do and say, but also …
- The Heart of the Teachings… After all, even though all those monks had become arahants, many of them had become fully awakened after hearing only one Dhamma talk. The Buddha decided to teach them a full range of teachings from the most basic up to the most advanced as a guide for what they should teach others. So we’re paying homage to this event. That’s what the …
- A Connoisseur of Happiness… We’re here to see what pleasure really is, and become connoisseurs of pleasure, distinguishing between which kind of pleasure, when you indulge in it, has harmful results, and which kind of pleasure, when you indulge in it, becomes part of the path—so that you can find the ultimate pleasure that doesn’t require indulgence at all. It’s just there. That’s …
- Abandoning Effluents (1)… the effluent of sensuality, the effluent of becoming, and the effluent of ignorance. These are big issues. To think about the knowledge that led to the Buddha’s final awakening while we’re sitting here meditating, struggling with our own minds, may seem far away, but there’s a sutta where he talks about abandoning effluents in seven ways. These seven ways are practices …
- Breathing through Daily Life… The breath becomes the foundation that underlies them all — the solid floor on which you stand so can you can juggle your activities with skill. And with a continuous foundation like this, your life isn’t chopped up into little bits: a little time for this, a little for that. It all becomes time to be with the breath, and then to work from …
- Feeding your Attack Dogs… Well, that becomes a habit. And then that habit gets carried into the meditation. So when you’re working on the mind, it’s not just a matter of what you’re doing while you’re here sitting with your eyes closed, but also of what you do and think about during the rest of the day. The Buddha talks about anusaya , which is …
- Not-selfing Your Selves… Your sense of self is part of what’s called “becoming.” And every becoming deals with a desire. You take on an identity in a particular world to attain that desire, and that identity consists of at least two parts. One is the part that’s going to experience the pleasure that comes when that desire has been met: the self as the consumer …
- The Energy in the Body… Experiment with them and, over time, you learn how to evaluate the results of what you’re getting, as the wisdom becomes your own, the discernment becomes your own. That’s when you can really do important work in the mind. As you develop greater and greater sensitivity in reading the breath, you also become more and more capable of reading the mind: what …
- Think Like a Thief… This is what’s called the process of becoming. Can you turn around and devote it to the project of learning how to understand the process of becoming so that you can put an end to it? It all comes down to your intention. Do you really want to see, or do you just want to play with your likes and dislikes? This is …
- Ingenuity… That’s when you become someone who can rely on yourself. It’s the ingenuity of stepping back that saves you. So look into yourself. To what extent do you have these qualities, and to what extent do you need to develop them? Work on them. And as you work on them, you find that you become more and more reliable as a judge …
- Discerning the Middle Way… It’s in this way that your concentration becomes just right and the other factors of the path become just right as well. But it requires a lot of discernment. This is why in every description of the path discernment is necessary. And why all the teachers talk about how discernment is what makes all the difference. This is not just the discernment that …
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