Search results for: "Persistence"

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  2. There’s Work to Be Done
     … Among Ajaan Fuang’s students who continued meditating after he passed away, the ones who really were most devoted were the ones who seemed to have a persistent illness of one kind or another. They realized that the only way to keep it under control was to work with the breath. So they had very good motivation to stick with it. But whatever way … 
  3. Stupid about Pleasure
     … Until discernment is strong, everything else — your conviction, your persistence, your mindfulness, your concentration — can sway back and forth. You may like your concentration, but you can also like whatever else life has to offer. You treat your life like a big flower garden or a vast buffet where you can choose all the things you want. That’s your preferred attitude. You come … 
  4. The Truth of Desires
     … And as with any crafty politician, it is possible to find them out, but it takes a lot of patience, a lot of persistence, and a willingness on your part to not identify with everything that comes up in the mind. In other words, just because the desire is there doesn’t mean it’s one you want to really pursue—if you really … 
  5. Determination
     … This brings in another one of the perfections, which is the perfection of persistence, the perfection of effort itself. As for generosity, it includes giving and renunciation. Being willing to give to others is often a good way of succeeding in your determination. You realize that many of the things that you want in life do require the cooperation of other people, so if … 
  6. The Missing Truth
     … mindfulness, your analysis of what’s going on in the present moment, your persistence, a sense of rapture, calm, concentration, equanimity. Those are things you try to give rise to when they’re not there. When they are there, you try to maintain them. This is how all four of the establishings of mindfulness work together. As you develop them, then this really becomes … 
  7. Building Character
     … There’s the list of the perfections—generosity, virtue, renunciation, discernment, persistence, endurance—all those good Capricorn virtues; truth, determination, goodwill, equanimity. As Ajaan Fuang liked to say, when the Buddha was born in all his many lifetimes up until he became a Buddha, he was born for the sake of mastering these perfections. The list of good spiritual materialism in the suttas is … 
  8. Firm in Your Intent
     … The same with persistence: You have to stick with the program, which is that if any unskillful qualities could arise in your mind, you do your best to prevent them. If they have arisen, you do your best to get rid of them. As for skillful qualities that are not there yet, you work to give rise to them. And when they’re there … 
  9. At Home in Jhana
     … In the meantime, the happiness of jhana depends on being mindful, being alert, being persistent in your efforts to be as skillful as possible in maintaining the state. Ultimately, as you get really good at maintaining this state, you get to the point where you understand it thoroughly, so thoroughly that you can go beyond it. That’s the true peace, the true happiness … 
  10. Happy to Be Here
     … desire, persistence, intent — in other words, looking intently at what you’re doing — and then using your powers of analysis to try something new. As Ajaan Fuang, my teacher, would often say, “Be observant and use your ingenuity.” If something doesn’t work, if the mind isn’t settling down, what would it like to do that would get it to settle down? If … 
  11. A Seeker’s Habits
     … You want to develop conviction, persistence, mindfulness, concentration, discernment. You work on these, and as you work on these, they begin to make a difference. The one thing he asked you to believe was in the principle of karma: that what you do makes a difference. So as you’re sitting here meditating, it’s not that you’re sitting here waiting for something … 
  12. Patience & Curiosity
     … desire, persistence, intent, and your analytical powers. Think about how you applied them in learning that skill and how you found balance among them. Then see if you can apply the same lessons to working with the breath. In particular, this issue of curiosity: When the Buddha gave meditation instructions, he didn’t spell everything out, he didn’t have an ironclad method. Some … 
  13. You Can’t Eat the Buddha
     … conviction, persistence, mindfulness, concentration, and discernment. These are qualities we all have to some extent, but we’ve got to learn how to strengthen them, and they in turn make the mind stronger. So our food here isn’t bread and wine. Our food is concentration. The Buddha compared the different levels of concentration to different types of food. The first jhana, he said … 
  14. Protect Your Energy
     … It requires that you learn some patience and some persistence, sticking with things even when they don’t come easily, because this is really an essential skill. You need to develop it. If our educational system really were designed for people’s needs, rather than using people as means for other purposes, one of the basic skills we would learn would be how not … 
  15. Truths of the Will
     … The mindfulness, the persistence that you bring to the practice: This will make all the difference in the world. We were talking earlier today about two kinds of truths: truths of the observer and truths of the will. Truths of the observer are facts where you have no role in determining how valid or true they are. You simply observe them. That’s your … 
  16. Magha Puja
     … You have to, as the Buddha says, generate your desire, arouse your persistence, uphold and exert your intent. All these things build on the desire for what’s right for true happiness. Then, when all the elements of the path come together, it leads to a glimpse of nibbāna. When you see that, then even though you haven’t gone all the way to … 
  17. Strength of Body, Strength of Mind
     … Well, the practice is very much a truth of the will, in the sense that if you don’t stir up your will—as the Buddha says, generate desire or activate your persistence, or energy, uphold your intent—it’s not going to happen. This is something that becomes true because you *will *it to be true. You will the path. Each of the … 
  18. Alert
     … If they’re persistent, you ignore them. And you try to relax around them. Notice, when a thought comes into mind, where in the body do you tense up? Where is there a little pattern of tension? Sometimes it’s along the skin, sometimes it’s in different parts of the body. Relax that. See what happens. If nothing else works, then just grit … 
  19. Put Your Heart into It
     … He extolls modesty, contentment, persistence, unburdensomeness. These are all qualities of the heart. We tend to think of someone being good-hearted as meaning that they’re kind and gentle. And that is an important part of the heart of a Buddhist trainee. Look at all the teachings on goodwill, compassion, empathetic joy. But the idea of being good-hearted also sometimes carries the … 
  20. Beyond Inter-eating
     … Until you start seeing results, you need to operate on the principle of conviction, because the path requires effort and persistence. You’ve got to stick with it because the mind has its old habits and it’s easy to slip into its old habits. You meditate for a while and things aren’t going well, and you want to give the mind a … 
  21. Mindfulness over Time
     … analysis of dhammas, persistence, rapture. These are the ones that you would emphasize at that time. When there’s too much energy, then you go to the calming factors: calm, concentration, equanimity. But mindfulness is what remembers what the possible problems are, the possible solutions, and then it, together with alertness, checks to make sure that you’re actually getting the results you want … 
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