Search results for: "The Sangha"

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  2. Doing the Right Thing
     … This is where recollection of the Sangha is helpful. You read the stories of the elder monks and nuns and how really bad their meditation got in some cases. A couple of them were getting suicidal, but then they were able to turn themselves around. Try to develop the thought that “If they can do it, I can do it.” That’s a skillful … 
  3. Breath, Tranquility, & Insight
     … Or there are cases where you’ve got to put the breath aside for the time being, and start thinking about perceptions and verbal fabrications that give you more energy in the practice, that make you happy to be here, such as thinking about the Buddha, the Dhamma, the Sangha: how lucky we are that we have a teacher like the Buddha, how lucky … 
  4. Antidotes for Narcissism
     … You can take refuge in the Sangha. It’s good to keep having members of the noble Sangha appearing in the world, so that it’s not just a matter of some story way in the past, the time of the Buddha or over there in Asia. When there are members of the noble Sangha appearing right now, that’s an inspiration to other … 
  5. Balancing Tranquility & Insight
     … the sense of well-being that comes from developing virtue, developing generosity; the sense of confidence that arises from contemplating the Buddha, the Dharma and the Sangha; or recollecting on your own past virtues, your own past acts of generosity, and, as they say, the qualities of the devas that you’ve been developing, which include generosity and restraint. When you think about these … 
  6. Gather Around the Breath
     … You can think about the Buddha, the Dhamma, the Sangha. If you’re having doubts about your ability to do this practice, remind yourself of the good things you’ve done in the past: the times you’ve been generous, the times you’ve been principled in your actions when it was a challenge. Or you can think about death. That’s one of … 
  7. Breath Meditation: The Third Tetrad
     … Think about the Buddha, the Dhamma, or the Sangha. You can think about your past virtue, your past generosity, things that you find uplifting. Then you can come back to the breath, but this time with a better state of mind. If, however, the mind is feeling overly excited, overly energetic, then you want to figure out how to breathe in a way that … 
  8. Right Next to Ignorance
     … You might think about the Buddha, the Dhamma, the Sangha. Think about your generosity. Think about your virtue. In times like this, you want to think about how good it has been, the times when you actually were able to carry through with the precepts when it was difficult, or you were able to be generous when it was difficult, to give you a … 
  9. Respect
     … So when we have that chant about having respect for the Buddha and the Dhamma and the Sangha, what it comes down to is respect for the good qualities they developed so that we can use them as examples to develop the same good qualities within ourselves. The qualities are there in potential form; we all have skillful qualities. It’s simply a difference … 
  10. How to Be Happy
     … He went all over India to find the people who were ready to teach, and he worked at setting out the teachings together with the Sangha so that the teachings would survive even after he was gone. Here we are, almost 2,600 years later, and the teachings are still here, still worthy of respect. So if, as you’re practicing, you have any … 
  11. Thinking Seriously about Happiness
     … One of his principles is that if there has been a split in the Sangha, the monastic order, you don’t just paper over it. You try to get to the root cause. If it turns out that one side was really acting on very unskillful, devious motives, you won’t be able to have a reconciliation. In fact, the Buddha doesn’t want … 
  12. Open Are the Doors to the Deathless
     … He thought of the difficulty of setting up the Dhamma, setting up the Vinaya, setting up the Sangha. He thought of how subtle the Dhamma was that he’d discovered, and how it would be very difficult for people to understand. The commentaries get tied up in knots about this. Here he was: He works all that hard to become a teaching Buddha, and … 
  13. Customs of the Noble Ones
     … They saw them as a problem and were able to dig around inside until they found the strengths and potentials within themselves that they could develop and turn into the path, taking refuge in the Buddha, the Dhamma, and the Sangha to the point where they became members of the noble Sangha and an object of refuge for others, too. So in this way … 
  14. Make Yourself Small
     … That’s why we have recollection of the Buddha, the Dhamma, and the Sangha as meditation themes for when things get dry or feverish in the mind. Look for the larger pattern, and then get back to the present moment in a less narratively-charged way. Try to drop as much baggage as you can. Strip away all these excess and unnecessary things—not … 
  15. A Doctor’s Strategies
     … And we have the Sangha, all these people, all over the centuries, who practiced this Dhamma and found the same purity of mind, the same release from suffering. You can read their stories in what are called the Verses of the Elder Monks, the Verses of the Elder Nuns. A lot of them went through a lot of trouble—a lot worse off than … 
  16. A Sense of Direction
     … You can recollect the Dhamma, you can recollect the Buddha, the Sangha. You can recollect the good that you’ve done in being generous, observing the precepts. If that doesn’t help, you can try thinking of any of the chants you’ve memorized. Run those through your mind. Or visualize a bright light in front of you. If that doesn’t work, get … 
  17. How Much Concentration Is Enough?
     … That’s when all your doubts about the Buddha, the Dhamma, and the Sangha are gone. The Buddha really did teach something that’s timeless. He knew what he was talking about, and it wasn’t a teaching that depended on his culture or his time. The teaching really does have something of essence, something of solid value here. But it requires that you … 
  18. A Tradition of Ingenuity
     … him on record for saying things about Devadatta that Devadatta didn’t like—such as the fact that Devadatta was going to go to hell for having caused a split in the Sangha. So the prince posed the question to the Buddha, and the Buddha said, “There’s no categorical answer to that.” But before he explained how he would determine when to say … 
  19. Mind Control
     … If the Buddha said he wouldn’t say anything displeasing, well, the prince had evidence that the Buddha had said displeasing things to Devadatta, the cousin who was trying to take over the Sangha. And if he said that he would say displeasing things, then the prince would say, “Well, what’s the difference between you and ordinary people everywhere?” But the Buddha didn … 
  20. Complexities of the Mind
     … For times when the mind is discouraged, when you think that you’ll never make awakening in this lifetime, the Buddha has you reflect on the Sangha: the people in the past who’ve gained awakening. It wasn’t that they were born arahants, or that it was very obvious from the beginning that they were going to get there. Some of them had … 
  21. No Happiness Other than Peace
     … The musician comes down, he sings a song about the Buddha, the Dharma, the Sangha, and lust. The song is directed to his ladylove, telling her how he loves her as much as the arahants love the Dhamma, cataloging her body parts, the parts he loves as much as the arahants love the Dhamma. You can imagine the Buddha smiling to himself with the … 
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