Search results for: "Attachment"
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- Not Getting What You Want… When you’ve cleared away your other attachments, then you turn around to this attachment, to right view itself. You take this apart because it tells you to. It basically refers back to itself: This, too, is fabricated, so take it apart. Take it apart. Take apart your desire and passion for it, and then you’ll be freed. That’s the point where …
- Determination… Years back, I was reading an article saying that people don’t like the idea of renunciation, but basically, renunciation asks only that you give up your unhealthy attachments, which is to some extent true. But at the same time you’re trying to find happiness in another way, aside from sensuality. Of course, that would be the practice of right concentration. The description …
- Pleasure from the Body… People claim that they already have a bad image of their bodies and they don’t want to have that re-enforced, or else they say they are beyond attachment to the body, so it’s unnecessary. Of course, if it were unnecessary, why would they complain? The problem is really not with the body. The body does its functions. It needs a stomach …
- The Skills of Truth & Calm… At first you get attached to them because these are the raw materials from which you create a state of concentration. But then you’re working here not only with the idea of creating a state of concentration. There are also what the Buddha calls the four determinations. You’re determined on discernment; you’re determined on truth, relinquishment, and stilling or peace. In …
- Seeing Distinctions… You have to show it that, one, you’ve been attached to something; two, it’s not worth the attachment; and three, you’ve got a better alternative. So how do we learn about intentions? And why they’re so important? Well, intention, of course, is kamma. It’s what shapes our present moment: intentions from the past, intentions in the present. So we …
- Rebirth & Not-Self… As the Buddha said, as long as there’s craving for the aggregates, attachment to the aggregates, there will be a being. So instead of using that being to create suffering, you use that being to get out. It’s part of your motivation. And it’s part of your set of tools. You focus on the breath. There are lots of things in …
- To the Far Shore… But if you can see the distinction—that the thought of anger and the physical results are two different things—that helps to loosen your attachment to the anger. You begin to see that the mind’s choice of these unskillful attitudes is pretty random. And you do have the choice. You can pick these attitudes up or not. So if you pick up …
- The Grass at the Gate… The purpose of the chant is to give you a sense of detachment from your desire, from your lust, from your attachment to the body as something that constantly has to be pandered to. Once you have that element of detachment, then you can look at the body and see, “What does it have of a positive nature?” Buddhism talks about that, too. There …
- Getting Yourself… You see the drawbacks of being attached to these things and you look for their escape from that attachment, the escape from that danger. Given that list, you’d think that the fourth item on the list would deal with medicine, but it doesn’t. It says that you delight in developing and delight in abandoning. In other words, you find delight in developing …
- Consciousness, Awakened & Not… They get more focused on the question of “attachment to the precepts,” saying that attachment is bad. Well, you’re not going to learn from the precepts unless you really try to follow them and you come up against situations in which there’s a strong temptation to break them. The Buddha wants you to say, “No.” Try to see: What would the harm …
- Maybe the Buddha Knew Something… You notice, “Oh, I’m attached to this, I’m attached to that”. On the one hand, it teaches you ingenuity, how to make the most of what you’ve got. But it also makes you ask, “Okay, to what extent is comfort that important in life? What are the prices of comfort? What are the prices of having the choices of many different …
- Perfecting the Mind in an Imperfect World… Don’t get worked up over things when they’re not nice; try not to get too attached to them when they are nice. Be careful to the extent of not making it a point of conceit that you’re content with things outside. The Buddha’s teachings for contentment are detailed and subtle. The reason you’re content is that you want to …
- The Raft… He still used all the factors of the path but, as he said, there was nothing that he was attached to. He picked up the raft when he needed it, and he put it down. But we’re not there yet. We’re still in the process of crossing over. So you hold on tight. As you’re here in concentration, hold on to …
- Practicing for Dispassion… The food isn’t attached to us. If we don’t eat the food in the morning, it’s not going to cry. We’re the ones who are upset when there’s no food. In the same way, we’re attached to becoming; we’re passionate about becoming. It’s for that reason that we’re stuck. When we can develop dispassion and …
- Dwellings… So we appreciate the goodness that’s been done here, we appreciate the fact that the sala has provided us with a place, but we can’t get nostalgic or attached. Years back, when we were building the chedi, which is a spired monument, at the monastery, Wat Dhammasathit, we didn’t hire people. We had volunteer workers. Ajaan Fuang’s students from Bangkok …
- Learning from What You Do… There’s a teaching you hear sometimes that the Buddha taught us to be not attached to the results, not attached to the outcome of our actions. But the only way that idea makes sense is if there are some things totally beyond your power to change. That’s what you have to let go of. But you’re not going to know what …
- Breath Meditation: The Fourth Tetrad… So you’ve got to get attached to the concentration to let these other things go. Ultimately, as other things lose their appeal, the concentration itself becomes your main remaining attachment. When you’ve reached that point, you can start turning the analysis of inconstancy onto the concentration so that even this—no matter how much you’ve liked it, no matter how much …
- Imagine… As long as you’re frank about the process, that you’re creating this state, you don’t have to worry about getting attached to it — even though you probably will get attached to it — because deep down inside you know it’s something you’ve created, and eventually you’ll have to take it apart. But in the mean time, learn how to …
- The Allure of Self… Those senses of self are all strategic, and the only way we’re going to get over being attached to them is to see that the strategies are not working to our satisfaction, and that there’s a better way to find happiness. It’s important to note that the sense of self is not dropped until the very last of the noble attainments …
- People Suffer from Their Thinking… Why make the body such a big deal? As for the stringent side, when you see that you’re really attached to the body, ask yourself: Well, what is it here in the body that’s really worth being proud about? The Buddha once said, after cataloging all the different things that the body does, all the stuff inside the body, and then what …
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