Search results for: "Becoming"
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- The Making Of… As a meditator, you want to learn how to step out of that, because those thought worlds are states of becoming. As the Buddha said, when you have a craving for becoming, that craving is also going to create suffering. So we have to change our values. Often we like our thought worlds because they’re entertaining. We use our thoughts to figure things …
- WYSIWYG… So if you get some hands-on experience here, it’ll serve you well as the mind begins to fabricate a new state of becoming as you realize that you can’t stay in this state of becoming anymore. So you’re learning a lot of important things. There’s a lot to see here if you learn how to look. This is one …
- Work & Play… Then the concentration becomes an exercise in sheer will power: How long can you force the mind to stay here in spite of its impulses to wander away? But if you can see that by staying with the breath, working with the breath, playing with the breath, you’re actually making the present moment a more interesting and more pleasant place to stay, then …
- Focus on the Doing… When you’ve learned how to tap into that skill, then the desire to practice becomes more strongly based, and the path becomes enjoyable in and of itself. As it becomes enjoyable, then the second base for power—persistence—gets more constant, more reliable. You want to keep at it. This doesn’t mean just going off to do nothing but meditate, closing your …
- Strength of Conviction… Your sense of here or there is part of the process of becoming, and the things you latch onto become the seeds for different worlds of becoming. Fortunately, you have choices. Your past karma is like a field, as the Buddha says, filled with all kinds of potential seeds. What you water right here in the present moment: That’s the seed that’s …
- Your Tranquility & Your Insight… This is precisely what you need in order to become discerning. There’s no foolproof method for giving rise to insight. If there were, then even fools could gain insight and still be foolish. You have to practice getting more and more discerning, asking the right questions, exploring, trying things out, so that your concentration becomes your concentration, not somebody else’s idea of …
- Universal Truths… The more we define ourselves, the more limited we become. Even if we think of having a cosmic identity, we get limited to that. We get limited to that view and that view becomes a source of controversy. You’re going to have to argue it with other people. Or even if you don’t argue with other people, you’ve still got the …
- Exercising the Mind… We create states of mind that are called becoming. It’s like a little world in your mind. As you go into that world, that suddenly becomes your surroundings, that becomes your environment. Then you lose interest in it, or something else comes along, and you create another one. These are all based on desires. Each desire has a little world, and there’s …
- Start the Year Right Here… When you see that, the mind really does have the chance to become more skillful. It becomes a mind that does create happiness for itself, a mind that creates a happy new year, a happy life, a happy new century, a happy new millennium. That’s the kind of mind you want, and it can be done. You look at the texts. Little kids …
- Skilled in Aims… So practice your goodwill so that it’s quick with regard to anybody—that it becomes the default mode—and this way you become skilled in aims, skilled in the goal. This is what should be done by someone who wants to be skilled in the goal. Years back, I was sitting in on a class where this sutta was being explained. The teacher …
- Of Essential Worth… And if you become a member of the noble Sangha, you become a refuge for others. When we take refuge in the Buddha, the Dhamma, and the Sangha, it’s because they’ve set an example of what a really honorable human life is like. They suggest the possibilities of what human beings can do. And it’s an inspiring set of possibilities. So …
- Admirable Intentions… You become more and more sensitive to your intentions, and you learn how to articulate them to yourself. All too many people go through life not really knowing why they’re doing things. It’s all too common when you ask someone, “Why did you do that?” and they have to stop and think for a bit. But in the practice of generosity and …
- Cutting New Paths in the Mind… What often happens is that when those thoughts become very painful, you try to deny them, to bury them away. The more painful they are, the more they get buried—and of course, the more they get buried, the harder they are to deal with. They don’t really help you. You want your memory of your mistakes to be near at hand but …
- Succeeding at Happiness… In other words, it becomes a genuine source of happiness. The same with the precepts: Don’t regard them as a chore, or as onerous rules that are forced on you. Here’s your opportunity to live in the world in a harmless way and you’re trying to be meticulous in it. Cultivate the desire to be harmless. For example, with the precept …
- Animals in the Mind… It becomes your place. When you fully inhabit your body, nobody else can invade your space. And you have a good leash for the mind. There’s an image in the texts of six different animals, all leashed together. There’s a crocodile that wants to go down in the water. There’s a monkey that wants to climb up into a tree. There …
- The Dhamma Eye… We’re trying to create a state of mind here, which is called “becoming,” *bhava, *because we want to understand what it means to create a state of becoming. As the Buddha said, the cravings that lead to becoming are the source of suffering. So we have to know: What is this process that the Buddha’s talking about? Basically, you have a desire …
- A Seeker’s Habits… And as with any tool, the more you work with them, the more skillful you become. The more skillful you become, the more you see. So even though this does require work—and often it requires really heavy, heavy effort—still it’s all worthwhile. And it’s all a way of showing true goodwill for yourself, true compassion for yourself. Always keep that …
- Doubting the Buddha… Suddenly the issues in the thought become very real, very important. So it takes a real reorientation to get out of those thought worlds, simply to see them as processes: the mind’s habit of fabrication, its way of putting things together. You put feelings and perceptions together, you add a little salt, a little pepper, and you want to eat them. When they …
- The Freedom to Give… And after a good long joyride through samsara, when you’ve decided you’ve had enough, okay, then you’re ready to become an arahant. And if you want to become a special arahant, well, it’s going to cost you a little extra but it can be arranged.” The going price to be an arahant with special distinctions was seven days worth of …
- You Can’t Eat the Buddha… That way you become a refuge, both for yourself and for others. You join the noble Sangha and become a refuge to other people in the sense that you become an example to them as well, so they can learn how to feed and strengthen themselves. This is how the Dhamma is passed on. So even though our pursuit may be for something very …
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