Search results for: "Conviction"
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- Heedful of Small Dangers… You’ve got to practice with a sense of respect, a sense of conviction, that the training of the mind really is important, that it really does make a difference, and that you value the good qualities of mind as you would value gold. Of course, this takes energy, so you have to watch out the ways in which you squander your energy. And …
- Persistence… He says, “You tune your persistence to your level of energy”—in other words, what you’re capable of right now—“and then you tune all the remaining faculties—conviction, mindfulness, concentration, and discernment—to that first string. Then pick up the theme of your meditation.” He’s playing with a lot of words here. Picking up the theme is the same as picking …
- Self Power, Other Power… All he had was his conviction that life wouldn’t be worth living unless he could find a happiness that wasn’t affected by aging, illness. and death. And he couldn’t live with himself unless he actually gave it the best try possible. We, however have the advantage. There’s the Buddha, there are the noble disciples who’ve passed the teaching on …
- The Real World… Whereas the wealth you get in the Dhamma is the wealth of conviction, a healthy sense of shame and compunction, virtue, learning, generosity, discernment. This wealth is really yours—and it’s really good. You can do good things with it, and you’re not the only one who benefits. With the pleasures of the world — gain, status, praise, sensual pleasures — all too often …
- Clinging & Feeding… Then we feed the mind with conviction, persistence, mindfulness, concentration, and discernment, all of which are good food for the mind. These are the things that strengthen us, so that we can manage the path. So the Buddha doesn’t try to starve us right from the start. He simply tells us to take a different approach to our feeding. Feed on good food …
- A Sense of Entitlement… There’s a lot demanded of us, but if we have a sense of conviction in the importance of the Dhamma, we’ll be willing to make whatever effort’s required. Ajaan Fuang once told me that one of his prime motivations in practicing was that he was born into a poor family. He didn’t do well in school, he was orphaned at …
- Free Sources of Energy… So think of the conviction as a treasure, think of virtue as a treasure, something you can amass of value inside. When you have to give up other things for the sake of the practice, don’t see it as a sacrifice. See it as a trade. You’re trading up. And holding that perception in mind, holding that way of thinking in mind …
- The Food of Feelings… these things can really weaken the mind if you feed on them. That’s why a large part of the practice is giving us other food, better things to feel on. Conviction can be food for the mind, as can persistence, mindfulness, concentration, and discernment. It may seem artificial to create these things, but the Buddha’s analysis of feeling shows that it’s …
- Honesty… the truthfulness of statements you make; the truthfulness of how you represent yourself to yourself; and your willingness to stick with your convictions in spite of the difficulties they may involve—being true to your determinations. All three of these things are absolute, rock-solid, basic qualities that are needed in the practice of the Dhamma. Being a true person is very closely connected …
- Heedful of Ruts in the Mind… of it; when something skillful comes, you try to develop it. You follow the duties of right effort. As the Buddha said, heedfulness lies at the base of all the strengths: conviction, persistence—persistence is right effort—right mindfulness, right concentration, and the discernment of right view and right resolve. Everything good comes out of heedfulness. So always keep that quality uppermost in your …
- You Contain Multitudes… When you’re firm in that conviction, then you can get all the other selves gradually into line. Say, “Hey, we’re looking for happiness.” Some of them will say, “But I want happiness right now.” This is what the concentration is for: Learn how to tap into a skillful sense of well-being whenever you need it so that you can show even …
- A Unified Committee… And all of that depends on conviction. So you have to be convinced in the worth of concentration: *samadhi-garu atapi—*one who is ardent with respect for concentration. Respect, faith, trust: They all go together. You have to trust concentration. It may not seem obvious how it’s going give rise to insight or when it’s going give rise to insight, but …
- Family Ties… As he said, some parents have no virtue, no generosity, no conviction, and no discernment. And your way to repay them is not just to hang around and do everything they tell you. You try to find some way of inducing them to be generous if you can, more virtuous if you can. The “if you can” here is important. Sometimes you realize you …
- Self-reliance… people who have conviction in the Buddha’s awakening; people who are generous, virtuous, discerning. And you try to emulate their qualities. You listen to the Dhamma, you try to remember it, think about it so that it makes sense, and then measure your own actions against the Dhamma. And you’re not simply involved in listening, you’re really actively trying to search …
- The Advantages of Many Selves… This is a large part of what conviction means. When the Buddha gained awakening, it wasn’t just news about him. It’s news about us as well. We read about him in his last lifetime, and he seems amazing, almost superhuman. But you have to remember that he started out like we are. He had his defilements, but he was able to take …
- Learn from the Ants… So even when he was studying with the teachers who taught very high levels of concentration—the dimension of nothingness, the dimension of neither perception and non-perception—he saw that they’d developed conviction, persistence, mindfulness, concentration, and discernment. They devoted good qualities of the mind to this, but they rested content with something that wasn’t ultimate. He, however, wasn’t satisfied …
- Energy & Efficiency… And the Buddha then said, “In the same way, you should tune your energy to the point where it’s just right and then tune the rest of the strings of your practice.” In other words, conviction, mindfulness, concentration, discernment: Tune those to the level of your energy. In that way the practice will come out right. So keep this in mind as you …
- Chewed Up by Your Food… t have to be a certain way for there to be a sense of well-being in the mind. This is how this good food develops the strengths of the mind: conviction, persistence, mindfulness, concentration, and discernment. This way, the mind, more and more, can stand on its own two feet. And unlike the body, the mind—when it feeds off mental food, off …
- Four Mountains Moving In… The media will divert our focus other places, but we have to hold firm in our conviction that what we do is important, what we do is going to make the difference between danger and lack of danger. Because it is possible to get to the end of danger, this interconnectedness of ours. Sometimes we call it inner-being, but it’s basically inter …
- Like an Athlete in Training… You’re trying to strengthen the mind, so you strengthen the qualities that give rise to more conviction, more persistence, more mindfulness, more concentration, more discernment. Watch out for the food that would eat away at these things. In this way, you protect the Dhamma inside yourself, which is where it’s best protected. You look outside, and sometimes it’s hard to see …
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