Search results for: "Delusion"
- Page 18
- A Cure for the Sluggish Mind… Or you’ll drift off into delusion concentration, where the mind is still, but there’s not much alertness, not much awareness—which is not what you want. So energize the body. Then look at the mind: Is it too energetic, or is it too sluggish? From that, figure out what needs to be done. If it’s too sluggish, think of the Buddha …
- May You Forever Be Well… When you look at things in a certain way, what happens? When you listen to things in a certain way, what happens? If it has a bad impact on the mind, well, try to look in a different way, listen in a different way, so that you’re not stirring up more greed, aversion, and delusion. So virtue and right view are the foundation …
- The Forerunner of All Things… You don’t simply fall head over heels into whatever state of becoming is being pushed on you by your greed, aversion, or delusion. In this way, staying with the breath makes you sensitive, and it also gives you some resistance. The benefits of having the mind in charge come from directing it in a skillful way. Think of that question the Buddha has …
- Staying Grounded… At the very least, you’re not going to cause yourself a lot of delusion, greed, or aversion. And you’re less likely to get involved in any struggles and conflicts that go around these things. Conflict, the Buddha said, comes from the thought process he calls papañca. It’s a hard term to translate. Some people like proliferation, but the issue not so …
- Judging Your Thoughts by What They Do… This means that even though you thought the action was going to be harmless, maybe there was some delusion in your motivation that you didn’t realize. So you’ve got to keep checking things back and forth like this. Notice: Nowhere does it say that the thought is to be judged by how it feels. Some unskillful thoughts can really feel bad, but …
- Rapture… Why go out looking for trouble? Greed, aversion, and delusion are all looking for trouble. They’re like strong attacks of hunger and they’re never really satisfied. When you act on these things, they may provide a little bit of fullness and a little bit of energy, but then it goes. It’s like food that’s bad for your health. But here …
- Values… Try to be very clear about the results of your actions.” That reflection is how you begin to see through the clouds of delusion that otherwise keep moving in, moving in, moving in all the time. When you can see through your delusion, you realize that it doesn’t have to be there all the time. This principle is what allows us to practice …
- Training Your Minds… to deal with greed as one big defilement and take care of all forms of greed all at once.” Greed comes in many different guises. Anger comes in many different guises. Delusion comes in many different forms. And you’re going to have to learn how to deal with them all. After a while, in some cases once you’ve dealt with one, it …
- The Uses of Pleasure… Or you just drift off into a sleepy state, or into delusion concentration, where everything is very still, very pleasant, but you don’t really know where you are. That’s a sign that you indulged too much in the pleasure, because actually the pleasure is there to serve a purpose: It’s part of the path, and everything you do on the path …
- A Healthy Body Image… greed, aversion, delusion, lust, fear, jealousy, all the unskillful things that can come up. When you’ve got the strength, that’s the best use of your strength. So the body is good for some things. The Buddha didn’t bad-mouth the body all the timeHe just pointed out: What’s really good about it? What’s useful about it? What’s it …
- Take Care… If you focus on the wrong kinds of things, they can give rise to anger, greed, delusion; and then the ripple effect goes rippling out. So, we’re learning a very important skill here as we’re meditating: being very careful to stay with the breath, not letting the slightest thing pull us off, not letting the slightest thing interfere. This is precision work …
- Facing Danger & Hardship… One of the reasons is that the Buddha and the noble Sangha were free of passion, free of aversion, free of delusion, and for that reason, they’re free of fear. We should take heart in that they have faced dangers and were able to come out, at the very least, with their goodness intact. And we should follow their example. Another reason is …
- The Path Is in the Details… Is there any greed, anger, or delusion in there? If so, watch out. You have to be willing to the test your intentions and to learn from your mistakes. All this is the nuts and bolts of the meditation, which may sound dull and uninteresting, but if you keep your awareness on this level, you find you have less and less chance of being …
- Taking an Active Role… Greed, anger, and delusion can take root pretty easily if you’re not filling your awareness with mindfulness, mindfulness of the whole body. Other people’s energies can enter into your space as well if you’re not fully inhabiting it. Sometimes you’ll notice as you go to somebody’s house, you go to a room where people have been fighting, and you …
- A Positive-Sum Game… But if you learn to gain some control over your mind so that it doesn’t go into areas that cause suffering, it doesn’t go into areas that cause stress, doesn’t go into areas that give rise to greed, anger, and delusion, impatience, fear, whateve: When you’ve gained the concentration, the mindfulness, and the discernment to see through these things, those …
- A Slave to the Dhamma… After all, what do the defilements ask us to do? Anything for the sake of greed, anything for the sake of anger, anything for the sake of delusion. You look at the ways of the world, the way people cheat, lie, mistreat each other, mistreat themselves: That’s what the slavery to defilements is like. You do horrible things, things you’re ashamed to …
- Freedom from Fear… It’s greed about something, anger about something, or delusion about things. You have to look at what you’re attached to. In almost every case, it’s something that’s totally or partially beyond your control. That’s what’s maddening. If it were totally beyond your control, you wouldn’t even bother with it. But there’re some things that are partially …
- Joyous Discernment… They find ways to avoid your line of sight, so that greed, anger, and delusion can still arise, even though they’re not appearing in your line of sight. They’re off to one side. But that’s what the mind always does. When it’s going to play tricks on itself, it tends to find ways of getting out of the line of …
- Endurance… There are times, though, when you do have to analyze why you have a particular penchant for getting upset about what someone has said, or about physical discomfort or whatever the disturbance is; why you have a penchant for greed, anger, and delusion. In case like that, you really have to analyze the causes. The image of being solid like the earth won’t …
- Turn Off the Automatic Pilot… Well, who designed that automatic pilot? Who set the automatic pilot? Usually, if we’re not paying attention, greed, aversion, and delusion get to determine the default settings. This means you have to learn how to question them. This is one of the reasons why we read Dhamma books: They help us question areas that we previously didn’t question before. We just felt …
- Load next page...
