Search results for: "Mindfulness"
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- In Gratitude- Ajaan Suwat… If you had me change from that, then I’d be far away, both in body and mind**. L**ike an uprooted plant, I’d die.” So I’ve held by that principle following Ajaan Suwat’s example. And that’s what’s enabled us to make a place where everybody can come and practice, as long as they’re really serious about doing …
- Perceptions of Self & Not-Self… The eye, ear, nose, tongue, body, and mind are not-self. But then, as he pointed out, there’s the phrase another passage that we chant again and again, “I am the owner of my actions.” The question is, how to resolve the paradox. We have to note that it’s there in the Buddha’s teachings as well, as in the passage we …
- Friends with the Dhamma Wheel… You went around all the different permutations in a circle—a good image to hold in mind if you have to memorize things like this. So what are the duties? With regard to the first noble truth, the truth of suffering—which is that suffering is basically the five clinging-aggregates—the duty is to comprehend that. That means understanding it so well that …
- Selves with Skills… As you’re trying to get the mind into a state of concentration, you have to use those same processes to gather around your object. To begin with, you’ve got the breath that you’re focusing on. Where in the body are you feeling it right now? Focus your attention there. Try to keep it there. That’s going to require that you …
- Faith in the Buddha… He explored in his own mind what a human being can know, and when he followed that to the ultimate happiness, he then came back and looked at the question of what a human being is. And for the most part, he tended to put that question aside. Ideas of what you are or what you’re capable of doing can often get in …
- The Identity Crutch… I’ve been meditating all these years, but my mind can still crash. There’s something wrong with me.” That’s an unskillful use of that identity. A skillful use is when you come up against a problem and you find yourself reacting to it in an unskillful way: Remind yourself, “Hey, I’m a meditator. I’ve got some tools I can use …
- Generating Desire… Look for the poison and then remind yourself that it is possible to get past that, it is possible to get the mind in a state where it doesn’t like that anymore, doesn’t need it anymore. And try to cultivate a desire for a safe place. As the Buddha says, see renunciation as rest. See that by letting go of the things …
- De-domesticated… This is why they say that when we take refuge in the Buddha and the Dhamma and the Sangha, the word sarana, which we translate as refuge, also means something you hold in mind, something you remember. Always remember the Buddha. Ajaan Suwat, after he’d had his accident, found that his ability to give Dhamma talks was pretty severely curtailed. He wanted to …
- The Core of Experience… So keep that in mind as you practice. The question is always, “What am I doing, what are the results I’m getting from my actions, and are they up to standard?” You want to make the Buddha’s standards the ones by which you measure things if you’re really sincere about your happiness. Because that’s what it comes down to: the …
- Before Your Face Was Born… You’ve got a human body and you’ve got a mind that doesn’t want to suffer. That’s all you really need. As for how well you’re going to do in the practice, you start where you are. This is one of the reasons why we have the recollection of the Sangha to set our standards right. You look at all …
- Wise About Mistakes… Then you try to create the right state of mind for not repeating the mistake, by learning from it. That attitude starts with goodwill for yourself, goodwill for all beings; compassion for yourself, compassion for all beings; empathetic joy for yourself and for all beings; equanimity for yourself and for all beings. The equanimity, of course, is for realizing that you can’t go …
- At Home in Your Own Skin… And to have enough mindfulness and alertness so that when you do go out, you are clear about your motivation and you can choose. If the motivation is good and skillful, you go. But you realize that you’re going out basically on a foray. You’re not going out to inhabit that other world. You’re not going out to move there and …
- Goodwill Permeates the Dhamma… Then, when the action is done, you look at the long-term results to check and see, “Did this lead to long-term welfare and happiness?” If it didn’t, if it afflicted somebody, you make up your mind not to repeat that mistake. And you develop a healthy sense of shame. This is the shame that comes from wanting to look good in …
- The Buddha’s Compassion… And it’s good to keep that in mind. A lot of us aren’t going to experience those levels in our meditation, but some people will and it’s easy to get waylaid, easy to get mislead by what you see there. You think you’ve attained the goal when it’s simply a level of concentration or one of the sensual levels …
- Murderers, Vipers, & Floods, Oh My!… Number one is, “What are you doing here, sitting here, just doing nothing with your mind? Can’t you be doing something more creative?” Okay, what about the creations? What do they accomplish? And what is this voice? Where is it pushing; where is it coming from? There are lots of views that could get you to give up the practice, especially if you …
- Acceptance Isn’t the Issue… It lifts your mind. After all, it’s one of the brahma-vihāras. Notice, the Buddha didn’t call it a manussa-vihāra, a dwelling that’s natural for human beings. It’s a dwelling that’s natural for brahmas, who are a high level of deva. But these attitudes are something we can attain in our minds through our own efforts. And that …
- Smart vs. Wise… Otherwise, the mind will go sneaking off to find a hit of pleasure wherever it can. So sublimation is what helps anticipation to work. These are aspects of a healthy sense of self. And the Buddha advises that we develop and maintain these attitudes. Again, you hear that when you hit the end of the path there’s no sense of I or mine …
- Unburdensome, Part 2… So open your mind to this possibility, that where you’re most dearly attached and you have the strongest feelings about how right it is to be attached there, that’s precisely where you’ve got to question things. You’ve got to see that there’s suffering there. Without seeing the suffering, it’s very hard to admit that you’re doing anything …
- Worldly Effort… They say not only does it bring peace to the mind right here and now, but if you die, if you’ve attained any of the levels of jhana, that’s where you go—the Brahma worlds corresponding to the jhānas, and you stay there. They talk in the Canon about Brahmās who think that their worlds are totally eternal, that once you get …
- Dhamma for Laypeople… Just one week of this and it’s going to get rid of your lust.” A lot of these teachings go against the grain, but they’re skills we need to develop repeatedly because the mind tends to go so heavily in the other direction. This is why we have to practice again and again. Meditation is like learning a second language. Our first …
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