Search results for: "Form"
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- Right View… Sometimes it’s on the level of form, as when we’re meditating and fully inhabiting the form of the body. Sometimes it’s on the formless level—any abstraction, any formless experience, anything without a form, as when we experience space in our meditation, or a sense of formless “knowing.” And again, we tend to go from one of these types of becoming …
- To Comprehend Suffering… There’s form. Form can be the form of your body or it can be any sensory input at all. As for the form of the body, it’s made of what are called the four elements or the four properties: solidity, liquidity, energy, and warmth. Those kinds of sensations count as form. You’re sitting here: The reason you know there’s a …
- Is the Buddha’s Wisdom Selfish?… You have form in the form of the body you’re trying to maintain and in the form of the food you’re thinking of eating. There’s feeling, which is the pain of hunger and then the feeling of well-being you’re trying to gain by feeding. There’s perception when you try to identify what kind of hunger you have and …
- Paying Off Your Debts… This relates to another form of wealth, which is generosity. But the Buddha also talks about virtue as being a form of generosity. On the one hand, when you’re observing the precepts, you’re giving safety to others. And if your precepts are absolute—i.e., principles that you follow in all situations—then you’re giving universal safety. People may face dangers …
- Stay Tuned… This is called tuning in to the level of form. The mind can experience three levels of becoming. There’s the level of sensuality, where you’re focused on your desire for sights, sounds, smells, tastes, or tactile sensations. There’s the level of form, which is primarily your inner sensation of the body—how the body feels from inside—and this is defined …
- Feeding on Feeding… Where is your suffering right now? Then, at the very end, he says every form of suffering has something in common with all other forms. It’s the five clinging-aggregates: the form clinging-aggregate, feeling clinging-aggregate, perception clinging-aggregate, fabrications clinging-aggregate, consciousness clinging-aggregate. People have often asked: Where did the Buddha get this analysis? Because you don’t see it …
- The Power of Choice… As you’re meditating, you’ve got all these forms of fabrication right here. And you’re creating this state of form-becoming, the best becoming for seeing the process of fabrication, because everything you need to see is present right here. As you’re doing this, you begin to see that even creating a very nice, stable form of happiness like this—which …
- Discernment… Which ones are just physical sensations and which ones are feeling? In other words, which ones are rupa , or form, and which ones are feeling? Any sense of heat is form, any sense of movement is form; coolness, solidity: these things are all form. But then there’s the feeling of pain that sort of flickers among them. It’s something different. It’s …
- A Pure Happiness… It’s our satisfaction with lesser forms of happiness. Those are the big obstacles. Now there are some forms of stress and pain that will come with practicing the path, but they’re balanced with the forms of happiness and well-being that are integral parts of the path itself. A sense of well-being that comes from being generous, that’s part of …
- Secluded from Sensuality… You’re trying to lift the quality of the mind, because after all, how are you going to understand sensuality unless you can step outside of it? And how can you step outside of it unless you have an alternative form of pleasure? As the Buddha said, if you don’t have this form of pleasure—the pleasure of form—or something higher, then …
- Clinging… That’s why the Buddha has you analyze your sense of self into those different aggregates—form, feeling, perceptions, thought constructs, consciousness—because the aggregates, too, are primarily actions. Even form, the form of your body, is something you’re doing. You’re constantly telling yourself, “Where is the body right now?” Just sitting here still, there’s an activity that goes around maintaining …
- Eyes in the Back of Your Head… First there’s the form of the body, and you have to realize the form of the body is not the pain. We tend to glom the two together, though. You have a pain in your knee, and it seems to be right there in the shape of the knee. The pain gets equated with the knee. But your sense of the form of …
- Realities Right Here… When we think of them as elements, it sounds like a primitive form of chemistry, but it’s not. It’s how you feel these things from within. Actually, we in the West are very impoverished in our vocabulary for describing this sort of thing. So it’s good to get to know the Buddha’s vocabulary. After all, name and form are the …
- Delight in the Path… Otherwise, you’re fighting against reality, hoping for illusory forms of happiness, only to be disappointed. But if you resigned yourself to the fact that nothing was permanent, nothing was free of stress, nothing was really under your control, then you could live in peace. I argued that the search for happiness took priority. After all, that’s what the Buddha searched for from …
- Wise about Happiness… Some forms of happiness really last for the long term and they’re conducive to gaining the noble happiness that comes from full awakening. Those forms of happiness are really worth pursuing and they’re worth putting a lot of effort into gaining. One of the hallmarks of long-term happiness is that it’s harmless as well. As the Buddha points out, if …
- The Beginnings of Wisdom… This is why, when the Buddha identified the beginning of wisdom, it wasn’t with the question: “Is form constant or inconstant?” That comes later. It begins with, “What, when I do it, will lead to my long-term welfare and happiness?” As for the inconstancy of form, feelings, perceptions, fabrications, and consciousness: That’s a teaching you use within the context of that …
- A Good Dish of Concentration… That’s part of how we define ourselves, and that’s defining ourselves around form. Then, of course, there’s the form of our own body. Then there are feelings: We have feelings of hunger. We try to change them into feelings of fullness. We have perceptions: perceiving what kind of hunger we have and what’s going to satisfy the hunger, and just …
- A Wealthy Memory… Are they a form of wealth or are they a form of poverty? Do you really believe in those attitudes when you get to examine them calmly? If not, learn to replace them with some other attitudes. Read up on Ajaan Lee, Ajaan Maha Boowa, all the great ajaans. Look through the Dhammapada to find verses that are appropriate for your particular situation in …
- The Duty to Understand… In that way, that particular form of clinging gets weakened. You’re still holding to the body as part of your practice of concentration. And we remember that holding to habits and practices is a type of clinging, too. But you’re holding to them as a tool for the sake of awakening. All the forms of clinging can get transformed. You take on …
- The First Noble Truth… How are you feeding on a particular form? It might be a physical form or it could be a form in your imagination. The body here is the main issue. Sometimes it works well and sometimes not so well. It has all kinds of diseases that it can spring on you. There’s a nice passage where Ven. Sariputta has you contemplate the four …
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