Search results for: "Dhamma"

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  2. The Wheel of Dhamma
     … It’s called Setting the Wheel of Dhamma in Motion. Did you see the wheel in discourse? It turns out that the term “wheel” in this context is a technical term. Back in the Buddha’s time, in philosophical texts or in legal texts, when they were going over various permutations, say, when they put two variables against each other and listed all the … 
  3. Samvega vs. Dispassion
     … In getting to the ultimate dhamma of dispassion, we see the clear line between what’s fabricated and what’s unfabricated, and then the mind goes beyond everything fabricated and unfabricated into total freedom. That moment is the highest possible dhamma. The people who have reached that point would never ever want to go back to their old attachments. There’s no nostalgia at … 
  4. The Armored Car
     … But you’ve got to remember that what’s really important in life is the fact that we have this opportunity to practice, that we remember the Dhamma: What does the Dhamma have to say about what’s skillful, what’s not skillful? Those teachings are never out of date. After all, the Buddha said they’re *akāliko, *timeless. Then you remember the Sangha … 
  5. Adult Dhamma
    Adult Dhamma March 5, 2015 I was reading a review of a short-story collection recently, in which the reviewer was noting that although the author wasn’t experimental in the way she structured her stories, she was revolutionary or radical in that she treated her characters like adults, and her readers like adults. Unfortunately, that’s pretty rare. The same observation applies to … 
  6. In the Mood to Meditate
    Ajaan Suwat would often begin his Dhamma talks by saying to put yourself in the right mood to practice. In other words, don’t anticipate whether it’s going to go well or not going to go well. Think in ways that will help it go well. Remind yourself that you’re doing something really worthwhile here. You’re straightening out the mind. That … 
  7. For a Routine That Isn’t Routine
     … We think about the Buddha, the Dhamma, and the Sangha. You can sit here and just parrot the words and get that glazed look in your eyes as you stare off into the distance. But it’s better to stop and think, “Who was the Buddha? What was his Dhamma like? Who is the noble Sangha?”—what kind of example they set for us … 
  8. Murderers, Vipers, & Floods, Oh My!
     … He immediately adds, take the Dhamma as a refuge, and he equates the two. That means turning yourself into Dhamma—taking the Dhamma as your pattern for who you want to be. That, of course, connects with the third flood, which is becoming: the sort of person you want to be, the sort of world you want to inhabit. Do you want to inhabit … 
  9. Twigs & Branches
     … The whole question of self and not-self doesn’t apply, but you use the Dhamma—as they say in some passages in the Canon, you use the Dhamma to get beyond dhammas of all kinds. So, whatever is useful, realize that it’s makeshift. You hold onto it to the extent that it’s helpful, but you also learn when to let go … 
  10. Faith
     … Then, around age fourteen or sixteen, he started listening to the Dhamma talks. He had been what they call a dek wat, a temple boy, during the years after he’d been orphaned. And temple boys in Thailand are a pretty rough crowd. But when he actually started listening to the Dhamma talks, he began to realize that here he was, poor without much … 
  11. Dhamma Intelligence
     … The Dhamma is not about words, even though it’s expressed in words. The words are meant to focus on what your actions are, what kind of results you’re getting out of them, and teaching you questions to ask, things to look for, so as to start acting more skillfully. There’s an awful lot that the Buddha didn’t address, the big … 
  12. Smoothing It
     … That’s a good Dhamma to believe in, a good Dhamma to take as your working hypothesis. It was found by somebody who was totally pure in his motives, totally pure in the way he taught. So think about that. This is why the Buddha recommends not only recollection of the Dhamma, but also recollection of the Buddha and the Sangha as ways of … 
  13. Bases for Success
     … There’s a passage where the Buddha says that all dhammas are based on desire. That means good dhammas and bad dhammas. This is one of those passages that counts nibbana as not really a dhamma. It’s the letting go, the ending, of all dhammas. But everything else, good or bad, skillful or unskillful, has to start with desire. Then out of that … 
  14. The Importance of Being Truthful
    The Dhamma’s something really special in that people who are not truthful, people who are not honest, can’t practice it. You have to bring truthfulness to the act of listening to the Dhamma, to the practice of the Dhamma, if you want to gain any attainment in the Dhamma. Otherwise, things get directed off-course. So if you want to start practicing … 
  15. The Power of Human Effort
    Every evening, we have chants in honor of the Buddha, the Dhamma, and the Sangha, recollecting their virtues before we meditate. This is a good way of uplifting the mind—or as the texts say, gladdening the mind. These recollections put you in the right mood to meditate. You think about the kind of person the Buddha was, the person who found this path … 
  16. Refuge in an Admirable Friend
     … As the Buddha said, the Dhamma protects those who practice the Dhamma. And he exemplified the Dhamma in the way he acted and taught. There are three main qualities that are associated with the Buddha. What’s interesting about them, in the way he explains how they get started, how they get developed, is that they’re all based on trying to find happiness … 
  17. Deep Time
     … You want to ask yourself how much longer you want to be open to the possibility that there’s more bad karma, or of coming back and forgetting about the Dhamma and doing stupid things all over again. We’ve done that who knows how many times. We learn some Dhamma and then we forget. Then we learn it again, forget it again. They … 
  18. The Best of a Bad Situation
     … One of the most popular sayings there is that the Dhamma protects those who practice the Dhamma. People go to monasteries hoping for protective blessings. There’s a huge market in protective amulets. What it comes down to is that people there have a very strong sense of how unstable society is, that there are lots of dangers all around. So they look to … 
  19. The Dhamma Wheel
    The sutta we chanted just now is called “Setting the Wheel of Dhamma in Motion.” Sometimes the question comes up, “Where’s the wheel?” It’s in that section where the Buddha goes through all four noble truths, describing the duty appropriate to each and the fact that he has completed those duties. There are basically two sets of variables. On the one hand … 
  20. The Gift of Spiritual Materialism
     … Learning is your knowledge of the Dhamma. Here, too, you’re not the only one who benefits when you know the Dhamma. You can share it with others. At the very least, if you act in line with the Dhamma you’ve learned, other people will benefit. Generosity is the way in which it’s most obvious that other people benefit from your good … 
  21. Songkran Blessing
     … See how much goodness you can squeeze out of it before you have to throw it away.” The woman took heart from that and she was able to transcribe all 90 of the Dhamma talks. Now, as a result, we have two large books of very good Dhamma talks. That was somebody in her 80s. So just because you’re old doesn’t mean … 
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