Search results for: "Becoming"

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  2. Peace on Earth
     … The more you try to force them, the less peaceful things become. But you can set an example inside, an example with your own thoughts, your own words, your own deeds. At the very least, the world of your becoming will have a peaceful center. That’s your main responsibility. As Ajaan Suwat used to say, each of us has only one person. What … 
  3. Comfortable With the Truth
     … As a result, huge areas inside the mind become unknown territory, big blank spaces. And it’s precisely those areas though that we need to know about if we’re going to gain any headway in putting an end to suffering. So overcoming ignorance is not a question of learning about emptiness or Buddha nature or anything abstract like that. It’s just looking … 
  4. Beyond Duality
     … Then you find that once the mind begins to settle down, some of the things you have to do in order to get it to settle down become unnecessary. They actually become a burden to the meditation, a burden to the concentration. As Ajaan Fuang once said, there’s one skill in getting the mind to settle down, and then another skill in getting … 
  5. Customs of the Noble Ones
     … So they wanted to study Thai culture and Thai traditions to see what there was in the Thai tradition that might make them susceptible to become communist, and how that might be changed. One thing they focused on was the teaching on contentment. They advised the political leaders of the country: “You should not teach people to be content.” After all, they wanted Thailand … 
  6. No Running Away
     … In this way, the mind becomes less and less of a mystery to you. And you can become more and more confident in your motivation—not only as you sit here with your eyes closed but also when you’re dealing with other people. It’s normal that we want all our issues to be cleared up as quickly as possible. We would all … 
  7. Learning by Doing
     … And even though you’re creating a state of becoming out of these things, you’re doing it consciously. You’re doing it with a sense of what they are. This is how you begin to parse these things out, because when we try to step into the mind and start observing it without first getting it concentrated, things get very blurry. But as … 
  8. The Right Touch
     … As you use your powers of observation, you become more sensitive. He commented one time on how the commentaries say that breath meditation is the meditation method that’s good for everybody. He said, “That’s not the case; it’s good for people who are precise in their powers of observation.” If your powers of observation are crude, all you see is just … 
  9. On the Path of the Breath
     … Once you’ve learned these ways of dealing with the breath, the workings of your mind become a lot more transparent, just as the breath element in the body becomes more transparent. That’s when you’re ready to take the work of insight even deeper, seeing the inconstancy of anything that’s intended, whether it’s physical or mental — anything that’s fabricated … 
  10. Arising & Passing Away
     … At what point does the body become attractive? At what point does it become an object of pride, an object of lust? It’s those other things that arise and pass away: Those are the things that you really want to see. So a lot of the clear seeing is looking at one thing and seeing the things that are connected to it, seeing … 
  11. Barriers in the Heart
     … All the various forms of clinging, everything that we cling to, becomes a barrier, becomes a limitation. As the Buddha said, we define ourselves by what we cling to. And that becomes our limitation, our measure, as he says. It’s in learning how to let go of those very subtle levels of clinging that the limitations are dropped, and then nobody can define … 
  12. Generosity First
     … Over time, as the children start doing it themselves, the process becomes less and less mechanical, and after a while they begin to take pleasure in giving. At first this pleasure may seem counterintuitive. The idea that you gain happiness by giving things away doesn’t come automatically to a young child’s mind. But with practice you find that it’s true. After … 
  13. Right Mindfulness
     … Mindfulness becomes right depending on the task to which you put it, it becomes wrong depending on the task to which you put it. There is such a thing as wrong mindfulness and keeping the wrong things in mind. So as we’re practicing here we want to make sure that our mindfulness is right mindfulness. There are two spots in the Canon where … 
  14. Truths Noble in the Heart
     … That’s when the truths become noble. In other words, they stand out beyond, and over, and above everything else. So you don’t just stick them into the corners of your life. This is another reason why we have the monkhood, the monastic life, and provide the opportunity for people to live in a community where the bottom line is not money. The … 
  15. The Noble Truth of Suffering
     … That’s the only way you can judge it fairly—and that means you have to become a reliable judge yourself. Fortunately, the qualities developed in the path will help you in that direction. You develop more mindfulness, ardency, alertness. You get the mind concentrated; you develop your powers of discernment. These are the things you’re going to need. To make them reliable … 
  16. Two Kinds of Seclusion
    In primitive cultures, they have a custom whereby, when a person becomes old enough, a child on the verge of becoming an adult, they send the child out into the wilderness to have a period of seclusion. Being all by yourself, you get a sense of your own identity of who you are. Sometimes you’re prescient enough to gain a vision that gives … 
  17. Don’t Objectify
     … This is how you become skilled. Breathing becomes more comfortable, and it’s easier to settle down in the present moment. And the way you breathe can put the mind in a really good mood so that it’s easier to let go of outside distractions. Your old friends—greed, aversion, and delusion—can come knocking on the door, and you’re not as … 
  18. A Good-Natured Attitude
     … There’s a sense of lightness that goes with that, and when you can create a sense of lightness both inside and out, then the things that are hard to bear become easy to bear. And the practice becomes something you can see all the way through.
  19. One Person
     … But look after yourself in a skillful way and it becomes not-selfish. It becomes wise. If you really care about your interest, your well-being, you can’t harm the well-being of others. So look after your well-being in a skillful way, in a wise way, and there’s nothing selfish about it at all. It’s not only your contribution … 
  20. Appreciating Dispassion
     … But then even the sense of fullness becomes oppressive as you get more sensitive. So you tune into a level of energy in the body that’s more refined. It’s like a radio that’s playing really loud, heavy music. You’ve decided you’ve had enough of that and you want something more relaxing, more soothing. So you tune it into another … 
  21. Start Out Small
     … Without this level of sensitivity, the meditation becomes mechanical. When it’s mechanical, it becomes a chore. And when it’s a chore, the mind will rebel. So ask yourself: What really feels good when you’re breathing right now? If you can’t figure out what really feels good, hold your breath for a while until the mind comes to the point where … 
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