Search results for: "Conviction"
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- Dethinking Thinking… In each case, he developed conviction, persistence, mindfulness, concentration, and discernment appropriate to that particular path. When the path didn’t work, he had to ask himself, “Well, why?” That required some thinking, some analysis, to figure out the drawbacks of that path, because that was going to determine what his next path might be. But as for what kind of thinking was actually …
- The Carpenter’s Adze… Your faith and conviction in the Buddha’s path and the Buddha himself won’t be confirmed until stream-entry. But there are milestones along the way. There are skills to develop along the way. As you see the results of developing those skills, you gain more and more encouragement: Yes, this is a promising path. And it’s a good path to be …
- The Skill of Stillness… He’d say at the beginning of each meditation session, “Try to develop a sense of conviction and confidence that what you’re doing here is good work. You’re inspired by the example of the Buddha, of his noble disciples; you’re inspired by his Dhamma.” The other side, of course, is realizing the dangers of not doing the work. You can get …
- A Thread into Awareness… If there’s any pain, be firm in your conviction that the awareness will outlast the pain. Just stay right here because when you’re with this awareness, that’s when you can see even really subtle things arising: the craving to go here, the craving to go there. You’ll be able to catch sight of this in time because there’s a …
- Virtue Fosters Concentration… As you stick with it, you bring in qualities of healthy shame, healthy compunction, conviction in the principle of karma, learning how to practice delayed gratification. In other words, there may be an instantaneous pleasure that comes from breaking a precept, but you realize that down the line it’s going to be bad. Or there may be difficulties in observing the precepts, but …
- Control from Within… this conviction that it is possible to find happiness in a way that’s conducive to other people’s happiness. It is possible to find a happiness that’s totally harmless. Generosity and virtue hint at these things. It’s important to realize that they’re the beginning of how we gain some control in our lives by learning how to control our intentions …
- Reflecting on Karma… There’s a passage where the Buddha said that suffering gives rise to conviction. If you reflect on the fact that you’re suffering and you don’t want to stay there, you’ve got to get out. And there’s the Buddha offering you his hand. “This is the way out.” Of course, he can’t pull you out; he’s offering you …
- Anti-slacker Dhamma… A large part of that is learning how to develop a sustaining enthusiasm or a sustaining conviction, so that when things go really well, you don’t get complacent; when things get discouraging, you don’t let yourself get discouraged. In particular, watch out for people who say, “There’s nothing to attain,” or “Just learn how to be accepting of everything, be okay …
- Refuge… That’s our main element of conviction. And that’s a fact that we keep bringing to bear on all of our decisions. Because as he said, his awakening didn’t come through any special quality that only he had. He didn’t claim to be a divine being or a son of a divine being. He was a human being who was able …
- The Blood You’ve Shed… And the best response to that is to develop pasada, a sense of conviction that this is the way out, by practicing what the Buddha called the karma that leads to an end of karma—in other words, the noble eightfold path—developing these qualities of mind so that don’t have to continue the stories. You just drop them with thoughts of goodwill …
- Finding Extra Energy… And the Buddha said, “In the same way, you tune your effort to what you’re capable of, and then you tune the rest of the faculties – conviction, mindfulness, concentration, and discernment – to the amount of effort that’s just right for you.” So that’s one way of figuring out how much effort is the right amount: what you’re capable of. The …
- Thinking About Your Fears… Have some conviction in the Buddha’s awakening. Don’t be like the secular Buddhists who say, “I want to hold on to my secular worldview and then take little bits and pieces of the Dhamma that’ll fit into that worldview”—as if they were chopping it up, and sticking it here, sticking it there. But the whole reason for the teaching is …
- Change Your Habits… Strength comes from your conviction, your persistence, your mindfulness, your concentration, your discernment. Figuring things out is the ultimate strength. Of the five strengths the Buddha talked about, discernment is the big one. Ajaan Lee has a nice quote. He says for a person with discernment, all you need is a machete and you can set yourself up in life. Even if you have …
- Everything Gathers Around the Breath… Still, we go forward on the conviction that, as the Buddha said, this is the highest happiness. Most of us aren’t willing to go there. None of us are willing to go there really, unless we see the limitations of where we’ve been feeding so far. But that doesn’t mean you try to short-circuit the process by not following the …
- Honesty… honesty, confidence, patience, the ability to focus on the causes, and the conviction that the causes will take care of the results. In this way, you get to learn how to read your own mind. You develop your own sensitivity. This is where insight comes; this is where discernment arises: not by memorizing what you’ve heard, but learning to develop your own sensitivity …
- Compunction & Awe… It’s not just telling you, “Don’t do these things.” He teaches you the mental strengths you need—conviction, persistence, mindfulness, concentration, discernment—so that you’re strong enough to resist the temptation to do something unskillful, and you can feel more and more secure in yourself. The result of having confidence of this sort is that you behave in a moral way …
- The Psychology of Harmlessness… In the beginning we do that out of conviction. I was struck a while back when hearing someone say that the four noble truths are not beliefs. Well, they’re truths for the Buddha but they’re still beliefs for us until we’ve proven them for ourselves. But they’re good beliefs, good working hypotheses, because they make you look at your mind …
- Ripples Go Far… You want to strengthen the good ones, the ones that have conviction in the principle that your actions really do make a difference, and that you have to be careful about them. You can’t just say, “Hey, I want to be spontaneous and have a good time.” There are ways of having a pleasurable time without having to say, “I’ll give in …
- Practicing from Gratitude… This is why Ajaan Suwat often said, when we would start meditating every evening, “Look at your mind and give rise to a sense of conviction, inspiration that this is something you really do w ant to do. If you find that your attitude is neither here nor there, think in ways that give rise to that sense of desire.” One way of thinking …
- Gratitude & Trust… He says if your parents are stingy, you try to induce them to become more generous; if your parents are not virtuous, you try to induce them to be more virtuous; if they have no faith in the principle of action, you try to develop that sense of faith and conviction in them; and if they’re not wise, you try to teach them …
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