Search results for: "Persistence"

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  2. Strength of Conviction
     … That’s when the mind is really strong, and it goes beyond even the strength of conviction and the strength of persistence, of mindfulness and concentration and discernment. It finally arrives at a strength that’s totally independent, where it’s not just conviction. It’s knowledge that keeps you going, for you’ve confirmed it in yourself. You’ve developed that strength within … 
  3. Investing in Noble Wealth
     … One is the quality of persistence: the ability to put in an effort regardless. Again, it’s an effort devoted to skillful qualities in the mind. This particular quality covers everything else. There’s a really nice sutta where the Buddha talks about the occasions for effort and the occasions for laziness. And it turns out that, in terms of external factors, they’re … 
  4. Choose Your Cravings Wisely
     … They start with desire, moves on to persistence, intent, and finally your powers of analysis. The brahman says, “Well, in that case, it’s impossible. How do you use the desire to get rid of desire?” And Ananda basically says, “You act on it.” That’s the essential meaning of what he tells the brahman. He gives the example of going to the monastery … 
  5. An Examined Life
     … Just be persistent. Try to maintain this perspective. Think of yourself up in the tower, looking down at the world, looking at your life. “Where is it coming from, where is it going? What do I want to do with this opportunity?” When you keep thinking in that way, it brings the mind to the point where it’s willing to settle down and … 
  6. Inconstancy
     … qualities, the second factor for awakening. Then you foster the effort to do away with the unskillful ones and to encourage the skillful ones, which is the third factor for awakening: persistence. So right there you’ve got the first three of the factors for awakening. You want to encourage that ability to observe your mind, because even though you’re trying to stay … 
  7. Contentment vs. Initiative
     … There are lots of stories about Ajaan Suwat’s teacher, Ajaan Funn, berating the farmers up in the Northeast because they didn’t show any persistence or initiative in looking for a livelihood. They’d try a little of this, a little of that, and when they’d run into an obstacle, they’d give up. He said, “Look, if you want to get … 
  8. Up for the Challenge
     … Strength of conviction, strength of your persistence, strength of mindfulness, concentration, discernment: These are things you can keep working on. And you’re going to need them, too. Sometimes we like to think that as life reaches its end, things get easier. After all, we’re not as strong as we were, it’s time to rest. But actually some of our most difficult … 
  9. Remember This
     … As for the factors for awakening—mindfulness, analysis of qualities, persistence, rapture, calm, concentration, and equanimity—how do you give rise to them? How do you recognize them when they’re there? Sometimes they come as just little seeds or little tiny sprouts. How do you recognize a moment of concentration, a moment of mindfulness? How do you recognize the potential for rapture? You … 
  10. Interested in the Breath
     … If you just tell yourself to do one thing, it doesn’t require much discernment, just a lot of persistence. But if you’re looking for balance, for “just right,” you have to weigh many things. This develops your discernment because again, there’s no meter to tell you how much is just right. This applies to all kinds of things in the practice … 
  11. Asalha Puja
     … We keep being persistent because we have the conviction that this might be the way to true happiness. We’re inspired by the example of the Buddha and the Noble Sangha. We find the Dhamma inspiring. And so we sit here and practice. At the very east, we’re paying homage to the Buddha, the Dhamma, and the Sangha. And we recollect that this … 
  12. The Stakes Are High
     … So they’re willing to put in the effort and the energy and the desire and the persistence and the intentness and the powers of analysis—everything they can bring to bear on this, because the stakes are high.
  13. Two Guardian Meditations
     … As he said, as he was practicing different practices while trying to find the way to awakening, he developed qualities of conviction, persistence, or energy; mindfulness, concentration, and discernment, as they were required for each path. Then when he taught the path that he discovered was the right path, he recommended these same five qualities because he had found that they really were important … 
  14. Breath Teaches the Bramaviharas
     … generosity, virtue, renunciation, discernment, persistence, endurance, truth, determination, goodwill and equanimity. You work on these, and you hope that their influence will spread out into the world. But you can’t determine how many people will benefit from it, just as the Buddha himself couldn’t determine how many people were going to follow his way to awakening. Your duty is to work on … 
  15. One Point, Two Points, Many Points
     … For others, persistence, the energy of stick-to-it-ividness. Other people find that concentration works best when it’s based on the quality of intent, when you dive in and give it your entire attention. Other people find that analysis works. It’s by analyzing the breath, by making it interesting — and finding that it really is interesting, the way the breath energy … 
  16. Mindfulness 2.0
     … this, the four bases of power. The first is simply the desire: You want to do this well. That’s the ardency. But ardency also contains two other bases of power: persistence and a quality called intent. This is where right effort and the four bases of success overlap. You learn how to generate the desire to do this well. Then you stick with … 
  17. One Thing Clear Through
     … conviction, persistence, mindfulness, concentration, discernment. These are a food for the mind that’s special in the sense that it can make the mind so strong that it ultimately doesn’t need to feed. It can see where its greed and aversion and delusion are coming from, and it can abandon them. So you can see that the path is, all along the way … 
  18. Setbacks
     … But if you learn this quality of persistence, endurance, patience—being able to stick with things—you’ve got what it takes. Sometimes the issues require a fair amount of delicacy and it takes a while to take them apart. When you learn these qualities and develop these qualities, you find that they’ll see you through. They’re just as important a part … 
  19. Catch Yourself Lying to Yourself
     … Ask some questions but being persistent in asking the questions. And something good is sure to come from that.
  20. Mindfulness Defined
     … That involves the desire to do it, persistence, keeping at it, being really intent, focused on what you’re doing, and using your ingenuity: using all of your powers of intelligence. This doesn’t mean book intelligence. It means your ability to notice what you’re doing, to read the results of what you’ve done, and to figure out ways of doing things … 
  21. The Limits of Old Kamma
     … Even as you go through your everyday responsibilities, you have the opportunity to develop good qualities of mind—patience, persistence, determination, truthfulness. Some of us have a romantic notion about the ideal situation to meditate. You’re off by yourself. No responsibilities at all. Totally free to meditate all day long. But even in places like that, you find there are limitations, difficulties. And … 
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