Search results for: "Dhamma"

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  2. Self-Starting
     … That’s what it means to practice the Dhamma in accordance with the Dhamma: to practice for the sake of disenchantment, for dispassion, and not simply to fulfill a social role. Monks at that time were expected to stay in the village—often they were the village doctors—to perform social services. The monks who went out into the wilds weren’t trusted. We … 
  3. Study to Practice
     … This is why the Buddha always pairs the word Dhamma with attha, the meaning, the goal, the purpose of the Dhamma. You need to know both. In other words, when you read about a particular teaching, you want to know: What is it for? Then you apply it to that use. And when you finally reach the goal, that’s when you really know … 
  4. Your Judgments Matter
     … If it’s no, then you listen to the Dhamma they teach. Here again, you have to judge the Dhamma, the things that are being taught. If you put them into practice, will they develop good qualities of the mind or bad ones? And how are your own powers of judgment? Are they up to the task? This is one of the reasons why … 
  5. Being Responsible
    One of Ajaan Lee’s favorite teachings was that when you take refuge in the Buddha, the Dhamma, and the Sangha, the real refuge is when you internalize their qualities. If you take refuge simply on the external level, the Buddha is the person who lived 2,600 years ago, the Dhamma is the Dhamma in books, the Sangha is the noble Sangha—somebody … 
  6. The Taste Is Release
     … This is where the Dhamma is aimed. All the customs around what the monks should do, all the customs around how lay people are supposed to behave: They’re all aimed here. As the Buddha said, the genuine Dhamma is like the ocean in having one taste throughout. The ocean, no matter where you go—the Indian Ocean, the Pacific Ocean, the Atlantic—tastes … 
  7. Perception
     … I was talking to someone in New York this spring who was saying, “There’s no one right description of reality, and that means there’s no one right interpretation of the Dhamma, because every interpretation is a map, and all maps distort.” Well, think about the map on the door of a hotel room to tell you where the fire escape is. It … 
  8. Victory
     … Both of them came right there before him, and he taught them the Dhamma: “Animosity is not ended through animosity. Animosity is ended through lack of animosity.” They were able to hear the Dhamma and it went to their hearts—and that was the end of that long cycle of revenge and retribution. So sometimes lack of animosity looks like you’ve lost, but … 
  9. Mountains Moving In
     … Aging and death are rolling in, what should you do? And your answer should be that you should practice the Dhamma. As for the answer to the other question: “What you doing right now?” The answer is: “I am practicing the Dhamma.” That’s an answer you can be proud of. But it requires that you stick with the practice all the time, because … 
  10. Fear of Death
     … Then training in virtue, training in concentration, and training in discernment are required to deal with that last fear, the fear that comes from not having seen the true Dhamma. If you went up to somebody in the street and ask “Are you afraid of death because you haven’t seen the true Dhamma?” they wouldn’t know what you’re talking about. But … 
  11. Dhamma Survivalism
     … You might say that as a Dhamma practitioner, you’re a Dhamma survivalist, stocking up on goodness inside, because that’s something that can’t be taken away. Regular survivalists have stocks of food, weapons, whatnot, not realizing that by having lots of food stocked away, if they’re not generous with it when bad times come, then it’s going to be something … 
  12. Appropriate Attention Plus Admirable Friendship
     … The Buddha said that one of the advantages of living with a person like that is that you get a good example and, two, you get to hear the Dhamma. But sometimes the examples shout louder than the Dhamma you hear. You see the person in action, and the longer you stay with that person, the more you pick up of that person’s … 
  13. In Times of Danger and Fear
     … Or we might say we have to behave well, practice the Dhamma* because *of the dangers. If we don’t practice the Dhamma, we’re going to suffer. If we do practice, we won’t suffer—no matter how bad the situation is outside or how bad the situation is inside our bodies—because we’ve made the situation in our minds skillful. This … 
  14. The Fool & the Wise Person
     … We’ve got to practice the Dhamma in line with the Dhamma. This is a theme that Ajaan Suwat hammered at over and over again. And as he said, this was one of Ajaan Mun’s favorite themes. You can’t practice the Dhamma in line with your own likes, or pick and choose that you’d prefer this over that. Because what happens … 
  15. Working at Home
    Working at Home August 13, 2008 A traditional Pali term for concentration is vihara-dhamma, a home for the mind. It’s a place where the mind can stay. But it’s also more than that. As with any home, there’s more to the home than just the bedroom. And there’s more to the home than just living in it. First you … 
  16. What You Sense Directly
     … As you’re here, then you look back on the concepts that you’ve picked up from reading, studying, listening to the Dhamma, and you see them from a new angle. And you’re going to be much closer to seeing them in a way that’s really useful. So this is your touchstone that helps you sort through whatever Dhamma knowledge you have … 
  17. Respect for the Precepts
     … In other words, you adjust yourself, your attitudes, and your actions to fit in with the Dhamma, not the other way around. All too many of us say, “Well, let’s change the Dhamma here, change the Dhamma there; after all, we’re Westerners, we need a Western Dhamma”—that kind of attitude. How about putting that attitude aside, to say, “What would it … 
  18. Heedfulness for the Holidays
     … whatever Dhamma you’ve learned. It’s good to have a good fund of Dhamma that you’ve read and absorbed. And it’s good also to memorize some good principles of Dhamma so that when issues come up and you’re tempted to fall back into your old ways, you have a teacher inside. It’s like having the Buddha inside: What would … 
  19. The Dhamma Mirror
     … Well, the Dhamma is like that. It helps you see things right close to you that you otherwise wouldn’t see. Learn to use your actions as your mirror. That’s the Dhamma mirror. That’s when you see what you really need to see. When you see it, then you can do something about it.
  20. Freedom through Restraint
     … As the Buddha said, all dhammas come from desire. In this case, “dhammas” mean all phenomena, except for nibbana. Nibbana is beyond dhammas. So what is desire doing in your mind right now? Where’s it heading? Where’s it going? You want to see this clearly. This is why we focus our desires on getting the mind to settle down. That’s a … 
  21. Reinvest Your Noble Treasures
     … Before he left, he gave a Dhamma talk. Part of the Dhamma talk was that the things of the world come in pairs, but the Dhamma is one thing clear through. He didn’t say what that one thing was, but I think he was referring to the fact that every stage of the practice is giving—you give up things, you give up … 
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