Search results for: "Greed"
- Page 23
- Survival Tactics… anger, greed, jealousy, fear. These things will cause a change in the breath. If you’re there with the breath and you’re used to having it comfortable, you notice these changes immediately. They’ll alert you to the fact that something’s gone wrong in the mind. Again, for most of us, we’re off someplace else when these things begin to take …
- Recollection of the Buddha… We protect the good part inside us, the part that wants to find a true happiness, and we protect it from all the greed and aversion and delusion and laziness and other unskillful qualities that would pull us away. So recollection of the Buddha is one of the most important weapons in our arsenal. Bring it out to use on a regular basis, and …
- Your One Responsibility… So many times you hear people say “Well, if everybody behaved in line with their innate nature and didn’t have any of this awful social conditioning, everybody would be wonderful and fine.” But if we didn’t have the potential for greed, aversion, and delusion in the mind, no amount of bad social conditioning would have any influence on us. It’s because …
- A Post for the Mind… We get fascinated by our sensual fantasies that can enflame the mind with greed, aversion, and delusion. When the Buddha talks about the problem of sensuality, it’s not that the objects out there that are the problem; it’s our fascination with going over a particular sensual desire, making plans, making adjustments. There are not that many things that people get fascinated with …
- Dwelling in Emptiness… So how to bring the mind to concentration? Get it focused on one thing, like the breath while, as the formula for mindfulness says, you’re “putting aside greed and distress with reference to the world.” All those disturbances related to the world right now—you can put them aside. They yell at you about how important they are, but remember, the Buddha’s …
- The Gift of Spiritual Materialism… Your actions don’t weigh on them, because you’re able to see through your own greed, aversion, and delusion, and to cut them through. That way, other people aren’t subjected to those things. Now, there is a point on the path where you take all these noble treasures you’ve developed and you give them up. Even discernment is something that, at …
- Factors for Awakening… You start out ardent, alert, and mindful, focused, say, on the breath in and of itself, putting aside greed and distress with reference to the world. When you do that really well, you get the mind into the four jhanas. The list called the factors for awakening basically goes into the steps on how you get from right mindfulness to right concentration, up through …
- Respect for Concentration… You need to get it very solid, very secure, because when you start working on the issues of insight — trying to understand why greed, anger, and delusion take over the mind — you’re going to find yourself running up against all kinds of storms. If your concentration isn’t really solid and settled, you’ll just get blown away. So you have to respect …
- Single-minded… You’ve got something better than thinking about greed, aversion, or delusion. You look at the pleasures that they have to offer, and you realize you’ve got something more solid and reliable here. So content yourself with the oneness. Get so that you’re really good at this. You know your spot, you know the comfortable breath, and you learn how to deal …
- In Your Power… right at the body in and of itself, at feelings in and of themselves, the mind in and of itself, mental qualities in and of themselves—ardent, alert and mindful putting aside greed and distress with reference to the world, taking these things simply as events in and of themselves. Then you watch to see what skillful and unskillful mental states come up around …
- Skillful Fears… If your fear is combined with greed, aversion, or delusion, then it’s going to be unskillful. But there’s also wise fear. The main wise fear is being afraid of the possibility of your doing something unskillful. In other words, you don’t have to be afraid of things outside, or of things that are going to happen to you. You have to …
- Practice Without Gaps… Then you try to put aside all thoughts of greed and distress with reference to the world. That means any thoughts about the world, what you like about it, what you don’t like about it—just put those aside. Maintain your original frame of reference. As it gets more and more solid, that’s when the mindfulness practice turns into concentration practice. As …
- Blessings… He also says that you put aside greed and distress with reference to the world. Any thoughts of the world outside, people outside, places outside, you don’t have to think them right now. You’re not responsible for them right now. Your only responsibility is to look after the state of your own mind. Try to support the voices in the mind that …
- Centered on Concentration… the mind needs training. If you want to be truly happy, you’ve got to train the mind, because the biggest source of trouble in the world is this untrained mind. Greed, anger, and delusion take it over, and they can destroy all kinds of things. Having respect for the training means that we have to have respect for the training over and above …
- Self Determination… The whole society is designed around taking advantage of the defilements of greed, hatred, and fear: Other people have their defilements; you have your defilements. And as long as you stay in there, everybody in the society seems to be okay—at least that’s their attitude. But you look at yourself: Is this really what you want out of life? Just birth, aging …
- The Interactive Present… The same goes with other emotions, such as fear or greed: Once you catch the part of the mind that’s enjoying it — participating, keeping it going right now — learn to undercut it. Learn how to emphasize the part that doesn’t want to play along. Then you can start applying the same principle to positive mind states, the ones that you’re trying …
- Conceit… We like our greed. We like our anger, sometimes. We like our delusions, and yet all these things have to be put aside, let go of as we practice. But it’s within human capability to do this. Even if you do die in the practice, it’s a good way to die. It’s better than dying without having accomplished anything or dying …
- Sweat the Small Stuff… The little changes of the breath that indicate that greed has arisen, or anger has arisen, or fear has arisen: All too often we’re aware of these emotions only after they’ve taken over the mind. But to deal with them most effectively, you want to be able to sense them just as they’re getting started. And that requires that you be …
- The Community of the Wise… Many of the attitudes that lead so easily to greed, anger, and delusion tend to be this way. So it’s important not only when you’re sitting and meditating, but also at any time when you see a particular attitude is pushing itself in the mind, when there’s an attitude that seems to be very strong, but it’s not all that …
- To Sustain Your Practice… How does that apply now? We live in a different environment, in a different world.” But you have to remember, greed, aversion, and delusion then, and greed, aversion, and delusion now are the same sorts of things. The good qualities of the path to fight those defilements are also the same sorts of things. There are certain things that don’t change, and the …
- Load next page...
