Search results for: "Persistence"
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- 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 …
- 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 …
- Catch Yourself Lying to Yourself… Ask some questions but being persistent in asking the questions. And something good is sure to come from that.
- 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 …
- 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 …
- The Wisdom of Tenacity… When the Buddha’s talking about in training the mind, he’s talking about developing good qualities—qualities like honesty, persistence, tenacity, conviction—which are not a matter of being smart or stupid, but simply a matter of wanting sincerely to find long-term happiness. That’s another one of his basic definitions of wisdom: It begins with the question, “What when I do …
- Nobility Through Inner Strength… Once you have conviction that your actions matter, the next quality is persistence—basically the ardency we mentioned just now. You want to do it well, and the wanting is important. You have to learn how to motivate yourself. The Buddha didn’t say all kinds of desire are bad. Some kinds are on the path. The desire to be careful about your actions …
- Not Getting What You Want… concentration based on desire, concentration based on persistence, concentration based on intent, concentration based on analysis. The brahman says, “Then it’s an endless path. How can you use desire to get rid of desire?” Ananda asks him a question in return. He says, “You came to this park. Before you came here, did you have the desire to come here?” “Well yes.” “How …
- Observant & Ingenious… The four iddhipādas are concentration based on desire, concentration based on persistence, concentration based on intent, and concentration based on analysis. The intent there is, the intentness with which you observe things. As Ajaan Fuang liked to say, “Be observant. Use your powers of observation.” When he taught meditation, he would hand out the seven steps in the breath meditation in Ajaan Lee’s …
- Why the Breath… But to unlearn the habit, we have to be very persistent. Once you get a sense of the whole body, try to keep that as open as much as you can. That’s where the skill comes in. It’s not some sort of mystic spaciousness where you get in touch with the Buddha-nature or anything like that. It’s simply the background …
- Limitations… generosity, virtue, renunciation, discernment, persistence, endurance, truth, determination, goodwill, and equanimity. That’s the traditional list of good qualities that you can develop as you go through life in the world. You aim at developing those qualities as much as you can. As for the effect you leave behind in the world, you do your best, realizing that there will be limitations. But the …
- A Heart Wider than the World… And also persistence, where you work to get rid of unskillful qualities and to give rise to skillful ones. You focus your desires there. Here again, you’re measuring the skill of your actions not so much in terms of worldly success, but in terms of who’s harmed: You want to make sure that nobody is harmed. You’re taking responsibility for your …
- A Frame of Reference… You put energy into it, persistence, you stick with it. That gives rise to concentration. Then there’s intent, when you find that you can get really absorbed in the issue of how this breathing process feels in the body. Exactly how far does it go? That then shades over into the fourth quality, which is analyzing things. You can bring any of these …
- The Prison Break… You’ve got to train the heart to develop some patience and persistence. That’s why we have the practice of generosity, why we have the practice of virtue. You’re training the heart and mind in the basic habits you’ll need as a meditator, and you want a good foundation. Now, it’s not the case that you have to wait until …
- Relationships… And try to use whatever powers of concentration you have to give the mind the strength it needs in order to really be patient and persistent in this practice of coming to an understanding of what’s going on—and particularly of why you’re causing yourself unnecessary suffering. Because that’s the real surprising discovery, when you work with discernment: that there are …
- The Prison Break… So, we have to be persistent but patient—very meticulous and very observant. Fortunately, the Buddha gives us a map, so we can know where we have to dig a hole, how long it’s going to be. And he gives us the tools to dig. As when we’re meditating right now: We’re trying to be mindful, alert, and ardent. Always keep …
- Decisions… But you don’t master the skill in anyplace else besides doing it right here right now with as much clarity, persistence, and ingenuity as you can muster. In other words, bring everything together right here. Boil everything down to what you’re doing right here, right now. And the more undivided you can make your attention right here, the more you’ll see.
- Overwhelmed by Freedom… But if they come up persistently, you have to look into them to see why they have such power over the mind, what their drawbacks are, and why you really shouldn’t have to listen to them. Learn how to see through them. That requires getting involved with them for a little while. If you find that getting involved with them is useful, if …
- Motivation… And there is a “just letting it happen” aspect to it, but Ananda wouldn’t have gotten to that point if it hadn’t been for the desire, hadn’t been for the persistence and intent and powers of discrimination and discernment that he brought to the practice. If it hadn’t been for them, he wouldn’t have got to that point of …
- Battling Negativity… And to be very patient and persistent, drawing on the strength that comes from the concentration that you can do this. That’s how you come out winning in the end.
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