Search results for: "Fabrication"

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  2. The Triple Training
     … Well, those are all different forms of fabrication, and as the Buddha said, when you see things in terms of fabrication—what you’re intentionally doing in the present moment, whether the intention is clear or not, you’re trying to make it clear in that act of clarifying your intentions in the present moment: That’s what insight is all about. So the … 
  3. Some Assembly Required
     … Focus on the breath—that’s bodily fabrication. Talk to yourself about the breath—that’s verbal fabrication. Use different perceptions to see what ways of imaging the breath to yourself make it more comfortable—that’s mental fabrication. As you get more sensitive to how you’re putting this together, then you begin to sense that as you go through the day, you … 
  4. Using Perceptions
     … As the Buddha said, “All fabrications are inconstant; all fabrications are stressful.” But when you’re working on concentration, you don’t apply that map quite yet to the concentration itself. It’s not yet the right time or place. Otherwise you’d say, “Oh, concentration comes and it goes. I learned that. Check that box.” But you haven’t really gained the benefits … 
  5. Overcoming Obstacles
     … That puts you in touch with something that goes beyond the power of fabrication. And because it’s not fabricated, it places no weight on the mind at all. So there is that possibility, but to get there requires training—heightening your virtue, heightening your concentration, heightening your discernment. So try to be very clear on who your internal friends are, who you want … 
  6. Good Fences
     … That’s bodily fabrication, the breath; verbal fabrication, how you talk to yourself; and mental fabrication, the feelings in the body that you’re focusing on. You can make a situation really bad by focusing on how miserable you feel. But you can look for the other parts of the body that are not so miserable. And, of course, you can breathe in ways … 
  7. The Power of Intention
     … As the Buddha said, our past karma gives us the potential for different experiences of form, feeling, perception, thought fabrications, and consciousness. Then with our present fabrications—our present intentions—we turn these potentials into something actual for the sake of having an actual experience, and then, of course, for the sake of whatever activities we want to do with those forms and feelings … 
  8. The Need for Evaluation
     … The fabrication here is the directed thought and evaluation. That’s a very necessary part of fabrication going on in the body. And then there’s the consciousness. To get that pleasure to develop through the breathing and then to be able to spread it through the body, you’ve got to see the body and your mind as aggregates. Get a sense of … 
  9. Heightened Skillfulness
     … You try to understand what you’re doing, in terms of bodily fabrication—the way you breathe; verbal concentration—the way you talk to yourself; and mental fabrication—the perceptions and feelings you apply to the meditation, the perceptions that help you hold the breath in mind: how you picture the breath to yourself, the way it either originates outside and comes into the … 
  10. Mindful & Discerning 24/7
     … As the mind begins to settle in, you use directed thought and evaluation—verbal fabrication—to get the mind still. Ideally, you should get to a point where you can drop your verbal fabrication so that when you pick it up again, you see it clearly. “Oh, this is how the mind talks to itself.” Then you can see these voices more clearly. And … 
  11. Mind Reading
     … It’s in this way that all these forms of fabrications—bodily, verbal, and mental—play a role in learning how to read the mind. Which is why the Buddha’s breath instructions cover all three kinds. He talks explicitly about bodily fabrication, to alert you to the fact that you’re looking at the breath not simply as breath but also in terms … 
  12. Skillfully Shaping Your Life
     … It’s called bodily fabrication. Then there’s verbal fabrication, which is basically how you talk to yourself. Years back we had a woman come from Los Angeles and meditate with us a couple of times. Then, after a couple of weeks, she brought a friend. We were sitting as a group under the trees. At the end of the meditation, the friend opened … 
  13. Two Types of Dukkha
     … There’s a stress or suffering in the fact that all things that are fabricated and inconstant. There’s stress simply in the fact of the fabrication. The fact that they’re inconstant means that as you focus on trying to find happiness in them, it’s really hard. It’s like trying to build your house on a sandy plot where the ocean … 
  14. Mistakes
     … Some of the basic questions of insight are, “How should fabrications be viewed? How they should be regarded? How they should be let go?” And this five-part questionnaire is the answer to those questions. Anything that the mind might fabricate—in other words, anything that it would put together in terms of its thoughts, the way it talks to itself, the decisions it … 
  15. Working from the Inside
     … It’s what the Buddha calls fabrication. Bodily fabrication is the breath. Verbal fabrication is the directed thought and evaluation. Mental fabrications are the feelings and perceptions. The perception here would be the mental image you hold of the breath. You can try playing with that. And you give rise to feelings of well-being. If you don’t, you have feelings of dis … 
  16. A Passion for the Path
     … The path is something you have to fabricate, and fabrication comes from passion.So look at right view and right resolve and all the other factors of the path as things you want to get passionate about. You want to do these things really well. Because what do we have as human beings? We’ve got this life. And as the Buddha pointed out … 
  17. A Mental Fortress
     … As we’ve discussed over the retreat, this has a lot to do with his instructions in how to fabricate your experience: how to breathe, what ways to think about things coming up either in the mind or in the world outside. How would the Buddha have you think about something? Try to keep that in mind. And then your perceptions: What perceptions are … 
  18. Judging Just Right
     … If you find that your concentration is good, then you can start asking the questions of discernment. “How do I understand the way I’m fabricating this state of here right now? And am I fabricating it well? What would be a better fabrication? To what extent can I trust these fabrications?” But when you’re trying to get the mind to settle down … 
  19. Rewriting the Mind’s Song
     … It’s all fabrication. So why not fabricate something good? Now, as you work with goodwill, you find that you can’t just spread cotton candy over everything and think that that takes care of the job. You have to get specific. This particular person in front of you who is being really obstreperous or this particular person who is doing a lot of … 
  20. Free to Do the Right Thing
     … They’re fabrications. They demand so much of our attention because there are times when they’re useful fabrications but they’re not useful right now. You have to develop a very strong sense of that. See the importance of the present moment. See the importance of what you’re doing right now, and learn to get sensitive to what’s skillful and what … 
  21. In the Mood to Meditate
     … After all, as long as feelings are fabricated, why not fabricate some good ones? Develop new habits. If you find yourself habitually negative in your attitude, and if having a good mood or being in a good place emotionally feels false, remember that a negative attitude feels genuine simply because you’re so used to it. It’s as if you’ve been wearing … 
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