Search results for: "Persistence"
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- A Strong Mind… So try to develop the strengths of the mind—conviction, persistence, mindfulness, concentration, discernment—starting with this simple exercise of sticking with the breath. When the mind wanders off, bring it back. Wanders off again, bring it back again. Learn to make it comfortable with the breath, and then on to the other steps of breath meditation: being aware the whole body, calming the …
- Willing to Learn… Try to develop a sense of desire, persistence, intentness in doing this. People outside can give pep talks, they can give pointers, but you are the one who actually has to do the work. So you have to be observant. This is one of the most important principles in the Buddha’s teaching: that you have to be willing to learn, that you have …
- Mastery… concentration based on desire, persistence, intent, and discrimination.” The brahman said, “Well, that won’t work. How can you use desire to get rid of desire?” Ananda asked him in return. “You came to the park.” They were staying in a park. “Before you came here, didn’t you have the desire to get here?” The brahman said, “Yes.” Ananda said, “Now that you …
- Wise About Pleasure… The second strength is persistence. Once you determine that you’ve got to develop skillful qualities and abandon unskillful ones, you actually do it. When unskillful qualities haven’t arisen yet, you do your best to prevent them. This is a part of the path that tends to get overlooked. We spend so much time thinking about the present moment, focusing on the present …
- The Buddha’s Basic Therapy… She said she was learning how to develop gratitude to the gout-weed because it taught her good lessons about persistence and acceptance. That’s missing the point: The gout-weed has no intention to do anything good for you or to teach you any lessons. You may appreciate the lessons you’ve managed to learn from the gout-weed, but gratitude is for …
- Determined on Awakening… desire, persistence, intent, and your powers of analysis. The brahman says, “That’d be impossible. How can you use desire to put an end to desire?” Ananda gives a very simple response. He asks the brahman, “Before you came to this park, did you have the desire to come here?” “Well, yes.” “Now that you’re here, do you still have the desire?” “Well …
- Victory over Death… Strength of persistence, as you try your best to act in skillful ways. Strength of mindfulness and concentration, as you try to give the mind a place to rest fully alert and to gather its strength. And then strength of discernment, as you examine your own actions above and beyond what the Buddha said was skillful and not skillful—as you learn to look …
- Issues of Control… And it’s important that we learn the patience and persistence required to develop skills. Think of a skill you’ve developed—in terms of music, cooking, carpentry, or any manual skill—and ask yourself, “To what extent was I able to control that? To what extent was it beyond my control?” And how did you work around the things that were beyond your …
- Clearing a Space… All the five strengths—conviction, persistence, mindfulness, concentration, discernment—have to work together. Otherwise your discernment will just start analyzing things and get further and further away from what’s actually happening in the mind. That’s not the kind of analysis you want. You want to keep coming back to what’s happening right here, right now, what you’re experiencing right here …
- Right Effort… In the classic formula, the Buddha says that you “generate desire, arouse your persistence, and uphold your intent” for four tasks. But even before you take on the four tasks of right effort, notice the attitude you’ve got to bring to them. You’ve got to generate desire. You’ve got to want to do it. And your wanting has to be wise …
- Protection… So you want to be persistent in doing what’s good. Like right now, as you’re meditating, you can stay with the breath for a few minutes and then decide, “Well, I’ve had enough now, I’ve rested, I can now start thinking about something else.” But you don’t gain anything. You don’t gain the skills, you don’t gain …
- Abandoning & Developing… As you do that, you’re developing persistence. A state of rapture and refreshment can come when you work on skillful qualities and they really do start showing their results. The mind grows calm. You get settled, centered in concentration. Then you develop a state of equanimity, which here is a nourished equanimity. All too often, we’re told, “Just be equanimous about things …
- In Line with the Truth… So we sit here focusing on the breath to train the mind in mindfulness, alertness, concentration, discernment, persistence, compassion for ourselves and others. All sorts of good qualities get gathered together here if we focus properly on the breath. Try to focus with a sense of ease, as a way of showing compassion to yourself. We all want happiness, and this is a good …
- As They’ve Come to Be… The same with persistence, the same with mindfulness, the same with concentration; even discernment. But, for the time being, you hold on to these activities. They’re your tools. In an image that’s common to a lot of the ajaans, it’s like being a carpenter. You’re working on a piece of furniture and, as long as you’re working on the …
- To Discern Suffering… Then you’re persistent. You stick with it. Keep watching to see what it is that you’re adding to the situation. If you notice that you’re adding anything unskillful, you try to figure it out. “Exactly where is this unnecessary? Why do I believe it’s necessary? What would the world be like if I didn’t do this? What would my …
- Cooking Food for the Mind… Conviction in the Buddha’s awakening, persistence in the practice, mindfulness, concentration, discernment: These are all strengths of the mind and they require good food, the food of the meditation when you know how to fix it well. So remind yourself each time you meditate: You’re the cook and you’re also the person eating the food. On the one hand, you can …
- Acceptance… All the good qualities in the mind that the Buddha talks about developing—mindfulness, alertness, ardency, conviction, persistence, concentration, discernment: These are all things we have to some extent already. If we didn’t have them at all, we wouldn’t be human beings. It’s simply a matter of taking stock of what we’ve got and having the conviction that if we …
- The Ennobling Path… And learn the persistence and wisdom that enable us to follow the skillful desires and put the unskillful ones aside, seeing what truly is in our own best interest. In other words, we sort through the imperatives our appetites place on us, and the imperatives that society places on us, learning to figure out which ones really are skillful. We need to sort out …
- A Connoisseur of Happiness… whom to let in and whom to keep out. Discernment is the well-plastered wall that the enemy can’t climb because they can’t gain a foothold on the plaster. Persistence is your army of soldiers. And jhana is your storehouse of grain, honey, oil: all the food you need in order to keep the gatekeeper and the army strong. So the pleasure …
- Accepting the Way Things Function… Other times, the perceptions are more persistent. They hang around, and you get to see them clearly. But the more still you can make the mind, the more you can see those subtle things that flash, that have such a huge impact on why we think and feel the way we do. The same with the way you talk to yourself: That’s what …
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