Search results for: "Skillfulness"

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  2. Universal Truths
     … One is the distinction between skillful and unskillful action in thought, word, and deed, and the fact that unskillful actions should be abandoned, and skillful actions developed. And the other is the four noble truths: stress, its origination, its cessation, and the path of practice leading to its cessation. That’s it. Those are the teachings he taught as really basic. Those are the … 
  3. The Power to Transcend Suffering
     … A couple of years back, The *New Yorker *had an article on people who developed physical skills. The author analyzed the skills of a skilled brain surgeon, atheletes, musicians—people like Wayne Gretzky, Yo Yo Ma, Michael Jordan. He talked about the qualities these people all had in common. One was that they really enjoyed what they were doing, they found it fun. The … 
  4. Happy About Kamma
     … The skillful way is to say, “Well, I must have some past bad kamma, so I’ll learn how to take it in stride and not get too worked up about it. And I’ll take it as an incentive to try to be more skillful in the future.” As for times when someone does something really nice to you, again, there are skillful … 
  5. The Path Is in the Details
     … You do have the freedom with each and every moment to choose to do the skillful thing, to choose to be honest about your intentions, so that you can check to see whether they’re skillful or not. If they’re unskillful, you can drop them. This is all very basic, basic work. It’s the Interstate 15 and Interstate 40 of our practice … 
  6. Judging Just Right
     … So we’re approaching this as a skill to make the concentration just right. And it’s in making it a skill that our discernment develops. It’s the same with the middle way as a whole. It’s very easy to practice in extremes. Sometimes it might be exhausting, but it’s easy in the sense that you don’t have to do … 
  7. A Noble Warrior’s Path
     … to train you in skills, to develop your ingenuity, to fire up your fighting spirit, to give you maxims to keep in mind when the going gets tough so that you can approach difficult situations with skill. To keep those words in mind, those instructions in mind, without losing your presence of mind in difficult situations: That’s the function of right mindfulness. But … 
  8. Free to Do the Right Thing
     … See the importance of what you’re doing right now, and learn to get sensitive to what’s skillful and what’s not skillful right now, what kind of breathing is good right now, what way of focusing on the breath is good right now, what’s getting good results. Think about that. Focus on that. The more you can do that, the more … 
  9. Delight in the Dhamma
     … what’s skillful, what’s not skillful; when we suffer—what is the suffering, why we’re suffering, how we can put an end to suffering. It explains all these things. So we can delight in the fact that we’ve found this Dhamma. Think of all the people who, on listening to a Dhamma talk from the Buddha, would say that he had … 
  10. Freedom from Fear
     … Of course with right view, the focus is on what skillful qualities you’re developing right now. It’s in this way that virtue and right view can develop your concentration, because you can remember the skills in the past that have worked to get the mind to settle down. And in the course of holding by the precepts, you’ve had to be … 
  11. Breath Meditation, Step by Step
     … And stick with the breath as your guide, and as the basis of the skill that you’re developing here. The first level of skill in the meditation is just to stay with the breath as long as you can. This requires mindfulness, alertness, and a quality the Buddha called ardency. In other words, you’re really intent on what you’re doing. If … 
  12. Help Others, Help Your Mind
     … I read a translator one time putting a footnote on this, saying he didn’t understand why the Buddha, in defining discernment, defined it in terms of skillful and unskillful actions, or seeing what’s skillful, what’s unskillful. Apparently he thought that discernment had to mean seeing things in terms of the three characteristics. But the Buddha’s categorical teachings don’t include … 
  13. At Ease with the Breath
     … What it’ll do is that it’ll point you in the direction of the issue of skillfulness. What’s a skillful way of breathing, what’s a skillful way of thinking, what’s a skillful way of focusing on the breath? What ways of breathing, thinking, and focusing are not skillful? From the issues of skillfulness, you move on to the four noble … 
  14. One Foot in the Present
     … These attitudes help to ensure that you’ll be more likely to work from skillful motivations, skillful intentions as you act. This way, having the proper attitude toward the present moment, toward what comes up in the present moment, helps you deal with past and future in a skillful way. Memories of the past appear *now; *anticipations of the future appear now. They’re … 
  15. The Sublime Attitudes
    The Sublime Attitudes July, 2003 The Buddha’s teachings on skillful qualities of mind come in clusters: five this, seven that. Even the one quality that’s always appropriate — mindfulness — is always taught in the context of clusters. To begin with, it’s paired with alertness: Mindfulness means keeping something in mind, as when we keep reminding ourselves to stay with the breath as … 
  16. Take Responsibility for Yourself
     … So you’re taking responsibility for the mind in trying to be more and more skillful. Go beyond just good intentions. Make them skillful. And develop the skills of concentration. Develop the skills of mindfulness. Always take time to reflect: When things don’t go well in the meditation, what are you doing? Is there something you can change? Don’t just get upset … 
  17. Making a Difference
     … It gets more skillful in how it manages the issues of life. In this way, our desire for a happiness that’s really true and reliable becomes more and more realistic, because we have the tools, we have the skills that are needed. After all, it depends on us. We can’t wait for the stars to deliver us happiness. We can’t wait … 
  18. Happy to Be Here
     … The Buddha would often compare meditation to different skills — the skills of carpentry, skills of warriors, skills of cooks. All these skills take time to master. And think about what is involved in mastering a skill. One, you have to want to do it. And two, you have to stick with it. When things don’t go well, you don’t give up. Three … 
  19. Why Limit Yourself?
     … If you believe that they’re not real or have no results, you’re very unlikely to make the effort to do skillful things or act in skillful ways. You close off the possibility of learning how to benefit from skillful actions. So, it’s wiser to believe in the fact that there is action, action is real, and your actions do have consequences … 
  20. Adult Education
     … Especially when you look at your life and ask yourself, “Have you learned how to not suffer? Have you learned how to act in ways that are skillful—in ways that don’t cause suffering to yourself, don’t cause any harm to anyone else?” That’s a skill, that’s an education that’s really worth mastering, and the time dedicated to that … 
  21. Rooted in Heedful Desire
     … He says, “These are the things that were warning you that you’ve got to live heedfully.” So it’s always good to keep these things in mind, to keep our actions in line with the path, in line with what really is skillful. And it’s good to take that statement that all skillful qualities are rooted in heedfulness and combine it with … 
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