Search results for: "Greed"

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  2. Right Here, Right Now
     … are many passages where the Buddha says that if someone actually puts the teaching into practice, develops the right level of alertness, the right level of mindfulness, and can clear away greed, anger, and delusion, there’s no way that that person could not come to the Dhamma. This is why, when he was teaching the basic principles of the Dhamma in the Wings … 
  3. Assumptions
     … What are the assumptions that cause us to go along with the greed, go along with the anger, the lust, the envy, the pride, whatever the problem is? You have to look at those assumptions and realize that they’re wrong view. They’re creating a lot of unnecessary stress and suffering. This is what the Buddha focused on again and again: the unnecessary … 
  4. Steps in Concentration
     … You’re focused on the body—for example, the breath—in and of itself—ardent, alert, and mindful—putting aside greed and distress with reference to the world. So where’s your breath right now? Anything that’s not related to this breath at the moment: Include that in “the world.” You’re going to give total importance to the breath in and of … 
  5. Rottweilers in the House
     … There are things outside that will aggravate greed, anger, and delusion in the mind when you bring them in. When these people come knocking on your door, you have to say, No, because you know that if you let them into the house, they’d stir up a lot of trouble. So you have to be very careful about, for instance, what conversations you … 
  6. Circumspection
     … We’re told to be truthful, but how truthful is truthful? As the Buddha said, there are times when you know that if you say the truth about a certain matters, it’s going to give rise to greed or aversion or delusion, in which case you don’t talk about it. This doesn’t mean that you lie about it. You find ways … 
  7. Virtues & Values
     … The less greed, aversion, anger, and delusion you have in your mind, the less these things will come out in your actions, and the less other people will be affected. If they’re interested in the practice, they’ll find it easier to stick with the practice, too. The Buddha gives the example of two acrobats. One acrobat is standing on the end of … 
  8. Feeding on the Breath
     … It doesn’t give rise to a lot of greed, aversion, or delusion. In fact, as you’re feeding here in the present moment, you’ve got a good reliable source of food here. The mind’s in a good position where it can start observing things about itself, all the processes that are going on in this process of feeding. When you understand … 
  9. How to Leave Concentration
     … Why are you listening? Who’s doing the looking? Who’s doing the listening? Is greed doing the looking? Lust? Anger? Ill-will? If so, these things are going to get strengthened in the mind. Then you have to clean them out again. But if you have a sense of well-being in the body: That’s the post, when breath energies in the … 
  10. Get Out of Yourself
     … Now, if you think of mindfulness as meaning awareness, you wonder how you’re going to be aware outside of somebody else’s breath or aware of their greed, aversion, or delusion, or their feelings of pleasure and pain. But that’s not what mindfulness means. It means keeping something in mind. And here the reflection to keep in mind is that whatever you … 
  11. A Strong Post
     … The fact that we’re stronger having this sensation inside, and we can maintain it inside, means that we’ll be less likely to act in unskillful ways, less tempted to give in to our greed or aversion or delusion as they come welling up in the mind. The Pali word āsava means “things that flow out.” Sometimes sensual desire flows out of the … 
  12. Lessons from Generosity & Virtue
     … They also remind you also that you’re capable of overcoming some of the mind’s more blatant forms of greed, aversion, and delusion. As the Buddha pointed out, the way we define ourselves as beings is around the act of feeding. To maintain your identity, you have to eat physical food, but there’s also mental and emotional food that you take in … 
  13. Settling In
     … Ajaan Lee calls it “cool electricity.” It’s not like the hot electricity of your greed, anger, and delusion. It’s the cool electricity of awareness, being aware of the whole body breathing in, the whole body breathing out, so that your home is clean and bright. Try to breathe in a way that gives you a sense of fullness. That puts food into … 
  14. Shoulds & Desires
     … And when the mind settles down, it’s a lot less likely to be hungry to act on greed, aversion, and delusion. So again, you’re giving safety to other beings. We’re looking for happiness in ways where there’s no clear line between who benefits and who doesn’t benefit. You, of course, are the prime recipient of the goodness of your … 
  15. Events as Events
    When you establish mindfulness, the Buddha says that you focus on the body in and of itself, putting aside all greed and distress with reference to the world. The body in and of itself means precisely that—not the body in the world, but just the body as you have it right here. The body in the world would be thinking about the body … 
  16. Gather ’Round the Breath
     … putting aside greed and distress with reference to the world. Any thoughts that refer to the world in any way at all, just drop them, drop them, drop them, cut them off and bring them back in. That way you find the strength that comes when everything does gather together. In Thailand they like to use the image of thread. If you have individual … 
  17. Staying True
     … And you don’t want to have your mind hijacked by greed, anger, or delusion at that time, so you want to work on training the mind, developing the good qualities you’re going to need to withstand these defilements. What this means is that in order to maintain the truthfulness of your original decision to stay here, you’ll need some discernment. You … 
  18. Merit: Goodness of the Heart
     … You’re going to be less prey to your greed, aversion, and delusion—because an important part of the meditation is that when you make up your mind to stay with the breath, you’re going to have to fight off your distractions. What used to be normal thinking suddenly becomes something you’ve got to fight. It makes you more sensitive to ways … 
  19. Basic Breath, Basic Insight
     … We do get gratification out of greed. We do get gratification out of anger—a certain amount. It’s not much, and it’s pretty miserable, but it’s there. Sometimes we get gratification from feeling that we’re victims or gratification from comparing ourselves with other people in a way that makes them look bad. Or we can even get gratification out of … 
  20. Everything’s Right There
     … As the Buddha said, you’re putting aside greed and distress with reference to the world. Anything that has any reference to the world, that would remind you that you’re on the human plane right now, just remember that it’s inconstant, it’s going to change. For the time being, you’re looking for something that’s more valuable than that. So … 
  21. Skillful Desire
     … When the mind has a sense of comfort inside, then it’s not so willing to run along with greed, aversion, delusion, fear, or any of the things that make it go off course. My teacher had a student, a woman, who had cancer. And she had it for twenty years. She’d get cancer in one part of the body; they’d cut … 
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