Search results for: "Dhamma"
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- Right Exertion at Play… That was one of the few times he talked about controversies in the Dhamma, and it’s directly related to one of the sets of dhammas included in the Wings to Awakening: the four right exertions. These are the same as the four right efforts, and the important thing to notice is that there are four things to do. We don’t just let …
- A Meritorious Heart… As part of the commemoration, they invite monks—sometimes forest monks, sometimes city monks—to give a closing Dhamma talk. The very last year I was there before I returned to the States, they had invited a monk from a major city temple in Bangkok. He sent word about five minutes before he was due to get up on the Dhamma seat, saying that …
- Mindfulness as a Goad… It’s not the case that if something doesn’t appear in the Pali Canon, it’s not Dhamma. As all the ajaans in the Thai forest tradition say: If it works, it’s Dhamma. Try to see what works for you. And then try to remember what lessons you’ve learned. If you don’t remember the lessons you’ve learned from your …
- Directing Yourself Rightly… By the time we come to the Dhamma, we’re already in the middle of all this. What makes the Dhamma special is that it shows us a way out, because a lot of those muddling mistakes we make create a lot of suffering for ourselves or the people around us. An important part about choosing a life of the Dhamma is that you …
- Potentials for Awakening… This, again, is one of the reasons why Ajaan Suwat was so insistent on that principle of practicing the Dhamma in accordance with the Dhamma, instead of saying, “Well, then, the Dhamma has to fit into my preconceived notions and my ideas of what it should be.” That doesn’t teach you anything at all. You don’t learn anything new. You’re just …
- Testing Insights… He came to the realization that everything already is Dhamma, already as it is, and you shouldn’t touch it, you shouldn’t change it, you shouldn’t make any adjustments at all to the way the world is. That was his great Dhammic realization. He came back to society and he was going to teach it to the world. But he ran into …
- Homage Through the Practice… It was on the full moon of this month, right after his awakening, that the Buddha gave his first sermon, “Setting the Wheel of Dhamma in Motion.” So we’re commemorating that event tonight. It was at the end of this sermon that one of the listeners, Añña Kondañña, gained the Dhamma Eye, the first taste of awakening. So he was the first member …
- A Separate Self… And it’s because we can have an influence on one another that we’ve been exposed to the Dhamma. We learn the Dhamma from what the Buddha taught, as all the many generations between us and the Buddha have done. But it’s up to us to take that influence and make the most of it. That’s when your sense of separate …
- The Heart of the Teachings… We’re practicing the Dhamma in accordance with the Dhamma. That means practicing for the sake of dispassion, practicing for the sake of disenchantment that leads to release. In other words, we aim high. But we have to start where we are. As part of that summary, probably the most famous lines are what are sometimes called the heart of the Buddha’s teachings …
- Respect… respect for the Buddha, the Dhamma, the Sangha. Why do we respect them? We see that the Buddha was a really excellent teacher. If you want to learn from him, you have to respect what he has to say. Respect his example, not just his words. His actions also spoke. Kt’s a basic principle in learning that if you want to learn from …
- Questioning Everything… That’s the real gift of the Dhamma: not so much teaching the Dhamma but getting people to look inside themselves so that they can see that the actual Dhamma arising and passing away. And particularly seeing the connections, the Dhamma-ness of the causality that goes on in the mind. And then using that knowledge to put an end to suffering. We suffer …
- Skillful Fears… Where are you going to find happiness if you’re dependent on those kinds of things for your happiness? All of this is incentive to find the true Dhamma inside, the Dhamma of the deathless, which is a place of no danger, a place of no fear. You use your fears about aging, illness, and death not to get morbid or hopeless, but to …
- The Thoroughbred Horse… And even though the Buddha did talk a lot about change, he didn’t say that the Dhamma would change. The Dhamma is a principle that underlies everything else. It’s the laws about how things change. Those laws don’t change. As he said, this rightness of the Dhamma is something that’s always the same. Once you look at the Dhamma to …
- Think Calmly about Death… You hear that, and if you haven’t really seen the true Dhamma—i.e., you haven’t gained the Dhamma-eye that comes with your first glimpse of awakening—there will always be a little bit of doubt. But then you look at the people who have gone before you on this path, the people who really have gained awakening. You see they …
- Bedside Dhamma… The purpose of this, of course, is so that you can focus on areas where you can help, and can maintain your strength so that you have some stamina, both so you can be there for that person and so you can get some good Dhamma lessons out of this. If the person hasn’t been meditating, you’ll begin to see very clearly …
- Respect… This is why we read Dhamma books, listen to Dhamma tapes, why we have question and answers from other people who’ve practiced: so that we can benefit from their experience as well. The respect has to cover all three areas: our own abilities; respect for just the way things are—there are certain things that no matter how much you wish them, just …
- The Middle Way… After all, the Buddha didn’t call his teaching just Dhamma. It’s “this Dhamma and Vinaya.” The verb that goes along with Vinaya, vinati, means to subdue. You’ve got to come down hard sometimes on your complacency, on your pride, on your greed, your delusion, your anger. This is why discipline is such an important part of the path. It’s a …
- Keeping Your Head… What are you going to do?” And the king says “What else can I do but practice the Dhamma?” And how would you practice the Dhamma in a case like that? In the case we’re in, you have to calm your mind. In other words, you need to have your priorities as to what’s important, what’s not important, and focus on …
- Modest in Manner, but Not in Goals… The question is, what is the message? And is the message in line with the Dhamma? And is it something you can test? If it seems to be in line with the Dhamma and it can be put to the test, well, you try it out. If it can’t be tested, or if it doesn’t work when it is tested, you put …
- Right Speech, Inside & Out… everything else that fills the mind that’s not related to what you’re doing right now, even though it’s about the Dhamma. Ajaan Lee has an interesting observation, which is that when you’re talking to people who are not ready for really high level Dhamma yet, if you talk about high level Dhamma, it’s idle chatter. It’s not really …
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