Search results for: "Form"
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- Negotiating with Death… You’ve got form, which is the body; feelings: i.e., feelings of pleasure, pain, and neither pleasure nor pain. Perceptions: the labels you place on things. Fabrications, which are all the things you put together in the mind, to make thoughts that make sense. And then consciousness. Prior to the Buddha’s time, these various concepts were floating around in India. But he …
- Respect… The qualities are there in potential form; we all have skillful qualities. It’s simply a difference in the extent to which we develop them, the extent to which we put them to use. The meditation we’re doing right now: That’s a skill. Use the same principles in developing it as you would in any skill. Encourage yourself in doing it, stick …
- The Gradual Path of Skill… The desire not to suffer, which we all have, is what forms the foundation of how we can practice. The Buddha simply takes it to a level of skill, a level of all-around discernment that goes way beyond what the rest of the world would have accepted. The Buddha had very high standards. And he wants you to have high standards, too, as …
- Put Some Heart into Your Practice… As he also said, patience is the highest form of austerity. In other words, it’s what burns away the mind’s unskillful attitudes. And equanimity is found in many of the lists of the qualities you’re trying to develop as you meditate—both in the heart qualities of the brahmaviharas and in the more head qualities, the factors for awakening. So dealing …
- The Field Hospital… in other words, the pleasure of form, which we gain from getting the mind in concentration, as you feel the body from within. Or formless pleasures, when everything in the body gets so still that you can have a perception of infinite space, infinite consciousness, and the body doesn’t interfere. It’s so quiet that you can ignore it. It’s only then …
- Comprehending Suffering… There’s form, which is your body sitting here right now. There are feelings. You’ve got feelings in the body right now, and you’re trying to generate feelings of ease, feelings of well-being. It’s by trying to generate them that you understand them. You don’t simply watch them come and go. You’re trying to develop what the Buddha …
- Food for Consciousness… Then there’s the sense of the form of the body that has to be fed and at the same time gives you the means to search for food. There’s the perception of what kind of hunger you have, and of what food you need to satisfy the hunger. Then you look around trying to find things that fit in with that perception …
- The Dhamma Wheel… Your sense of the form of the body as you feel it from within. Feelings of pleasure, pain, neither pleasure nor pain. Perceptions, where you put labels on things, identifying what they are, what they mean. Thought constructs or fabrications, where you put thoughts together. And then consciousness, which is aware of all these things. He says we cling to these things, and that …
- Of Essential Worth… It really helps the world in an area where other forms of help just really can’t reach: deep into the heart, to the part that really is essential in each of us. Sometimes you hear that the Buddha was an anti-essentialist, saying that there is no permanent self, no permanent essence to anybody or anything. But he never said that. It’s …
- Walking Meditation: Stillness in Motion… Look for whatever you can recognize as form, feeling, perception, thought construct, or consciousness within the concentration, and then contemplate its behavior. One simple way is contemplating the activity of perception. To what extent does the perception you’re using as a marker for your concentration create stress or disturbance for the mind? Learn to observe that perception, the label you place on things …
- Admirable Intentions… As you develop this sense of well-being which is called pleasure of form—your sense of the body as you feel it from within—it helps you to step back from your sensual cravings. Sensuality is not so much indulging in sensual pleasures, it’s indulging in your thoughts and plans about sensual pleasures. We can think about food, for instance: how you …
- How to Use the Three Perceptions… After all, what is your concentration made up of? It’s made out of those aggregates, but in a very subtle form. And for the time being, those are aggregates you don’t apply these three perceptions to. You’ve got something good, so you want to protect it. You don’t just throw it away. Ajaan Lee says that people who like to …
- Death Is Normal… But when it could let go of its fuel, then the fire would go out and return to a latent form of the fire element. In the same way, when the mind is attached to greed, aversion, and delusion, it’s going to burn. But when it can let go, it’s freed. Notice: The greed and aversion and delusion don’t latch on …
- Objectivity… In other words, we all want happiness, but some forms of happiness are more true than others, more lasting than others. Some ways of looking for happiness work and others don’t. The Buddha took advantage of his discovery of cause and effect, and he put it to good use by applying it to our desire for happiness. Every desire, skillful or unskillful, is …
- Emulating the Truth… It’s the search for the truth, in all of its forms, both as truth of statements and truth of the character. And as the Buddha said, the more you develop your own truth, the more readily you can sense this quality—or its lack—in other people. This is how you turn from that student who’s the spoon in the curry who …
- A Cocoon of Energy… The mind gets more and more used to being with something that’s a little bit vaguer than the body, with less of a clear form. Then you can end up getting into the sensation of space. What does the space around your body feel like? If you find that this exercise is too disorienting, go back to the sensation of the body. Think …
- Wake Up from Addiction… This rapture or refreshment can come in a weak form or in a strong form. But the refreshment is what allows you to stay here and say, “Oh, yes, this really is good.” Then, after a while, the rapture or refreshment has done its work and begins to fade a little bit, and there’s more of a sense of ease and calm—and …
- Giving to the Meditation… They’re all there in an inchoate form. You’ve got the seeds for these things. The meditation is simply an opportunity to allow them to grow and to flourish, so that the seeds of well being that you already have will have the opportunity to show exactly how far they can go. So try to be conscious of that wealth that you’re …
- Wearing the Breath… When you’re sensitive to the breath, you’ll begin to notice when a thought is about to form. You can feel it, and that gives you your chance to head it off before it actually gets full blown and you enter into its world. So make use of this sensitivity to help keep you here. And if the mind says, “This is stupid …
- Determined to Practice… And that—as the Buddha specifically says—is a form of determination. This goes against what you ordinarily hear in a lot of modern Buddhist circles: that our true nature is compassionate; our true nature is one of loving-kindness. The Buddha says No. Goodwill is a determination. You have to set your mind on it. We all want happiness in one way or …
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