Search results for: "Dhamma"

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  2. Commit & Reflect All Around
    We nourish the Dhamma within us through commitment and reflection. We commit to doing it, we stick with that commitment for a while, so that it can have time to show results, and then we reflect on the results: Are they doing well or are they not doing well? Then we make adjustments and commit again. That’s how the Dhamma is found—not … 
  3. Delight in Striving
     … This goes against the grain with a lot of the Dhamma taught here in the West. I was reading an interview just today with a teacher saying that, even after many years of practice, every now and then he catches himself striving. He has to remind himself that he’s already there. There’s no place to go, he’s already where he has … 
  4. Desires Have Their Reasons
    *“*All dhammas are rooted in desire.” It’s a fascinating statement, and one that’s all too often overlooked. What it means is that everything you experience starts with desire. The mind is not simply on the passive side of things. It’s more on the active side. It’s out looking for things. Or you could say the heart is out hunting for … 
  5. Right Resolve & Right Concentration
     … Do you actually love yourself? If so, why are you doing this? Then there’s love of the Dhamma. You’re lucky that you’ve found the Dhamma. Are you going to give up this opportunity? And then there’s that third one, which he calls, “taking the world as a governing principle.” There are people in the world who can read minds. What … 
  6. Right Fear
     … The teaching on skillful means, for example, has basically become a teaching to justify all kinds of ways of changing the Dhamma in order to please people. And what you end up doing is pandering to other people’s desires, pandering to their likes and dislikes. When you’re not selling the Dhamma, you’re trying to sell yourself, present yourself in a certain … 
  7. All Four Tetrads at Once
     … The second tetrad has to do with feelings; the third with the mind; and the fourth with dhammas. It’s not the case that you’re going to focus on the body, and only when the body is all taken care of will you focus on feelings, and then wait until the feelings are all taken care before you focus on the mind and … 
  8. Universal Truths
    Universal Truths June 13, 2007 When you meditate during the Dhamma talk, 99% of your attention should be with your breath. Let the talk be in the background — because the Dhamma is found inside the mind. The Dhamma in words is just pointers. As you listen to the talk, remind yourself that the words are pointing inside your mind. If you’re inside your … 
  9. Patience
     … You show respect by practicing the Dhamma in accordance with the Dhamma.” And that’s what we’re doing right here, right now. So think of the fact that we’re sitting here with our eyes closed that it’s an act of homage to the Buddha. An act of respect. We’re not just here getting something for ourselves. We’re appreciating how … 
  10. Fangs in the Static
     … When you think about it, when you’re going to die and have to be reborn, you want to be reborn in a place where you can practice the Dhamma. Sometimes those places are pretty unpredictable. Think about the northeast of Thailand, which is an extremely poor area, yet that’s where the forest tradition came from. So even though if you’re born … 
  11. Fire Prevention
     … When lust arises, when anger arises, there’s part of the mind that decides whether it’s going to on the side of the Dhamma or it’s going to be on the side of the defilement. You want to influence the conversation as quickly as you can so it’s on the side of the Dhamma. That way, when the fire does arise … 
  12. Standing Where the Buddha Stood
     … As the Buddha once said, that was the prerequisite for all Dhamma practice. “Give me a person who is honest,” he said, “and I will teach that person the Dhamma.” And he doesn’t mean just being honest with the teacher. You have to be honest with yourself about what you’re doing, what results you’re getting. Once the mind settles down and … 
  13. Cutting the Fetters
    A woman who was new to Ajaan Fuang’s way of teaching was having a Dhamma discussion with him one time, and she mentioned one of the defilements she encountered in her meditation. He told her, “Just put it aside and focus on your breath.” She responded, “Shouldn’t I try to cut it at the root?” He said, “If you try to cut … 
  14. For the Cessation of Dukkha
     … This is where the strategy of the Dhamma as a whole begins. It’s why the practice begins with the four noble truths, not with the three characteristics. The simple fact that there are things that arise and pass away that are dependent on conditions, fabrications, and there’s a stress inherent in the fact that those things are dependent on conditions and are … 
  15. A Connoisseur of Happiness
    A Connoisseur of Happiness January 5, 2010 A couple of years back, I got a phone call from a friend who had attended a Dhamma talk where the teacher had said that “life is suffering” is the second noble truth. The friend called up to scoff at the teacher, saying that, of course, everyone knows that that’s not the second noble truth, that … 
  16. Peace Requires Character
     … We’re truthful in what we do, truthful in what we say—“truthful” both in the sense of saying true things and also in the sense of sticking truly to the path, truly measuring ourselves against the teachings—what Ajaan Mun called practicing the Dhamma in accordance with the Dhamma. He picked up the phrase, of course, from the Buddha. And the Buddha meant … 
  17. Practice All Day
     … He found that when he came back home from that kind of walk, his mind settled down a lot more quickly because it had the Dhamma in mind all the time. The mind was talking to itself about the Dhamma. That’s a skill you’ve got to develop, because that’s what restraint depends on: how you talk to yourself about the sights … 
  18. The Buddha’s Standards or Yours?
     … And you find that you benefit a lot more from the Dhamma when you do. We chant, “Svakkhato bhagavata dhammo,” every night and every morning, “The Blessed One’s Dhamma is well taught.” This is what it means. It’s worthy of taking as a standard, even in areas where you don’t like it. Because otherwise, we keep on fabricating in lots of … 
  19. Ignorance & Deception
     … This is one of the problems with the way Dhamma is often taught here in the West. Teachers trying to earn a living from teaching put themselves in a position where they’re afraid to tell people what they don’t want to hear. As a result, the really important parts of the Dhamma get clipped off, clipped off, clipped off until there’s … 
  20. When Aging Closes In
     … Almost every night for three months, Ajaan Maha Boowa would give them a Dhamma talk, which they recorded. At the end of the time they had lots of tapes of Dhamma talks. So the doctor decided that she would see how much of the transcribing she could do herself, even though she was in her eighties. So even with the limitations of an older … 
  21. Circular Practice
     … Basically, once every five days they would meet and have Dhamma discussion well into the night. But the rest of the time, they hardly talked. Even when there were chores to be done, they would try to use hand signals so as not to disturb one another’s peace. That’s an ideal to keep in mind. So the real test of your Dhamma … 
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