Search results for: "Dhamma"

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  2. 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 … 
  3. 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 … 
  4. 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 … 
  5. 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 … 
  6. 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 … 
  7. 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 … 
  8. 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 … 
  9. 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 … 
  10. 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 … 
  11. 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 … 
  12. 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 … 
  13. 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 … 
  14. 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 … 
  15. Rhythms of the Mind
     … That seems to work only in countries where people have already had a really good grounding in the Dhamma, either in actually having read it or living in a culture that’s picked up a lot of the attitudes that embody the Dhamma. But for those of us here in the West, it’s hard. Our culture has a lot of anti-Dhammic attitudes … 
  16. Strong Against Anger & Fear
     … I was listening to a “Dhamma talk” a while back where someone was saying that if a strong emotion comes, you’ve just got to ride with it. You have no choice. Once it’s in motion, you’re committed to it. But the whole purpose of Buddha’s teaching is to alert you to choices that you didn’t know before—they might … 
  17. The Ennobling Path
     … As the Buddha said, when you break down the present moment in this way, you see nothing but dhammas. The world dhamma here can mean phenomenon, it can mean event, it can mean activity, or the way of looking at things as is directly experienced. However you want to conceive that term of dhamma is fine, as long as you’re right with things … 
  18. Songkran
     … After all, we’re not here to reinvent the Dhamma wheel. The Buddha set forth the Dhamma wheel as to why we’re suffering, how we can stop suffering. He laid out the duties very clearly. It’s good to reflect on that: What good lessons can you derive from the past? That’s what mindfulness is all about: remembering those good lessons and … 
  19. The Elephant Hunter
     … They listen to his Dhamma, and they’re converted. That’s a sign of an awakened person—just as when you go into the forest and you see the footprints of an elephant, you know that that’s an elephant, a big, bull elephant because the footprints are large.” So the friend says, “In that case, I’d like to meet with the Buddha … 
  20. A Sense of Yourself
     … Ajaan Fuang talked about how when he was young and actually began listening to the Dhamma, he looked at his lifetime up to that point. The more he’d listened to the Dhamma, the more he realized that he was lacking in a lot of merit. He was born into a very poor family, he’d lost his parents, wasn’t doing well in … 
  21. Taking a Stance
     … So why did you ordain?” And Raṭṭhapāla said that there were four Dhamma summaries he learned from the Buddha that inspired him to ordain. The first was, “The world is swept away, it does not endure.” You can set your mind on all kinds of goals in the world, but if you’re looking simply for the goal of what you can accomplish outside … 
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