Search results for: "Dhamma"

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  2. The Buddha Teaches a Yakkha
     … As for the Buddha’s final answer, that’s become a famous set of dhammas, or qualities. It’s listed in a Dhamma textbook in Thailand as a set of qualities appropriate for lay people, but they’re appropriate for everybody. The late king of Thailand, Rama IX, when they celebrated the 200th anniversary of the founding of Bangkok, gave a talk to the … 
  3. Inner Critics
     … That’s why you need to have a teacher.” This is why the Buddha set up what is essentially an apprenticeship for passing along the Dhamma. You live together, and through living together, you get to know the teacher and the teacher gets to know you. This can provide an ideal situation for the teacher to point out where you’re being sloppy, where … 
  4. To Know the Buddha
     … Take the sutta on setting the wheel of Dhamma in motion: Sometimes it reads as if it were just an outline of what the Buddha had to say. The Buddha mentions the five aggregates but doesn’t define what they are in the sutta, so maybe he actually did define what they were when he gave the talk reported in the sutta. That part … 
  5. Faith in the Practice
    We hear about the students of the Buddha who heard one Dhamma talk and gained awakening. And some of them seem to have an unfair advantage. There was one woman who was going out on a picnic one day. She took all her servants along, and they played in the park. On the way back, she stopped off and visited the Buddha. He gave … 
  6. Appreciating Merit
    There’s that chant we have at the end of every chanting session: “Through the power of all the Buddhas, all the Dhamma, all the Sangha, may you forever be well.” What is that power? Where does it come from? The Buddha gained his power from his generosity, his virtue, and his meditation, developing concentration, developing discernment all the way to nibbana. As did … 
  7. True Friends & False
     … And it’s good to listen to the Dhamma, too. This is why we have Dhamma talks during the meditation. Because if the Dhamma isn’t here to listen to, you’re going to start listening to your own opinions: “I like this, I don’t like that”—whatever the mind has to say. An important part of the meditation is to get out … 
  8. Solving Real Problems
     … It gives direction to your practice, so you’re not floundering around, having to re-invent the Dhamma wheel all the time. The Dhamma wheel was set in motion a long time ago and it’s still in motion. Study the Dhamma and then do the best thing you can with that study—i.e., put what you learn into practice. Use these concepts … 
  9. Conserving Your Strength
     … Even though your ears don’t fall deaf, you don’t have to pay attention to anything you hear, even this Dhamma talk. Let it be in the background. Give the mind something to do that’s really good for the mind: Stay with the breath. When the breath comes in, know it’s coming in. When it goes out, know it’s going … 
  10. The Same but Different, but the Same
     … There’s a passage in the Canon where a monk goes around and asks other monks, “What were you contemplating when you finally broke through to the Dhamma, had your first glimpse of the Dhamma or the awakening of the Dhamma eye?” One monk said he was contemplating the five aggregates, another monk said he was contemplating dependent co-arising, other monks were contemplating … 
  11. Fear
     … A third is that they don’t really understand the Dhamma, they haven’t resolved their doubts about the Dhamma. These are three things that can be cured only through meditation. The other reason for fearing death is when you know that you’ve harmed other people. There’s always a fear that comes with the thought that maybe there is a punishment for … 
  12. Overcoming Obstacles
     … Seven years after he gave that Dhamma talk, he was dead, and he was sick in the meantime, many, many times. And many of the people he gave that Dhamma talk to are now dead, too. We’re alive. But again, we don’t know how much longer it will be before we go. So take advantage of the opportunity you’ve got. Be … 
  13. Goodwill as Right View
     … Goodwill is what the Buddha depended on to teach, to go out of his way to establish the Dhamma and Vinaya. Ordinarily, a teaching Buddha has only one duty, which is to teach his contemporaries how to gain awakening. And then there’s the optional duty of establishing a Dhamma and Vinaya that’ll last a long time, for future generations. It takes a … 
  14. The Path to the Top
     … I just know chariots so well that when a question comes, I usually know the answer right away.” The Buddha said that in the same way he knew the Dhamma so thoroughly that he didn’t have to sit around and plan out answers to questions. It was through his thorough knowledge of the Dhamma that he knew which path was right and which … 
  15. Your Mind is Lying to You
     … People even use the Dhamma as a way of lying to themselves, using the wrong Dhamma at the wrong time. There’s a classic case of that in the four-volume novel, Joseph and His Brothers. Joseph has been working as a slave in charge of Potiphar’s house, and Potiphar’s wife has been trying to seduce him for an entire volume of … 
  16. Fighting Attitude
    The fourth frame of reference for meditation, or the fourth foundation of mindfulness is dhammas, which can mean objects of the mind or mental qualities. And it’s interesting that of the various foundations of mindfulness, as described in the Satipatthana Sutta, this is the one that recommends the most active interaction with what’s going on in the mind. For example, if hindrances … 
  17. The Buddha’s Good News
     … As he said, when you listen to a Dhamma talk, be careful that you don’t despise the speaker, you don’t despise the Dhamma, and you don’t despise yourself. If you despise yourself, you just let the talk go past. You say, “Well, this is not for me. It’s for somebody else.” But it must apply to you in some way … 
  18. Addictive Thinking
     … This is why the Buddha said that learning is an important part of the practice, i.e., learning the Dhamma, listening to the Dhamma. If you don’t listen to the Dhamma, what are you listening to? You’re listening to all those voices of the media out there and who knows what other voices you’ve picked up. You have to ask yourself … 
  19. Respect as a Sign of Intelligence
     … We had the chant just now on respect for the Buddha, the Dhamma, and the Sangha. What that means in practice is that you resist the urge to change them. Instead, you try to change yourself to see if by fitting into the Dhamma you benefit. And we show respect for the Buddha because he basically has us show respect to ourselves. Look inside … 
  20. Willing & Observing
     … When the Buddha said he discovered the Dhamma, this is the kind of Dhamma he discovered: the Dhamma of how things work. But he didn’t discover the Dhamma just by observing things. He also dealt with what are called truths of the will: things that happen only if you will them to happen. He had to will himself to develop skillful qualities in … 
  21. The Joy of the Battle
     … I fell for this other one because of y.” This is why the Buddha says that the Dhamma is nourished by commitment and reflection—not only in the sense that you commit yourself to doing something and you see that you made a mistake, and on reflection you learn how to correct for it, but also simply the fact that you learn how to … 
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