Search results for: "Form"

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  2. Getting into the Body
     … The Buddha says that if you really want to see your attachment to form, feeling, perceptions, fabrications, and consciousness, this is the place to see it: in a concentrated mind. As you fully inhabit the body, you can see what it’s like to identify with the body. Ordinarily, our sense of identification is very erratic. It’s like the reflections of sunlight off … 
  3. Conceit
     … They’re both forms of conceit. Admit that things are difficult but do what you can. And learn to develop your discernment. Watch out for those fangs of ignorance: the “I am this” or “I am that” or “I’m not used to this,” “I can’t stand this,” “This is hard for me.” Drop the “I,” the “me,” and things get a lot … 
  4. On Idle Chatter
    On Idle Chatter May 28, 2019 Of all the forms of wrong speech, idle chatter is the hardest to get past. It also seems the most innocent to most people, which is one of the reasons why it’s hard to get past. After all, a little social grease isn’t bad, right? But as with grease in an engine, if you get too … 
  5. The Middle Way
     … This is one of the reasons why the Vinaya is so important, even all those little rules, because so many of your defilements take little forms to begin with. They say, “I’m nothing really serious. Why are you coming down on me?” Well, it’s like a vine. The vine is tender, has nice downy leaves, a nice downy stem, nice downy tendrils … 
  6. Meticulous
     … As you begin to notice that as a thought is beginning to form, there’s going to be a pattern of tension someplace in the body. You immediately go there, unravel the tension, and come right back. The more quickly you can do this, the closer and closer you get to the beginning of the stirring in that energy field. There is a point … 
  7. Totally Secure
     … It forms the thread all the way through the practice. You’re sitting here try to stay with the breath. There’s music outside. Are you going to be true to the breath or you’re going to grow ranting and raving about the music? You’ve got the choice. If you stay true to the breath throughout the hour, you’ll come up … 
  8. A Radiant Practice
     … And as with all forms of happiness, the people you’re concerned about—people you love, people you have goodwill for—you’d like to share. Now, the Buddha says there are certain people who are not in a position where they can rejoice in the merit of others and actually benefit from it. But there are a lot who can. So for their … 
  9. Born for the Perfections
     … But it can form the basis of a tree that has lots of branches. And you know the role that that image plays in the Pali Canon: A tree with lots of branches is a place where birds can come and eat fruit. People can come rest in the shade. You benefit, and the people around you are going to benefit as well. We … 
  10. A Trustworthy Mind
     … You want to nurture that sense of the choices you have, and that the best choices are often those that take the form of generosity. You’re happy to nurture that quality in the mind. In terms of the meditation, that translates into the realization that if you’re going to get anything out of the meditation, you first have to give. You have … 
  11. Only One Person
     … They take the words, “Yaa hen kae tua”—which literally means, “Don’t look at yourself” or “only at yourself,” and idiomatically means, “Don’t be selfish”—and they form them into a picture of the Buddha. The head is yaa, the chest and arms are hen, and the legs are *kae tua. *And Ajaan Suwat commented several times that that’s a misguided … 
  12. From Compunction to Release
     … It’s called the pleasure of form. And the Buddha encourages you to indulge in it, settle in, gain nourishment from it. In other words, he’s basically saying to get attached, get good at this, so that it becomes something you can actually hold on to—because it gives you another perspective on your old pleasures. You’re more willing to see their … 
  13. Responsibilities
     … This covers all aspects of the responsibilities you take on—they’re forms of generosity. Give in a way that doesn’t harm you, that doesn’t harm others. Remember, this is all in the context of the practice. As death approaches, that’s going to be the big question: What have you done to prepare for death? There was an ad one time … 
  14. The Dhamma Without Price
     … It’s in this way that the Dhamma is timeless, and we help maintain it in its timeless form. So even if we’re not teaching the Dhamma per se, we’re giving a gift of Dhamma to the world.
  15. The Community of the Wise
     … Remember, they’re your community, because it’s a community that’s formed not simply by being in a particular place or by accidents of birth or economic circumstances. It’s a community of choice, a community based on respect, having the same values in common. There’s a phrase in the Dhammapada, “Trust is the greatest relationship.” Those you trust are your true … 
  16. Right Speech, Inside & Out
     … Perhaps a little blood clot forms in your legs or in a lung, and then who knows where it’s going to go, where it’s going to get lodged. So you don’t know how much time you’ve got. You do know, though, that you have right now. So you crack the whip and get to work. So, work on your internal … 
  17. The Problem of Suffering
     … That wisdom begins, he says, with the question, “What, when I do it, will lead to my long-term welfare and happiness?” That one question forms the framework for everything else. He also said that the measure of a person’s wisdom, whether you’re to be a wise person or a fool, comes down to two situations: One, there’s something that you … 
  18. In Touch with Your Fabrications
     … When the Buddha defines fabrication, he defines it as taking the potentials for a sense of form, feelings, perceptions, thought constructs, or consciousness, and then putting them together into actual experiences of those aggregates for the sake of something. Many of our problems come from the fact that we, in the past, did these things for the sake of what we thought was going … 
  19. See Your Thoughts as Strange
    See Your Thoughts as Strange August 17, 2018 Try and settle into the body—the body as you feel it from within, what the texts call “form”—and try to find a sense of pleasure here. Explore the breath to see how it feels, and adjust it so that it feels just right: not too long, not too short, too deep, too shallow, too … 
  20. How the Tree Leans
     … In other words, look at the process by which the thought is formed. Look at the process by which a decision is made around the thought. That helps to prevent you from falling in. If it’s something you genuinely want to go with—you see it’s going in the right direction—okay, go with it. But even then you have to make … 
  21. Doing, Maintaining, Using
     … As you gain that feel for it, then the various elements of form, feeling, perception, thought constructs, and consciousness begin to separate out. You can watch them for what they are. Then when you let them go, it’s not that you throw them away. You’ve simply learned that you don’t have to identify with them. You can pick them up when … 
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