Search results for: "Greed"

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  2. Doing the Practice
     … how things like greed, anger, and delusion get started, how they grow, how they take over, how they can be dropped, what happens if you don’t drop them, what happens if you do. You may have some general ideas about this, but if you want to see really clearly so that these things don’t overcome you, you want to stop and watch … 
  3. Inner Civil War
     … Are you really going to die if you have to fend off greed or fend off lust or fend off anger? No. So what are you afraid of? Even in cases where it would kill you to stick to the skillful line, what do you gain in the long run by giving in to what’s unskillful? Nothing of any value. So don’t … 
  4. Believe in Your Actions
     … At the same time, it’s easy not to believe that the quality of your intention is going to determine the results of your actions, because you see a lot of people acting out of greed, hatred, and delusion, and yet they seem to be pretty happy, in the short term at least. So it is a matter of belief. And the Buddha’s … 
  5. Motivation
     … Even though you may not be able to uproot all your greed, aversion, and delusion, the fact that they’re lighter, less forceful, means that the people around you are going to be less victimized by them. So if the mind says, “You’re being selfish, just looking after yourself,” you can reply that looking after your mind is not a selfish activity. The … 
  6. Good Fences All Around You
     … They want you to think that this is your greed, your aversion, your delusion, your way of looking at things. This is what you feel in your bones. They get into your bones this way, through the breath. That’s one of the reasons why we stay with the breath not only while we’re sitting here with our eyes closed, but also as … 
  7. The Pleasure Principle Made Noble
     … Who’s doing the looking? Are you doing the looking, or is greed doing the looking? Or anger? In other words, what has sparked your interest in looking at something, or in listening, or any of the other ways of engaging the senses? You’re looking at where the impulse is coming from. Is it the kind of impulse you want to encourage? This … 
  8. With Reference to the World
     … As the Buddha said in the basic formula for right mindfulness, staying with our frame of reference involves subduing greed and distress with reference to the world. It’s not simply the case that these thought-worlds arise. Lots of emotions, lots of reactions arise along with them. That’s what gets us involved in them. We want something; we get upset about something … 
  9. Appreciating Your Practice
     … When you see, say, that some greed you used to have is just not there anymore, or your tendency to get angry over things is getting weaker, then delight in the fact that you’re able to abandon those unskillful things. As for a sense of well-being inside, a sense of being more settled, learn how to delight in that, too, because this … 
  10. Your Breath, Your Territory
     … He says to contemplate, keeping track of the body in and of itself—in other words the body as you feel it from within—ardent, alert, and mindful, putting aside greed and distress with reference to the world. Anything that refers to anything outside of the body, any other contacts, you put it aside right now. Stay with just the body in and of … 
  11. Strength from Within
     … Regular culture is a culture of people with defilements shaped by greed, aversion, and delusion, whereas he wanted out of that culture. And the way out was to follow the customs of the noble ones. Ajaan Chah has a very interesting discussion where he talks about how controversial both Ajaan Sao and Ajaan Mun were for many years. People used to get into arguments … 
  12. Bigger than the World
     … xx The expression “putting aside greed and distress with reference to the world” means any thought that’s going to pull you out of this. When you don’t think about yourself being in this world, and you’re inhabiting the present like this without any thoughts with reference to the world, you get closer to where the Buddha was on the night of … 
  13. Gratitude & Trust
     … If things were very comfortable, very easy, and very convenient, you’d have no test against which to measure your greed, aversion, and delusion. But the hardships aren’t so overwhelming that we can’t practice: That’s the whole point. So that was his intention for starting this place. That’s the meaning of this place. To keep maintaining the meaning of the … 
  14. Breath Meditation, Step by Step
     … Whatever attachments were causing suffering, whatever ignorance was causing the diseases of the mind—greed, anger, and delusion: That ignorance can be gone for good. That’s the good news of the Buddha’s teaching. Even though there are things in the world that change and are impermanent, the effect that the Dhamma can have on the mind when it’s used with precision … 
  15. Exercising the Mind
     … The battle of training the mind, winning out over greed, anger, and delusion, the qualities that get in the way of mindfulness, alertness and discernment: That’s the most important battle in life. So as you’re working with the breath, remind yourself that these are important skills you’re developing. And you never know how much time you have do it. You may … 
  16. Strengthening Your Goodness
     … You begin to recognize some of the excuses that greed gives or that lust or anger or delusion gives, and you begin to recognize their weak points. The more quickly you can recognize the weak points, the more quickly you can deal with them. This is the work of right effort together with discernment. When the Buddha was teaching mindfulness of breathing to his … 
  17. Study & Practice
     … It’s when you use some of the Buddha’s teachings to deal with your own greed, aversion, and delusion, and begin to gain a sense of what works: That’s when the Dhamma becomes your own. That’s when you really can say that you’re discerning. Otherwise, you just have the names of discernment, the ideas of discernment. But when you actually … 
  18. Guarding the Truth
     … We intend to focus on the breath—ardent, alert, mindful—putting aside greed and distress with reference to the world. That’s the formula. We’re trying to get the mind into a state of concentration. As it settles in, you begin to see what’s going on in the activity of concentration. There’s directed thought and evaluation. The Buddha calls that verbal … 
  19. Calming Mental Fabrication
    When the Buddha teaches concentration practice—breath meditation practice—he gives you a physical fabrication to focus on, i.e., the breath coming in, going out, and then he gives you a verbal fabrication, the instructions, “Keep track of the breath; remain focused on the breath—ardent, alert, mindful—putting aside greed and distress with reference to the world.” So you keep reminding yourself … 
  20. The Graduated Discourse
     … Can you imagine what the drawbacks of bad actions are? The drawbacks of acting on greed, aversion, and delusion? When you find the mind wandering off, try to think of these principles to re-establish your values or get them back in line with the four noble truths, so that you can actually apply the duties. These are not duties that are being imposed … 
  21. Making a Refuge
     … You’ve got to have protection from your own greed, aversion, and delusion because these things are a lot more dangerous than anything anyone else outside could do. Sometimes we have people coming here to the monastery, and they’re thrown off by the animals around: the coyotes, the snakes. I keep reminding them that the coyotes and snakes don’t do much to … 
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