Search results for: "Skillfulness"
- Page 36
- Single-minded… They say that people who’ve mastered skills, who are really good at a particular skill—whether it’s music, carpentry, sports, surgery—have to start out with a strong sense that there are dangers in not being skillful, and a lot of advantages in developing that skill. So the reflection just now on the dangers of the world is there to remind you …
- Survival Tactics… And these skills that we’re working on when we’re sitting right here, they’re your survival skills, both on a day-to-day level and also when the time comes for the mind to separate from the body, to separate from all its mental events, everything associated with this life. If you do it skillfully, the awareness that’s left will separate …
- Strong Through Commitment… When you’re thoroughly committed, when you’re really strong like this, then you can withstand not only the onslaughts of your own defilements, but also of things outside, with a lot more skill. That’s the skill that the Buddha is offering to us. So you can ask yourself, “Are you willing to commit to it? If you don’t commit, what do …
- Refuge in the Dhamma… And what does the Buddha say about states of becoming? There are skillful ones and unskillful ones. The skillful ones are to be developed; the unskillful ones, abandoned. That’s what the establishings of mindfulness are for: to look at your mind states in a more impersonal way, to step back from them and ask yourself, “If this mind state were in somebody else …
- The Psychology of Self… That’s sublimation, learning how to take joy in being skillful. Instead of just indulging in your whims, doing what you want, learn to appreciate life as a skill, and that you’re appreciating the skill you’re developing. There’s a very deep sense of happiness that comes when you realize that you’ve done something skillful—much deeper than simply enjoying nice …
- A Home for the Mind… focusing on their actions, trying to see where they were skillful, where they were not, learning from their mistakes, and holding on to that desire to become more and more skillful in every aspect of their behavior. You can maintain that as a steady goal only if the mind is well trained, if you’re mindful, alert, concentrated, discerning. These are the qualities that …
- The Self-correcting Mind… But he also found that the path was something that had to be done within the mind—because we suffer from our lack of skill in how we handle sights, sounds, smells, tastes, tactile sensations, and all the thoughts of the mind. No one else can make us skillful. Other people can show us by example that the skill can be mastered, they can …
- Refreshment… It’s a matter of skill, skill in seeing what is the right thing to do, and why it’s right. Of course, primarily, we should be asking ourselves: What are the right things to do in the mind? You want to be able to watch what the mind is doing while it’s doing it. And you get good practice in that by …
- Ego… But in addition to being strong, it needs to be strategic, for its role as a negotiator requires a lot of skill. Psychologists have traced five skills that are essential for a healthy ego to negotiate well, and they all have their parallels in the Buddha’s teaching. There’s a misconception that the Buddha taught us to have no self or no ego …
- Good Heart, Good Mind… We’re working on a skill that requires patience, it requires a lot of discernment, and it requires determination. Some people find it easy for the mind to settle down; other people find it a lot harder. But because it’s a skill that everybody should master, the fact that it doesn’t come easily should not be an obstacle. You have to learn …
- Driving Lessons… If it’s skillful, it’s part of the path. Our problem is that our unskillful desires have lots of tricks, and our skillful desires tend to be pretty clueless—they’re well-intentioned, but they don’t have the techniques to win out over the crafty ones. So as we meditate, we’re learning more techniques. We’re arming our skillful desires: the …
- For When the World Can’t Help You… You really want to master this practice as a skill, because this is the one skill that will hold you in good stead, when, as I said, even the best doctors can’t help you anymore. So the meditation is a combination of technique and values. The main value, of course, is heedfulness—realizing you need to develop these skills for your own safety …
- Kamma & Rebirth—A Handful of Leaves… not letting himself rest satisfied or content with skillful qualities. If there was a way he could make the mind more skillful, he would do it. It was because of his sense of urgency, his sense of the dangers that are there. Even when you’ve done a lot of good, and at the moment your karmic field is sprouting nothing but good seeds …
- Mind in & of Itself… Are they coming from skillful motives, or are they coming from unskillful ones? Are they leading the mind in skillful directions or unskillful ones? This is looking at the mind “in and of itself.” Where do the thoughts come from? What do they do to the mind? You’re looking at them as part of a causal process. They may be perfectly right, but …
- The Buddha’s Standards or Yours?… Sometimes they have very little to do with whether the impulse is skillful or not skillful. A lot of it has to do with things we like and don’t like. But then our likes are very arbitrary. Seeing them as fabricated is going to be a huge step in making it a lot easier to practice. You may hold onto a particular like …
- Committed to the Breath… The skills that you develop around the breath are really useful skills, and they’re skills that can help you all the way through life. My father was a carpenter, and over the years he got to be a really good joiner. He made really nice furniture, and his shop was his escape. When he was tired of being in the house, tired of …
- Why We Train the Mind… Warriors needed skills. They had to master archery. They had to master horse-riding, all kinds of different things. In that case, mastery doesn’t depend so much on definitions as it does on getting a feel for things. And as with any skill, the more you master the skill, the more your sense of the different elements of the skill begins to grow …
- Thoughts with Fangs… The intention you can gauge as to whether it’s skillful or not, the results you can gauge as to whether they are skillful or not. What kind of person you are, how good or bad you are, that’s not anything you can gauge at all. If you try to do it, it really gets in the way. So your duty here is …
- Just Events… If you would like a certain technique to work in a certain way but it’s not working that way, and you let your preferences get in the way of admitting that, you’ll never get skilled. The skill requires that you be a fair observer. But the Buddha’s image is also there to remind you that you can stand anything. The earth …
- Empathetic Joy… Just realize that there are people not only being happy but also people doing skillful things. Wherever that’s happening, you’re happy for them. Cast your mind out. Think of some examples and ask yourself, “Why would you not be happy for their happiness?” At some point, you’ll come around to the quality of resentment in the mind. If you’re sitting …
- Load next page...
