Search results for: "Form"

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  2. An Auspicious Birth
     … It wants this kind of experience of form. It wants this kind of feeling, these kinds of perceptions, thought constructs, this kind of consciousness. We talk of the first kind of birth being auspicious when you’re born into a family that’s got material comforts and you have an opportunity to meet with the Dhamma. But it’s really made auspicious by this … 
  3. Harmlessness
     … Now, there are a lot of times that people will not want to take your advice, in which case Ajaan Lee would say that if you continue to try giving them advice, it’s a form of idle chatter. But if you can see that either through advice or through example you can be a good influence on others, you’re carrying out right … 
  4. Self-esteem
     … Ajaan Maha Boowa calls these forms of conceit the fangs of unawareness. They bite when, for some reason you can’t focus solely on what you’re doing and the results of your actions, you start to focus on other people and compare yourself with them. It’s something we all do. But the question is, “What do we get out of it?” If … 
  5. The Sport of Wise People
     … Remember that what you’re doing here is a very high level activity, in the sense that it raises your mind from its ordinary grubbing for pleasures—with fantasies of lust, fantasies of anger, or fantasies of whatever—and instead finding pleasure on the level of form, the body as you sense it from within. This pleasure raises the mind because it’s a … 
  6. Insight from Developing Concentration
     … Those are mental actions that come under the factor of name, in name and form, part of dependent co-arising. What you’re doing is learning how to look at mental events on that level, in those terms. This is priming you to see the processes that can lead to becoming simply as processes. As you maintain this perception of the breath, it’ll … 
  7. A Sense of Yourself
     … It requires that we develop some qualities that are within all of us in a potential form, but that we have to actualize them through our own efforts. So you have to ask yourself: To what extent are you really convinced of this? At the very least, you’re asked to take this on as a working hypothesis. Base your actions, base your decisions … 
  8. Wisdom Requires Integrity
     … That’s how we get beyond suffering, stress, disturbance—all the greater and lesser forms of dukkha that weigh down the mind.
  9. Looking for Trouble
     … They haven’t developed the part of the brain that’s needed to interpret the forms they see. A lot of our life has been spent in developing that part of the brain, the part that goes out and creates a three-dimensional world out of these flashes blue and green and red and black and white and gray that the brain picks up … 
  10. No Who or Where
     … You can see them form, but you don’t go into them. That’s the important part. You don’t even think about “you” going in, as much as possible. Just, there’s the state of “entering in”; you say, “No, don’t enter in.” You want to watch the process, so try to keep things on that level, before they turn into big … 
  11. Two Kinds of Defilements
     … I was reading the other day someone saying, “Why is lust classed as a form of craving? Craving comes when you’re dissatisfied, but lust is all about satisfaction.” That’s about as deluded as you can get. Still, it shows how people think when their defilements have their defenses up. Now that kind of defilement is not going to go away just by … 
  12. Visakha Puja – True Homage
     … This is not to say that we shouldn’t pay homage with candles, incense, and flowers, but we have to realize that the candles, incense, and flowers are symbolic forms of what the true homage is. There’s a tradition that the incense stands for virtue, because the scent of virtue, as the Buddha said, even goes against the wind. The scent of incense … 
  13. Intense Stillness
     … Sometimes it’s in name and form. Sometimes it’s right after contact. Sometimes it’s there as a result of birth, aging, and death. That means that your particular feeling, your particular pleasure or pain, may be influenced by different things, so you have a range of options to investigate. But at the same time, you don’t want to just give in … 
  14. The Psychology of Virtue
     … So you’ve got to learn about how to undo these things—not so much, as I said, in terms of destroying what you already have but by looking to see the steps by which the new becomings begin to form, before there really is an identity, when they’re just processes in the mind, events in the mind: attention, intention, perceptions, feelings. Can … 
  15. Determination
     … If he said that something is irrelevant to the practice, you say, “I’m going to just put that aside.” Hold on to the views that he recommends and see where they take you, because that’s his challenge with all these forms of clinging: clinging to the practice of concentration, clinging to right view, clinging to the idea that you are capable of … 
  16. The Language of the Breath
     … As you start evaluating the motions the mind not only as they relate to the breath, but also as they relate to everything else—how they relate to the contact of forms and eyes, sounds and ears, aromas and nose, tastes and tongue, tactile sensations and body—you learn how to evaluate what you build on the basis of those contacts. That’s all … 
  17. Balancing Effort & Patience
     … There’s a sutta where the Buddha says even in just your basic experience of form, feeling, perception, and the rest of the aggregates, there’s an intentional element in all of them. So you’ve got to learn how to make those intentions skillful. You can do that only by watching what’s going on, and experimenting with the way your mind is … 
  18. Concentration Isn’t Dumb
     … All of these forms of fabrication are going on in your mind all the time. Even though you’re getting the mind into concentration, they’re still going on, simply that you’re changing their focus. Focus on this: How do you change your breath so that it’s more enjoyable? How do you change your inner conversation so that it’s more willing … 
  19. Meditate Because You Have To
     … You’ve got all these forms of fabrication. They’re all happening right here. This is all you need to know. As for where all this is going to go, you don’t have to anticipate it. Notice, this is not a ninefold path with right anticipation someplace in there. You’ve got right mindfulness, right effort, right concentration. Those are the factors that … 
  20. The Brightness of Life
     … The Buddha talks about the mass of darkness that’s formed by ignorance—and we’re here to pierce that mass. Now, to do that requires that we develop our concentration, we develop our discernment—all the qualities of the noble eightfold path, but particularly the discernment. You engage in the path and then you reflect on it. The Buddha said this is how … 
  21. Steps in Concentration
     … It’s a mild form of depression, and that’s not what we want. We want equanimity that comes from a sense of being solidly based: The energy needs in the body are satisfied; your alertness is full, spreads wide around, doesn’t feel much restriction at all—just that need to stay balanced. This is going to be your refuge—and it’s … 
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