Search results for: "The Sangha"

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2. Play AudioRespect for Heedfulness
    … someone like the Buddha who discovered the path and the Sangha, people who followed the Buddha’s example and found the same freedom, total freedom from suffering, the same true happiness. Respect for the teaching that the Buddha and the Sangha have passed on. When you have this proper attitude of respect, respect for heedfulness, the proper respect for stress and pain, respect for … 
3. Play AudioBeing Responsible
   One of Ajaan Lee’s favorite teachings was that when you take refuge in the Buddha, the Dhamma, and the Sangha, the real refuge is when you internalize their qualities. If you take refuge simply on the external level, the Buddha is the person who lived 2,600 years ago, the Dhamma is the Dhamma in books, the Sangha is the noble Sangha—somebody … 
4. Play AudioBowing & Chanting
    … That’s what the Buddha, the Dhamma, and the Sangha represent. They’re not just the Buddha as a person or the Dhamma he taught or the monastic Sangha or all the great, noble ones of the past and the present. They also represent qualities of the mind. In case of the Buddha, those qualities are compassion, wisdom, and purity. If you really want … 
5. Play AudioDirectly & Indirectly to the Breath
    … For instance, the Buddha talks about taking the Buddha, the Dhamma, and the Sangha as objects of recollection. You could think about the life story of the Buddha and focus on the details you find inspiring—whether it’s the fact that he gave up all of his power and wealth, or that he was kind to people of all kinds. There’s that … 
6. Play AudioTrustworthy Judgment
    … Formally this is called taking refuge in the Buddha, the Dhamma, and the Sangha. This is why we have those chants about the Buddha, the Dhamma and the Sangha every evening, to keep our refuge in mind. We think of them, we think of the Buddha’s life, the lives of the members of the noble Sangha. We think of their qualities. And it … 
7. Play AudioChanting Before Meditation
    … We start out with reflections on the Buddha, the Dhamma, and the Sangha. In Pali, they’re called sarana, which can mean refuge, but it can also mean something you remember, something you keep in mind. You try to keep in mind the values they represent, the qualities they represent, because they represent a search for happiness that harms nobody and aims high: for … 
8. Play AudioEvaluation
    … When you get discouraged, you can think about members of the Sangha in the past who seemed to have reached a dead end in their meditation but then were able to break through. Reflect on the Buddha, the Dhamma, and the Sangha. Reflect on death when you’re lazy. Contemplate the body when you’re feeling lustful. The Buddha offers lots of techniques. And … 
9. Play AudioA Matter of Life & Death
    … We talk about taking refuge in the Buddha, the Dhamma, and the Sangha, but ultimately this is what it means: taking their qualities and developing them in your mind so that you can depend on them, so that you can have them at hand wherever you go. When you feel that things are too difficult, you have to stop and consider: Are they really … 
10. Play AudioTruthful & Observant
     … You go to the Buddha for refuge, the Dhamma for refuge, the Sangha refuge. Three times you say that. Three times. In one sense, it does mean that you take your strength from things outside, the example the Buddha. If we didn’t have the example of someone who could find true happiness through his own efforts, it’d be very daunting prospect to … 
11. Play AudioFinding Balance
     … Or you can recollect the Buddha, the Dhamma, the Sangha—anything that you find to be a congenial topic for right now. And again, you want a topic that’s a good antidote for whatever imbalance there may be in the mind. When you feel lazy, it’s good to reflect on death. Death can come at any time, zapping you right in the … 
12. Play AudioCircumspection
     … When you reflect on the Sangha, you reflect on Moggallana with his psychic powers and his compassion. It’s an interesting connection: psychic powers and compassion. Ajaan Lee did have a lot of psychic powers, and he devoted them to compassionate purposes. He helped people with their poverty. He helped people with their illnesses. When he would go into the forest, it wasn’t … 
13. Play AudioA Heart Set on Goodwill
     … Devadatta was a monk who wanted to become Buddha, who asked the Buddha to retire so that he could take over the Sangha. The Buddha said some pretty sharp words about him: “I wouldn’t hand the Sangha over to a lickspittle like this guy.” Devadatta got the prince on his side and told him, “Okay, I’ll kill the Buddha and you kill … 
14. Play AudioAll Dhamma, All the Time
     … There’s an academic writer I was reading a while back saying that the Buddha probably didn’t want people to take refuge in him, or the Dhamma or the Sangha, just take refuge in themselves. He simply tolerated it when people took refuge in the Triple Gem—that was the academic’s idea. But the Buddha said over and over again that you … 
15. Play AudioEncourage Yourself
     … When you get discouraged like that, one of the things the Buddha has you think about is sanghanussati, recollection of the Sangha. Think of all the people who’ve practiced meditation over the past couple of thousand years. Not everybody had it easy. As the Buddha said, there are basically four types of practice: fast and easy, fast and painful, slow and easy, slow … 
16. Play AudioWho’s in Charge Here?
     … We talk about taking the Buddha, the Dhamma, and the Sangha as a refuge. What that means is that we take their qualities and we try to realize them inside. Their potentials are there within us: the qualities of compassion, discernment, purity. They’re there in potential form. And the Buddha shows that if you develop those potentials, they can take you far. So … 
17. Play AudioHow to Read the Dhamma
     … When you read about the members of the Sangha, though, it’s different. Here’s an illustration of the principle that Ven. Ananda talked about: You read or hear that there are others who have attained awakening. You think, “They’re human beings, they can do it. I’m a human being, I can do it too.” When you read the accounts given in … 
18. Play AudioA Home for the Mind
     … We have the chants of the Buddha, the Dhamma, and the Sangha to remind you of the values behind this practice—that the happiness you find in life depends on your actions. Where do your actions come from? They come from the mind. And if the mind isn’t well trained, it can destroy its own happiness very easily. That’s why we’re … 
19. Play AudioThe Armored Car
     … And what we keep in mind is the Buddha, the Dhamma, and the Sangha. We start with the fact that there was a Buddha. He found this path. The path is still alive. It’s still an open option. It’s so easy to forget that as you get involved in the affairs of the world. But you’ve got to remember that what … 
20. Play AudioAsalha Puja
     … We take refuge in the Buddha, the Dhamma, and the Sangha because they’ve comprehended suffering, they’ve abandoned its cause, they’ve realized its cessation by developing the path. We take refuge in them because we believe that what they were able to do applies to us as well. If we want happiness in our lives, this is what we have to do … 
21. Play AudioSpecifically
     … It’s accomplished by taking refuge in the Buddha, the Dhamma, and the Sangha. We say these things over and over again, so it’s good to stop and think about what they mean. Of the three, the most important is the Dhamma. Then the Buddha is important because he discovered the Dhamma and taught it. The Sangha is important because it helps keep … 
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