Search results for: "Dhamma"

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  2. Where You Set Your Heart
     … As a result, they came to the Dhamma for safety. ** So I was somewhat taken aback when I came back to the States and saw the Dhamma being discussed as a celebration of our interconnectedness: learning how to be vulnerable, learning how to be open to our connectedness with all things. And that would be our safety. But as we’ve seen, the world … 
  3. Take Care
     … We’ve been receiving some Dhamma magazines recently, and they show lots of evidence of carelessness. A chance remark that one teacher makes in a magazine can affect people’s lives for a long time to come. It may strike them in a certain way, and then they think, “Gee, this must be the Dhamma.” Then they take it to heart and live in … 
  4. You Are Not a Textbook
     … We think we’re getting to know the Dhamma, and the Dhamma says that insight means this, insight means that. But the practice basically means getting sensitive to what you’re doing, realizing where you’re causing yourself unnecessary suffering. That’s what the four noble truths are all about. I was reading a passage a while back, a footnote in a book of … 
  5. Ajaan Fuang’s Stories
     … Especially in the beginning, in the months when I was first there with him, he would give a Dhamma talk. Sometimes the talk would be quite long. I didn’t appreciate at the time how rare that was, because in later years he tended to be a man of few words. But those first couple of months, I guess, he decided he wanted to … 
  6. Oneness
    Oneness August 2, 2007 Once, when Ajaan Suwat was here, he asked me to give the Dhamma talk in Thai. I had been translating Ajaan Lee, so I used one of Ajaan Lee’s images: comparing the practice to digging a well. Generosity was like a very shallow well, virtue a deeper well, whereas concentration was a well down to the water table. Afterwards … 
  7. Respect for the Training
     … We want to go to the higher Dhamma, things that are more abstract that seem to be more in line with our level of intelligence. As a result, we tend to miss a lot of the really good lessons that can be learned from paying attention to the basics, giving them a lot of respect. Like the precepts: There are a lot of people … 
  8. Success by Approximation
     … We’re often taught that the Dhamma’s all about trusting. And it’s true that you have to learn how to trust the Buddha and trust your desire for true happiness. But there are things you have to be wary of, both inside and out. I mean, that’s what heedfulness means. So we’re not being unkind when we decide that certain … 
  9. Helping Others
     … The same principle applies as you practice the Dhamma in daily life. We like to think that we can get our minds in order—get everything straightened out inside—and *then *we help other people. But there are times when other people need help and we’re not really ready yet, and yet we cannot *not *help them. So that’s a case where … 
  10. Learn from the Ants
     … Look for it.” I was listening the other day to a Dhamma talk in which someone was saying that the expression of stream-entry, the expression of the Dhamma-eye, is that whatever arises passes away. The end of suffering comes when you just accept that. Look for the fact that whatever you love and hold on to is going to leave you someday … 
  11. No Slivers in the Heart
     … He said that he liked to listen to my Dhamma talks because of the crickets in the background. So tonight we have coyotes. The Canon tells of the time when the Buddha was wounded. Devadatta had hurled a big rock down a mountain, hoping to crush the Buddha. The rock was split into many pieces. It ran into another rock and one of the … 
  12. Sunrise, Sunset
     … He was able to read my mind, I was convinced, and if any random, unskillful thoughts went through it, their content would be the topic of a Dhamma discussion that evening. And I benefited from that. It’s what the Thais call high-level goodwill, where you want the best for somebody, which means that you demand good work from them. Ideally, a teacher … 
  13. Introduction
    Introduction The Noble Search for Happiness June 6, 2007 We practice the Dhamma to create a refuge. It starts as a refuge for ourselves, but it spreads around to protect other people as well. What do we need refuge from? Primarily, our own stupidity, our own carelessness, our own lack of skill. We want happiness—everything we do is based on the desire for … 
  14. A Good Example for the World
     … You’ve got the opportunity now to practice the Dhamma. If we don’t take this opportunity, then when we come back the next time we may forget all about this. And who knows how long it’s going to take to find a way back to the Dhamma? But when you see that there are people in the world who have been practicing … 
  15. Owners of Our Actions
     … He says that we take refuge in the Buddha, the Dhamma, and the Sangha, but then again the Buddha says the self is its own mainstay, so how do you put those together? You do it by trying to develop the qualities of the Buddha, the Dhamma, and the Sangha inside you, and then you can depend on yourself. The Buddha gives a long … 
  16. Customs of the Noble Ones
     … You don’t have to keep on reinventing the Dhamma wheel all on your own. But others can only give that: advice. The work is work we have to do ourselves. That’s the second realization in the question, “What, when I do it will be for my long-term welfare and happiness?” is that happiness has to come from your own actions. It … 
  17. Stop & Think
     … We’ve learned about the Dhamma and had other good opportunities so far. How much longer they’re going to last, we don’t know. But you have to remember: Death is not the end. You can find hope in that, but you can also find a sense of threat. If you’re not skillful, if you come back in the wrong ways, it … 
  18. Four Mountains Moving In
     … Given this horrible destruction of human life, and realizing how valuable and how rare the human state is, what would you do?” The king responds, “What else can I do but good conduct, Dhamma conduct, meritorious deeds, skillful deeds?” Then the Buddha goes on to say, “In that case, great king, I inform you: aging, illness, and death are rolling in, crushing all living … 
  19. Like an Athlete in Training
     … In this way, you protect the Dhamma inside yourself, which is where it’s best protected. You look outside, and sometimes it’s hard to see it out there, so you focus your main attention inside. Protect what Dhamma you have with restraint, with a clear sense of priorities, and with a very live awareness that we are in training. We’re training to … 
  20. A Questioning Attitude
    A person who had read a lot of Dhamma books once came to see Ajaan Fuang and told him about her practice. She kept watch on her mind, she said, and any time a defilement appeared, she would uproot it. Ajaan Fuang told her, “Watch out, sometimes while you’re uprooting it, it bears fruit and drops a seed, and grows into another defilement … 
  21. A Self Rightly Directed
     … He had to deal in an imperfect world, both prior to his awakening and afterwards; trying to set up the Dhamma and the Vinaya, dealing with all kinds of people. In Thai, they have the term khon, which means person, but khon can also mean stir. And often they joke about how wherever you have a person, things get stirred up. Well, think of … 
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