Search results for: "Form"

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  2. 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 … 
  3. 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 … 
  4. 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 … 
  5. 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 … 
  6. 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 … 
  7. 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 … 
  8. 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 … 
  9. 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 … 
  10. 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 … 
  11. 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 … 
  12. 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 … 
  13. 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 … 
  14. 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 … 
  15. Rottweilers in the House
     … And restraint takes two forms. There’s restraint over what you bring in—through your eyes, ears, nose, tongue, body, and mind—and restraint over what you let out: your physical actions, your words, and your thoughts. Ajaan Lee makes the comparison: It’s like having a house, and restraint means knowing when to open the windows and doors, and when to keep them … 
  16. The Right Place to Look
     … So even though you’re focused mainly on the breath, ultimately you’ll find that you start seeing these other forms of fabrication as well. And that’s when you can really see the mind, as you watch it in action. Those same fabrications are the ones you’ll have to deal with as death comes and you’re leaving the body, so it … 
  17. Goodwill Is Respect
     … Use all the different forms of fabrication—bodily, verbal, and mental—to foster a really heartfelt attitude of goodwill. You learn how to breathe in a way that gives rise to a sense of well-being in the body. You allow the breath. Notice that: You allow it. You can’t make yourself breathe comfortably. Sometimes, the harder you try to make it comfortable … 
  18. Take Care of Your Tools
     … Unhealthy conceit is thinking that you’ve made yourself better than other people because you’ve got this concentration, or because you have some form of knowledge—whatever’s come up. The Buddha has you remind yourself that once you have that kind of thought, then the basis for the thought, the basis for your claim, has disappeared and turned into something else. In … 
  19. Lessons from Generosity & Virtue
     … They also remind you also that you’re capable of overcoming some of the mind’s more blatant forms of greed, aversion, and delusion. As the Buddha pointed out, the way we define ourselves as beings is around the act of feeding. To maintain your identity, you have to eat physical food, but there’s also mental and emotional food that you take in … 
  20. Resolute Good Humor
     … pleasure, rapture; more pleasure, more rapture; pleasure without rapture, but still very pleasant; and equanimity, which was also a form of pleasure. That’s food along the path. Now, the other extreme is the idea being that we’re coming to a goal that’s totally relaxed, totally without tension, totally without any kind of stress, therefore we shouldn’t have any stress on … 
  21. Unlearning Unskillful Behavior
     … So remember that the teachings are a very consistent form of common sense, working on what is your responsibility, and putting aside things that are not your responsibility. Your unskillful habits are your responsibility, so do whatever you need to do to overcome them.
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