Search results for: "consciousness"
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- The First Noble Truth… We latch onto things like form, feeling, perceptions, fabrications, and consciousness as being us or ours. Or we latch onto the idea that they have to be this way or that way. And not only do we latch on. We feed on these things. That’s actually one of the meanings of the word for clinging, upadana: feeding. We try to get our nourishment …
- Learning How to Talk to Yourself… That gives you something consciously to do with these activities. So that when you’re not doing that, you’re aware of it. It’s like putting a dam across a river. You look at the river, and sometimes the surface of the river is very calm. But below the surface there may be a strong current. And you’re not going to know …
- Neither Here nor There… The Buddha says, “Do you see that dark shadow? That’s Mara trying to find where the consciousness of this monk is located, but’s not established anywhere.” Other passages actually say that nibbāna is neither here nor there, nor between the two. And the arahant is neither here nor there, nor between the two. Now, in English, when we say something is neither …
- Equanimity Isn’t Nibbana… We’re hungry for form, feeling, perceptions, thought fabrications, and consciousness. We suffer because we cling to these things. The word for “clinging”— upadana—also means to take sustenance from something. You feed on things, and it’s because you feed that you suffer. The Buddha’s solution is not simply to say, “Well, just stop feeding because there’s no really good food …
- A Strong Sense of Self… We may not be thinking consciously of it, but there is a subconscious sense that we’re going to open up our energy field so that we can connect. What you’re actually doing, though, is that you’re allowing someone else’s energy into your territory, which is not always a good thing. You want to maintain this sense that, “Okay, this is …
- Worlds… Stay with the breath as much as you consciously can. As you keep this up, after a while the storms begin to calm down. Then, if you’re holding onto the breath consistently enough, you can begin to see things a bit more precisely. You see more and more how much you’re conspiring with those various worlds coming in. But the initial principle …
- On the Path of the Breath… Whether he’s sending them consciously or not, you want to notice them. And then, when you can read his signs, you can anticipate his wants every day. As King Asoka once said in one of his edicts that if the people who worked for him were going to please him, they had to know what he wanted even before he knew. You have …
- Arising & Passing Away… What do you watch? Any of the themes that are among the factors of dependent co-arising—everything from fabrication in the mind to acts of consciousness, intentions, moments of attention, contact, feeling, perceptions, the physical elements in the body, the sense spheres, feelings, craving, clinging, becoming—any of these things. The problem is that you never know beforehand which of them is going …
- Guardian Meditations… You can consciously train yourself to perceive things in more useful, more skillful ways. There’s a series of meditations called guardian meditations, which are very helpful in using skillful perceptions to get the mind in the right mood, in the right attitude, with the right understanding, as you come into the present moment. You’ll often find, as you’re sitting here meditating …
- Developing Discernment… Where do you really go?” Because, consciously or not, we’re always mapping our lives against the lives of other people. We’ve seen somebody out there whose life seems to be a good life. And we’ve been mapping our lives on that. Sometimes it’s in seeing other people having fun: We’d like to have fun the way they do. Seeing …
- Well-being Despite It All… And just before I lost consciousness, I had a vision of America. I was out like a light for a while, and then I came back to. Later on, I happened to mention that to Ajaan Fuang, and he said that if I’d died at that point, that’s where I would have been reborn, in America, in line with the vision. This …
- Dealing with Limitations… As the Buddha said, when you become a being, you identify with form, feeling, perception, fabrications, or consciousness of particular kinds. And whatever way you identify yourself, that’s how you limit yourself. You gain certain powers by bringing those things under your control, but you also take on certain limitations. Those limitations may not be getting in the way of the particular task …
- The Sublime Attitudes… Form, feeling, perceptions, thought-constructs, consciousness: These are not self. But we are the owners of our actions. “Think about that,” he said. In other words, don’t latch on to the results of your actions; latch on to the fact that you’re making the decisions right now, all the time. Once a decision has been made, it’s been put into a …
- The Breath All the Way… As the Buddha said, in every experience of form, feeling, perception, fabrication, and consciousness, there’s an intentional element. A thought arises in the mind and you get involved, turning it into a state of becoming, a little world in which you can dwell. A feeling arises, and you elaborate on it. A perception arises and either you go with it or you don …
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