Search results for: "Becoming"

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  2. Again & Again
     … Okay, try to get it to settle down again, and then again, in different situations—some more difficult than others—until you become really good at observing yourself. There has to be that question of, “What am I doing that I’m not seeing?” Start by focusing on the breath. Do what you think is the best way of focusing on the breath, getting … 
  3. Mindfulness Defined
     … The fourth jhana is where mindfulness becomes pure. The four frames of reference, the focal points of mindfulness, are also the themes of concentration. As Ajaan Lee notes, when mindfulness—the ability to keep something in mind—grows stronger, it becomes the jhana factor called vitakka or directed thought, where you really keep your thoughts focussed on one thing consistently. As for alertness, it … 
  4. Pure Action
     … It begins to loosen up a lot of other old habitual patterns in the mind and the body, so that the mind really does become ready to train because you begin to see viscerally the results that come from the training. There’s so much in the mind that resists any kind of change. It says, “This is the way I thought in the … 
  5. Seriously Happy
     … Sometimes, the more you force them, the more recalcitrant they become, the more resistant and stubborn they become. But you do have to make sure that you take care of your own intentions toward other beings. And you can take this as an opportunity to learn about happiness. A certain part of it is in seeing that happiness comes from actions. As you look … 
  6. Truth in Action
     … This is when the meditation really becomes yours. It’s not an exercise imposed on you from outside, or some weird relic from some foreign culture that we’re playing with. It’s an opportunity for you to look at how your mind works and how you’re fashioning, fabricating the present moment all the time—to make you more sensitive to that process … 
  7. Sensitivity & Skill
     … The story illustrates an important part about becoming. Where your desires are focused is going to determine who you are, the identity you take on. The lower the level of the desire, the lower the level of happiness, pleasure and well-being you’re looking for—that’s all covered by one word in Pali, sukha—then the lower the state of your mind … 
  8. For Goodness’ Sake
     … We have that phrase in English, “for goodness’ sake.” It’s been repeated so many times that it’s become just a matter of emphasis. It’s lost its real meaning. The real meaning is that you do something because it would lead to good results, for the sake of the goodness it would yield. That’s your motivation. So ideally, you want to … 
  9. Integrity — In Memory of Luang Loong
     … Everything that’s yours becomes not-yours. So it’s not all that consoling a thought, because all the things that you shore up here on this earth in this lifetime to provide for yourself in the future: Once you leave the body, you don’t have any guarantee that that stuff is going to go with you. In fact, you’re going to … 
  10. Joyous Discernment
     … That way, your concentration really does become an effective way of seeing what’s going on in the mind, rather than something that simply blankets over what’s going on there. If it’s a blanketing kind of concentration, all it does is keep things still and under control for a while, but it never uproots anything. In fact, it’s like the kind … 
  11. Chewed Up by Your Food
     … The more you’re open to the idea, the more likely that the possibility really will become an actuality for you. Always keep in mind it is possible to become totally free. This is the Buddha’s guarantee, the guarantee of all the noble disciples. It’s up to each of us to test that guarantee for ourselves.
  12. Can All Beings Be Happy?
     … As the Buddha said, when you become generous, it’s also good to encourage other people to be generous as well. When you’re virtuous and you see the rewards of virtue, you try to encourage others to be virtuous, too. As you gain more conviction in the Buddha’s awakening and see in particular the results of holding to the principle of action … 
  13. Not Getting What You Want
     … The joy becomes the basis for concentration, then discernment, then release. So that version of dependent co-arising ends positively, with suffering leading you ultimately to follow the path that gets you to something that’s not dependent, something independent—which is total release. It’s interesting to think about how that connection between suffering and conviction comes about. Remember, in suffering there’s … 
  14. Calm in the Storm
     … The breath energy and the meditation as a whole become more interesting when you see that you’re exploring, experimenting, trying things out. When you learn how to develop the kind of focus that, instead of tightening up around the spot of the focus, actually helps to disperse things—to disperse tension, to disperse feelings of dis-ease—then you’ve mastered a really … 
  15. Nobility Is the Best Policy
     … The question then becomes, “How do I get the most out of them before the separation?” And here, “getting the most out of them,” means getting both the most happiness and the most goodness. Think of Ajaan Chah’s image of the broken cup. He picked up a good cup one day and told his listeners, “This cup is already broken.” Then he explained … 
  16. A Position of Strength
     … You realize that your center of security is in here, first with the breath and then, as you develop it, it becomes more centered in the mind itself. That’s when you can learn how to trust yourself. So take advantage of the different potentials you have here right now. When the Buddha taught mindfulness, say, of feelings or mindfulness of mind states, he … 
  17. A Questioning Attitude
     … There are lots of cases of people who stayed in strong states of concentration and then become Brahmas. Then they fell from that state. And as we’ve seen in the jhana wars, people can get very, very attached and very, very proud of their jhana attainments. The Buddha talks about what he calls a person of no integrity who takes his jhana attainment … 
  18. Play with the Breath
     … You become friends with the breath; the breath becomes friends with you. You spend more and more time together because the friendship is rewarding.
  19. In Accordance with the Dhamma
     … You become dispassionate and you become unfettered. When you develop dispassion for the way you’ve been feeding, and you decide that you’ve had enough of this because it’s not worth it, that’s when you let go. And when you let go, you’re freed. The fetters fall away. This is why the Buddha used the image of a flame going … 
  20. Pleasure from the Body
     … Ajaan Lee gives the image of waking-up the elements of the body—in other words, becoming sensitive to all the different areas where energy flows in the body, where it’s been blocked, what you can do to unblock it, and trying to keep yourself as fully aware of as many of these spots as you can, all at once. When you do … 
  21. Isolating the Aggregates
     … You have to realize that there are lots of little centers in the body, little sensation centers, and all you have to do is give them a little bit of space, and then a feeling of what seems like neutrality to begin with will actually become pleasurable—if you give it space, if you’re not pushing and pulling it around too much. Then … 
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