Search results for: "Fabrication"
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- Skills for Living & Dying… When the Buddha lists the factors of dependent co-arising, the breath is way down there, toward the beginning—as part of fabrication, which is right after ignorance. This means that the breath is prior to feelings. It’s prior to our sense of the solidity of the body. What we’re doing is trying to bring knowledge to this process of fabrication, this …
- The Fangs of Conceit… There are the movements of feelings—when you feel things, when you perceive things, when you fabricate things in the mind for certain purposes. When you fabricate a thought, it doesn’t mean that you’re lying about it. It’s simply that you cobble things together for whatever purpose you have in mind. This is how we get through the day. This is …
- Tools of Perception… The perception of form is gone, and what you’re left with is feeling, perception, thought fabrication, and consciousness. But even these aggregates are not the ultimate terms. In the commentaries they talk about this being the ultimate description of reality: the five aggregates. But the Buddha advises us to go on to perceive whatever arises and passes away simply as stress arising and …
- Heedfulness is the Path… As he said, all fabricated things are subject to change, subject to passing away. It’s through heedfulness that we find what’s not subject to change, what’s not subject to passing away, something that’s not fabricated. As he said, “Heedlessness is the path to death, but heedfulness is the path to the deathless.” And it all starts right here within our …
- Pure Action… The breath is here, directed thought and evaluation—verbal fabrication: That’s right here as we think about the breath and watch and evaluate the breath. As for the feelings and perceptions that are mental fabrications: They’re right here as well. Everything you need to make a radical change in your life is right here. It’s simply a matter of looking, probing …
- Three Recollections… These states of concentration were fabricated. Anything that was fabricated was bound to end at some point. So it didn’t come up to his standards. He wanted something deathless. He subjected himself to extreme austerities to see if they would lead to awakening. The thoroughness with which he observed those austerities was pretty amazing. But also, what was even more amazing was when …
- Determination… This whole process of fabrication—where we fabricate the aggregates and create a sense of ourselves, create a sense of the world—is always done for the sake of something. And the Buddha’s basically saying the best “for the sake of” would be for the sake of awakening. That does give meaning to your life, and it certainly doesn’t involve doing nothing …
- Dharma Medicine… for example, the five aggregates of form, feeling, perception, fabrication, and consciousness. This is the Buddha’s analysis of suffering. When you suffer, there is going to be clinging to one of these five things. So it’s useful to look at whatever the suffering is in these terms, whether it’s an uncomfortable experience in the body, or an uncomfortable state of mind …
- A Heart Wider than the World… As Ajaan Lee put it, “Things explode, beyond the world.” There’s the dimension that’s not confined by the things fabricated by the world or fabricated by your mind. Discernment is what’s going to see that possibility. Before it actually sees it, it holds it as a working hypothesis—something you have confidence in, and you allow that hypothesis to define your …
- When Attacked by Distractions… You’ve got to look at what the Buddha calls the mental fabrications that go into sensuality. What are the feeling tones and perceptions you’re holding in mind that make this kind of thinking attractive? The same applies to anger, the same applies to whatever thoughts you find addictive: What perceptions do you hold in mind? The Buddha offers a few alternative perceptions …
- In Line with the Dhamma… There’s a passage where he divides dhammas into two types, fabricated and unfabricated. The highest fabricated dhamma, he says, is the noble eightfold path. It’s highest because it leads to the highest unfabricated dhamma, which is dispassion. This is important. We have to have some passion for the path. We can’t just decide that we’re going to give up any …
- Many Desires, Many Selves… See where there are perceptions or thought fabrications or feelings that go together to build up this state of becoming. All kinds of things go into this. When we learn these impersonal terms, we realize that if we look at our desires impersonally, it’s a lot easier to pull ourselves out of them. That’s what we’re trying to do as we …
- The Buddha’s Last Word… Ajaan Lee talks about how you start out with the perception, a sañña, and then you fabricate something out of it. Ajaan Maha Boowa talks about there being a little stirring in the mind which is the beginning of a saṅkhāra or fabrication, and you slap a sañña on it to give it some meaning. And they’re both right. Their analysis in each …
- Distractive Thoughts… Last night I was talking about the different kinds of fabrication you can use to deal with unskillful thoughts in the mind. This type of mental fabrication—i.e., using pleasure and using pain as tools in the practice—was the one that fell through the cracks. But it’s an important element in the meditation, an important approach. If you’re willing to …
- Heedfulness… What happens when you drop those perceptions? Then there are thought constructs, thought fabrications: the means with which we talk to ourselves—as when you’re talking to yourself right now. Are you talking to yourself about the breath, or are you talking about something else? How about talking about the breath and about the way your mind is relating to the breath, how …
- Insight Is Seeing What’s Worth Doing… All these things are what the Buddha calls fabrication. He says we engage in fabrication in ignorance, which is why we suffer. But when we can do it with knowledge, it becomes part of the path. As for anything that pulls you away from the path, you can ask yourself, “Will this lead to my long-term welfare and happiness?” If you’re honest …
- Thoughts About Thinking… Your discernment is going to require perceptions and thought-fabrications. So if you come across a perception, how do you know whether it’s part of the problem or part of the solution? You ask some questions. You look at its behavior. This is an aspect of the Buddha’s teachings that’s really distinctive: looking at the behavior of those activities in the …
- Step Back & Watch… You can see whatever comes up as a kind of fabrication. So you try to put yourself in the stillest spot possible to sense that kind of fabrication and to keep that question in mind: What are you doing here that maintains this? Sometimes you hear the teaching that, as you meditate, you shouldn’t do anything, you should just be. The being is …
- The Unity of the Path… As the Buddha shows, as you get the mind settled in concentration and you start looking for even a deeper sense of peace, a deeper sense of solidity, you start noticing that even the factors of right concentration are fabricated. They come and they go. They contain a level of stress that rises and falls. You can notice this either as you’re in …
- The Second Noble Truth… form, feeling, perceptions, mental fabrications, and consciousness at the senses. We try to grab onto these things, to pull ourselves to safety, to find some place to rest, because as the Buddha said, it’s only when there’s peace, when there’s a sense of resting, that the mind has any real happiness. And yet, this is all that the river can grow …
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