Search results for: "Greed"
- Page 42
- A Meditative Life… Be careful not to focus on things that will give rise to greed, anger, or delusion. If you’re careless in your looking, careless in your listening, it’s very difficult to be careful about your thoughts, because thoughts are so much more subtle. This doesn’t mean that you go around with blinders on your eyes or plugs in your ears; it simply …
- When Attacked by Distractions… There’s a part of it that’s always saying, “Am I getting what I want? Is this worth the effort?” A large part of meditation is learning how to be more objective and be more clear-seeing about, “Is it worth it?” This applies to greed, aversion, delusion, all the defilements that would pull you away—sleepiness, restlessness, and anxiety. We have ways …
- The Power of Truth… Focus in the body in and of itself—ardent, alert, and mindful—putting aside greed and distress with reference to the world. That’s the formula for mindfulness. Then he would say first you develop this concentration with directed thought and evaluation—that’s a jhana practice—then without directed thought and evaluation, with enjoyment, with equanimity. In other words, you take it through …
- Guardian Meditations… That’s the one you’ve got to watch out for—the one that makes excuses is already siding with the greed, aversion, and delusion. As Ajaan Mun said, “You have to have the attitude that you don’t want to come back and be the laughingstock of the defilements ever again.” You’ve got to have that kind of determination. You’ve had …
- A Frame of Reference… Then the Buddha says that, as you’re staying here, you put aside greed and distress with reference to the world. What that means is that if there are any thoughts of the world outside of the world of the breath, you just let them go. Any memories of what happened today, or plans for what’s going to happen tomorrow: They’re not …
- In Line with the Dhamma… Talk yourself into seeing why it’s a good thing to put an end to it, why you don’t want to side with your moments of greed, anger, and delusion, so that you actually have some enthusiasm for the path. The same with working on developing mindfulness, concentration, and discernment: Develop enthusiasm for these things because they’re good things. They’re useful …
- Not-self, Not No Self… If they come from greed, aversion, and delusion, you can tell yourself, “If I act on these thoughts, if I follow through with them, it’s going to cause trouble. I don’t want that.” So it can say No to those thoughts. As for thoughts that’ll lead to true happiness, you want to identify with them for the time being. So when …
- Top Priorities… Nobody’s going to mind the fact that you have less greed, less aversion, less delusion. And it’s a job that really can come to an end. This is one of the reasons, I think, they talked about the paramis of the Buddha. There are lots of disagreement on what the word parami comes from, but one of the possibilities is that the …
- Alone with Your Mind… This is what he discovered after having fought the mind past greed, aversion, and delusion. We’re so fortunate that we have a teaching like that. You can think about his wisdom, you can think about his purity, you can think about his compassion and remind yourself that this is what a human being is capable of. That’s uplifting because you can look …
- Purifying Gold… You’re trying to clear the mind of any greed, ill will, or wrong views, so check your views right now. Remember that right view says that some of the things you’re going to experience right now come from your past actions, and you have to accept them. But a lot comes from your present actions. In fact, when the Buddha gave the …
- All-around Eye… When the arguments for your greed, aversion, and delusion come in really strong, you can have a quick and effective response. One of the principles of his teachings on protection was that you have to protect yourself all around. All too often, you hear the teaching boiled down to a few short phrases: let go, accept, don’t be reactive. Even though simplifying your …
- Beyond Nature… After all, as the Buddha points out, even little babies have their greed, anger, and delusion. It’s just that their faculties and bodies aren’t strong enough to act on those defilements very powerfully. But they suffer powerfully: You can see that very clearly. As soon as a child comes out of the womb, it cries. A lot of the child’s early …
- Right Resolve in Real Life… Otherwise, your greed, aversion, and delusion hijack the breath and hold it hostage. They say, “Okay, we’re going to be making a lot of unpleasant feelings here in your body until you do something in line with what we want. And only then will we let it go.” That’s a pretty high price, because what they want you to do can often …
- On Not Twisting the Cow’s Horn… You’re sorting things out in here, whether they’re involved with greed, aversion, or delusion, or with things past, present, or future. Step back from them for a bit and try to identify, “Well, what’s the problem here? What does my mind latch onto? Is it habitually angry, or greedy or lustful or fearful?” Get a sense of what precisely the problem …
- Endurance & Restraint… The Buddha didn’t believe in burning away karma, but he did believe in burning away your greed, aversion, and delusion. And you do that through patient endurance. But the trick to patient endurance is not just putting up with things. You learn how to talk to yourself in a way that makes you eager to be enduring, eager to have that strength, because …
- Shaping the Present… You’re trying to calm it down so that the mind can let go of some of the tension around any greed, anger, aversion, jealousy, fear—whatever unskillful emotions are keeping the mind from settling down. We work with the breath here because often the problem is not so much with the mental side, but with the physical side, which aggravates things. When you …
- A Larger Perspective… Then you can come back to the present moment with a better perspective—the perspective that makes it easier, as the Buddha said, to put aside greed and distress with reference to the world. Otherwise, your concerns about your personal world, the world of your narratives, are going to come creeping back in again. So make use of this larger perspective. This is why …
- The Meaning of the Body… He said, “How do you do that? Take the body in and of itself as your frame of reference, ardent, alert, and mindful, putting aside greed and distress with regard to the world.” That’s one of the four ways of creating your island. In other words, you take the body just as it is, as you’re immediately experiencing it. And one way …
- Ironies… At first, you’re a slave to your emotions—a slave to your greed, anger, and delusion—but you also have this way of developing your own inner wealth, the wealth of mindfulness, the wealth of concentration, the wealth of discernment. And through that wealth, you can buy yourself out of slavery. That requires patience, requires dedication, the kind of patience and dedication we …
- Metta Metacognition… And when you meditate, you’re reducing the number of times you give into greed, aversion, and delusion. You benefit; the people around you benefit as well. And you benefit not only now, but also in the long term. These practices get you to think in the long term. That’s another important part of spreading thoughts of goodwill. As the Buddha said, this …
- Load next page...
