Search results for: "Dhamma"

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  2. The Right Piece in the Right Puzzle
     … When we come to the Dhamma, it’s as if the Buddha gives us another map: a map to a world in which the end of suffering is possible. In some cases, the map comes with the pieces put together, but there seem to be other pieces that are missing. Or there are pieces in a pile there on the table, and we’re … 
  3. Seeing with the Body
     … The first experience of Awakening is the opening of the Dhamma Eye. Full Awakening comes with knowledge and vision of things as they have come to be. But there are also passages that describe this knowledge as something sensed not through the inner eye, but through the body. All the teachings about jhana are concerned with gaining a sense of ease and wellbeing from … 
  4. What’s Real
     … That’s why his Dhamma is a gift to the entire world of all beings, and it’s up to us to decide whether we want to put ourselves within the net of those “all beings” by choosing to put the Dhamma into practice.
  5. The Forerunner of All Things
     … We talk about the Buddha, Dhamma, and Sangha as being a treasure or a gem. In the old days, people believed that gems had a protective power. Well, if you develop the Buddha’s qualities, the Dhamma’s qualities, the Sangha’s qualities, they have a protective power. They protect you from doing things you’re later going to regret, and from doing things … 
  6. Worthy of Trust
     … What does that mean? We take the Buddha, the Dhamma, and the Sangha on one level as examples to follow; on another level, we internalize their virtues. We make the virtues of the Buddha our virtues, we build them into the mind. The virtues of the Dhamma become our virtues, we build them into the mind. The virtues of the noble Sangha: We become … 
  7. To Disturb Your Complacency
     … So much of the teaching of the Dhamma is in questions. I’ve been going through the suttas, collecting the different passages where the Buddha or his disciples give a teaching and the people listening to the teaching gain either the Dhamma eye—in other words, one of the lower levels of awakening—or they gain full awakening while listening. What’s striking is … 
  8. Delight in the Breath
     … On top of that, our desires can go in ways that are counter to the Dhamma. They get everything all confused. Let’s try to keep things simple. Just now we chanted the Dhammacakkappavattana Sutta, which is all about the four noble truths. It starts from a very basic question: Why is there pain? Why is there suffering? And is there a way to … 
  9. Matters of Life & Death
     … Have the determination that you want to go someplace where you can practice, where you can hear the Dhamma, and have an opportunity to practice the Dhamma. What this means is that you have to train the mind in how to navigate some very narrow passages. It’s like a ship that has to go through a very narrow strait. So you try to … 
  10. Friends Inside & Out
     … Two of them have to do with the Dhamma: knowing what the Dhamma is and what the meaning of the Dhamma is. That kind of thing can be passed along in words. But the five other qualities are things you can talk about in general terms but you can’t really pass the knowledge along in words. You have to watch your friend in … 
  11. Looking Inward
    We come to practice the Dhamma because we’ve seen that the real troubles in our lives don’t come from outside. They come from within: our own lack of skill in dealing with things. The world may give us bad things to deal with, but we can make something good out of them. If we sit around waiting for the world to be … 
  12. What Am I Becoming as Days & Nights Fly Past?
     … In the Buddha’s list of qualities that he taught to Gotami about what counts as Dhamma and what doesn’t count as Dhamma, some of the qualities have to do with the goal at which you’re aiming: You’re aiming at being unfettered, you’re aiming at dispassion. Some of them have to do with qualities that you develop within yourself, like … 
  13. Wandering On, Shooting Arrows
     … This is why the Buddha said that passion for the Dhamma is one of the things that leads to happiness. A question came up the other day, “What’s the difference between passion and will?” With passion, you’re feeding on your desire. With will, you have desires that things come out a certain way, and you want them to be a certain way … 
  14. Keep Your Spirits Up
     … It could be the Buddha, the Dhamma, the Sangha; your own virtue, your own generosity; the fact that you have the qualities that would make a person a deva. Those are things you could think about, too. Think about that inspiring theme until the mind settles down, happy to be with that theme, and then see if you can transfer that sense of calm … 
  15. Breath Energies
     … One is to practice, as when you practice the Dhamma or carry out a job. The other one is when you look after somebody. You patibat khruba ajaan, or patibat phuu yai, or patibat phaw mae—i.e., you tend to the needs of your teacher, your elders, or your parents. The ajaans will often make the comment that when we practice the Dhamma … 
  16. Respect for Concentration
     … You even get some “Dhamma” teachers who say, “Well, you know, the Buddha wasn’t all that awakened after all. He still had his shadow side. He still had his doubts and emotional issues.” What does that leave? It leaves us nothing. Everything else in the world just swirls around, but the Buddha insisted that this is something of essence. The word he used … 
  17. Gladden, Steady, Release
     … This is why it’s good to listen to the Dhamma, why it’s good to read the Dhamma. It teaches you new ways of talking to your mind, ways that are actually good for you. One of the nice things about the Buddha’s teachings is that its range of shoulds, the tasks that the Buddha sets for you, are based on giving … 
  18. Against the Grain
     … If you really want the Dhamma, you have to not only be committed to developing right concentration but you also have to be very reflective. Is this really as good as it gets? The natural response is Yes. And the fact that we’re trying to fight that natural response shows the extent to which the practice is unnatural. After all, what is the … 
  19. Skillful Judgment
     … The first two have to do with knowledge of the Dhamma: You know the Dhamma and you know its meaning. The rest have to do with being observant. To begin with, you know yourself. You know where your strong points are. You know where your weak points are. You know where you’ve acted skillfully. You know where you’ve acted unskillfully. And you … 
  20. Trustworthy Judgment
     … Formally this is called taking refuge in the Buddha, the Dhamma, and the Sangha. This is why we have those chants about the Buddha, the Dhamma and the Sangha every evening, to keep our refuge in mind. We think of them, we think of the Buddha’s life, the lives of the members of the noble Sangha. We think of their qualities. And it … 
  21. The Intelligent Heart
     … As the Buddha said, “All dhammas, all phenomena, are rooted in desire,” and desire is the heart side of your citta. What we want determines so many things in life. We have to learn how to train our wants. As we’re sitting here practicing, you’re not just focusing your mind on the breath, you’re also focusing your heart. Come wholeheartedly to … 
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