Search results for: "The Four Noble Truths"

  1. Page 43
  2. Murderers, Vipers, & Floods, Oh My!
     … And then finally there’s the flood of ignorance, which covers all the other things that are going to come washing over you as you practice, all the wrong ways of paying attention to things that don’t view those things in line with the four noble truths. You’ve got to stand firm. Keep paddling away. You hold onto the raft. Of course … 
  3. The Karma that Ends Karma
     … But if you learn to pose the right questions — and these are basically questions that come from the four noble truths — “Where is the stress? What are you doing that’s causing the stress?”: Insight starts with simple things like this. What’s tense in the breath? What’s tense in the body? Where is there any blockage in the body that’s really … 
  4. Customs of the Noble Ones
     … After all, do have the preference of wanting to put an end to suffering—of wanting to train the mind to follow through with all the skills of the four noble truths to comprehend suffering, abandon its cause, realize its cessation by developing the path. That preference you don’t abandon. But the preferences that would go against those duties: Those are the ones … 
  5. Always in Training
     … your duties with regard to the four noble truths—to comprehend suffering, abandon its cause, realize its cessation by developing the path. So this is what reflection of death is for. When the Buddha talks about being in the present moment, it’s always focused in the context of recollection of death. We’re here because there’s work to be done and right … 
  6. Acceptance
     … This understanding is what allows you to cut through the causes with more and more precision, to get more skillful at all the duties of the four noble truths. When you’re really skilled at these things, dropping the obsessions that cause suffering, the mind grows lighter and lighter. It’s unburdened. You don’t have to waste your energy, carrying the weight of … 
  7. Restraint
     … So all of these aspects of a good determination—discernment, truth, relinquishment, calm—come down to discernment, because they’re related to the duties for the four noble truths. You realize you’re suffering and you can see the cause of suffering inside, so you have to develop good qualities to overcome that cause. That’s what the determination is all about: developing good … 
  8. Training Your Minds
     … Even though it’s part of the duties of the four noble truths, the duty doesn’t have to be a chore. There are lots of duties that you can learn how to enjoy. The fifth approach is to stamp down on the thoughts. The Buddha’s image is of two strong men beating down a weaker man. He says to press your tongue … 
  9. Watching Over Time
     … That’s the basic framework for the four noble truths. I’ve always found it interesting, when reading through the Buddhist texts, to look at the way the Buddha talks to children, or at the teachings specifically directed at children, because they’re very revealing. They cut things down to the most basic level, in ways that you miss if you’re looking at … 
  10. Factors for Awakening
     … We often describe appropriate attention as looking at things in terms of the four noble truths, but that level of appropriate attention builds on another level of appropriate attention, which is simply seeing what’s skillful and unskillful in your actions, judging your actions by the results they yield. This involves questioning. It’s not simply a matter of conviction, although the simple fact … 
  11. Nuts & Bolts
     … We deal with the nuts and bolts of how our minds lie to themselves—because that’s the message of the four noble truths. The first noble truth is not just that there is suffering. Suffering is the things we cling to. We think we’re getting something good out of them and yet we’re suffering. So our ignorance is not just innocently … 
  12. Persistence
     … Ask yourself, “This mind state that’s coming up, where does it fall in the four noble truths? Is it an instance of suffering or is it an instance of the cause of suffering?” Suffering has to be comprehended to see that it’s in the clinging to the aggregates. And what is clinging? The Buddha defines it as passion and desire for the … 
  13. Borrowing the Buddha’s Wisdom
     … He taught them about the four noble truths—the truths along with their duties. So you do the duties as they’re set out, and you commit yourself to them, you reflect on them, so that they become more and more your Dhamma, not just the Buddha’s Dhamma. That’s how you move from taking refuge in the Buddha, Dhamma, and the Sangha … 
  14. Clinging & Feeding
    When the Buddha defined suffering or stress in the four noble truths, he gave lots of examples and then summarized them all as the five clinging-aggregates. Notice he didn’t say five aggregates. It’s the clinging-aggregates that are suffering. It’s because we cling to them that the mind suffers. The aggregates may have stress simply in the fact they arise … 
  15. Ask the Right Questions
     … to it? And once you’ve given rise to it, how do you allow it to develop as far as possible? In this way, the Buddha finally leads you to the four noble truths and the duties appropriate to those as well: to comprehend stress and suffering, to abandon its cause, to realize the cessation of stress and suffering, and to develop the path … 
  16. How Much Concentration Is Enough?
     … This is why the four noble truths are the framework you hold in mind as you’re looking at things. You notice that if there’s stress, there’s got to be a cause. What are you doing at the same time that you’re experiencing this stress? What are you doing that’s making the level of stress go up or down? If … 
  17. Freedom & Security
     … But the stress in the four noble truths is something you do have control of. You’re the one who chooses to create it. And you can also choose not to. You can develop the path to put an end to it, you can develop qualities in the mind that allow you let that kind of craving and ignorance go. As the Buddha said … 
  18. Dimensions of Right Effort
     … For instance, with the four noble truths, you have to learn how to sit with suffering, sit with stress, sit with pain until you understand, “Exactly what is it about the pain that’s so burdensome? And where is it coming from?” Here we’re talking mainly about pains in the mind, thoughts that make you uncomfortable, thoughts that make you suffer. Look for … 
  19. Meditation Prep
     … You see cause and effect, skillful and unskillful, i.e., the four noble truths. You develop the path, so you can comprehend suffering and eventually let go of its cause. That’s how you realize the end of suffering: by experimenting, by exploring, by bringing the right attitudes and the right mental qualities to whichever meditation technique you choose. Those qualities are the factors … 
  20. Harmony Inside & Outside
     … This is what seeing things in terms of the four noble truths is all about. Look at what you’re doing that’s causing stress to yourself and to the people around you. Focus on that. Again, instead of getting involved in issues about what sort of person you are, focus on where the genuine problem is and on solving the genuine problem. Is … 
  21. Neither Here nor There
     … That’s when the mind is ready to think of renunciation as a good thing—and when you’re ready for the four noble truths. This seems to be his approach when people are still attached to sensuality. The classic example, of course, is the Buddha’s brother, Ven. Nanda, who, after he was ordained, pined for a woman who, as he was leaving … 
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