Search results for: "Becoming"
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- Strength Training… Otherwise it simply becomes an exercise in vanity. You want to take that strength and put it to use so that you really benefit from it in your daily life and in other sports, because in the course of putting it to use in daily life, you begin to realize that there are still some areas where you’re weak and you need practice …
- Comprehending Pain… craving for sensuality, craving for becoming, craving for non-becoming. Knowing that these are the things that give rise to stress: That’s the first knowledge. The second knowledge is knowing that your duty is to abandon these things. And the third knowledge would be knowing that that you’ve completed the duty: Those three forms of craving have been totally abandoned. The third …
- Developing Discernment… Anyone—that’s the implication— anyone who becomes ardent, resolute, and heedful can develop these qualities, too. So think about what that means for you. True happiness is possible if you work at it. This conviction gives rise to discernment in the sense that you take the arising and passing away of suffering seriously. You take your actions seriously. And you take that possibility …
- The World of the Body… We’ve got this body that we can use to practice, and we can learn how to understand how the mind causes itself suffering by examining the body, by staying with the breath, trying to be centered here in the body, because it’s right in here where things are going to become clear. When you’re focused on the breath, you’re right …
- Capable… Devas come to see him and tell him, “Set your mind on becoming a universal monarch.” He asks them, “Why do you say that?” They say they have two reasons: One is that he’s a virtuous person, and it would be good to have a virtuous person in a position of power in the world. The second reason is that, because he is …
- The Buddha’s Wisdom… These are the practices that help you become more sensitive to what’s going on in your mind, to help get rid of that ignorance so that you can see exactly where you’re causing yourself suffering and where you don’t have to. He recommends the practice of virtue, beginning with the five precepts, giving you something new to tell yourself: Watch out …
- Friends & Enemies… At the same time, when you give a gift, your own mind becomes a broader and more spacious mind as a result. Of course, the people around you are happy to receive gifts from you. This applies to gifts of material things but also to making a gift of your time, a gift of your energy, a gift of your knowledge, and a gift …
- You’re Doing Something Wrong… If you do them with knowledge, they can become part of the path. This connects with the basic message of the four noble truths, one that people often miss: The four noble truths are basically saying you’re doing something wrong. The fact that you’re suffering, the fact that you’re not an arahant, means you’re doing something wrong. And a good …
- The Economy of Goodness… The mind becomes more and more spacious. As Ajaan Lee said, “You’re making the whole world your home.” As you give to this person, give to that place, give to that person, everybody becomes part of your family. As for virtue, a sense of shame, and a sense of compunction, there’s a sense of well-being, there’s a sense of self …
- Dhammacentric… But when we can get out of our egocentric point of view, our narrative-centric point of view, and take on a dhammacentric point of view, then the duties of the four noble truths, the duties of skillful and unskillful action become a lot clearer. Think of the Buddha’s first step in getting on the path, when he divided his thoughts into two …
- The Practice of Right View… Ultimately your appreciation of these categories gets so subtle, so refined, that as Ajaan Mun says, they all become one. In other words, they finally get to the point where there’s just one task: letting go, totally. Because after you’ve dealt with the blatant forms of stress and let go of the causes, you begin to realize that the only thing left …
- Potentials for Rapture… Allow those spaces to become dominant. If working toward rapture physically doesn’t seem to work for you, you can work toward it from the other direction: the mind. The Buddha recommends that if you’re focusing on the breath, and the body doesn’t become comfortable, you can drop the breath for a little while and think about an inspiring theme. It could …
- Lighter & Stronger… The Buddha talks about perceptions you can develop that strengthen the mind so that it can become more independent. In fact, the best perceptions help separate you out from things that you might ordinarily depend on. They include the perception of inconstancy, the perception of not-self, and the perception of drawbacks—in this case, the drawbacks of coming back and having a body …
- Life Well Lived… Those little flickering images in the brain suddenly become real issues, things that are worth getting upset about, worth getting happy about, sad about, whatever. As you watch this from a bit of a distnace, you begin to see how the mind reads meaning into these flickering things. And how it’s totally arbitrary. You find that you’re less and less under their …
- The Buddha’s Narratives & Yours… The question of who was guilty, who was innocent would begin to become meaningless, especially if you looked at it in terms of not only the first knowledge that the Buddha gained, but also the second: that the long process of rebirth and death and rebirth and re-death is driven by action. The ways in which you’re reborn are determined by things …
- Dispassion & Delight… Until the path becomes mature, you have to be passionate about it. When it does become mature, you realize it’s going to take you to something even better than it is. The Buddha’s not asking you to give up things without providing you with something better in exchange. So be passionate about the path. Realize you’ve got something really good here …
- Blowing Bubbles… This gives you some insight into the committee of the mind, realizing there are lots of different selves and lots of different becomings—lots of different bubbles are being blown all the time. And again, just because something is there, you don’t have to go with it. You don’t have to get involved. Sometimes the thought will try to get you involved …
- The Right Piece in the Right Puzzle… After all, when the Buddha talks about action—the importance of karma—the question becomes, Well, if there is no self, who’s doing the karma? Who’s going to receive the karma? The Buddha talks about rebirth. Well, who’s going to get reborn? He talks about a path of action that you have to follow. Well, if your ego is a bad …
- Choosing Your Allies… It’s in this way your good intentions become skillful intentions. And the wisdom of your desire to find something that’s truly happy through your actions becomes a reality. So you’ve got to learn which parts of the mind can you trust and which ones you can’t. The same with the body: Which parts of the body can you work with …
- Staying, Moving, & Neither… We’re creating a state of becoming here, a state of mind. As the Buddha said, that requires a desire, because desire is the basic seed around which everything else grows. The seed has to be located in a certain place. So we’re locating things in the breath, locating things here in the body, here in the present moment. Our desire is to …
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