Search results for: "Dhamma"

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  2. Path & Raft
     … I found that if I wanted to get a really rip-snorting Dhamma talk out of Ajaan Suwat, I would mention some of the things that are being taught in American Buddhism. He’d give a little sigh, and then that night, we’d get a really great Dhamma talk. He explained himself one day. He said that as you’re walking on the … 
  3. When You’re Discouraged
     … You can read the texts about people easily getting into jhāna, or listening to one Dhamma talk and gaining awakening. And here you are, you’ve listened to many Dhamma talks, you’ve meditated many hours, but you don’t seem any nearer now than you were at the beginning. That’s partly a false perception, but also it’s a perception driven by … 
  4. From Heedfulness to Purity
    If someone were to ask you, “Do you sincerely want to be happy?” You’d probably say, “Of course.” But if someone were to look at your life, is that the conclusion they would draw? That you do want to be happy sincerely? We all come to the Dhamma because we’re suffering in one way or another. We want to find a way … 
  5. The Wisdom of Restraint
     … The world says that you’re clever when you have lots of ideas and can say them on the spur of the moment, but the Dhamma says that you’re more clever when you learn to have some restraint over your ideas. If you have a good idea, have some restraint over when and where you say it. Ajaan Suwat made a comment one … 
  6. The Path is Fabricated
     … The Buddha once made a distinction, saying that the highest Dhamma in terms of fabricated or unfabricated, taking both sides into consideration, is dispassion. The mind finally has a sense of disenchantment. It’s had enough of a particular type of activity; enough of fabrication - so it lets it go, in whatever form. And that includes even the highest form of fabricated Dhamma, which … 
  7. Pull Yourself Up by Your Fetters
    Pull Yourself Up by Your Fetters December 1, 2020 Ajaan Lee often makes the point that people who’ve studied a lot of Dhamma, when they come to the practice, want to let go of things too quickly—things they actually need to hold on to. They know that at some point on the path they’re going to have to let them go … 
  8. Cultivate a Limitless Heart
     … Ajaan Lee makes this point in one of his Dhamma talks. He commented that the Buddha was an enormous person. In his words, he said, “His eyes were enormous: They could see the entire world. His mouth was enormous: He could give a Dhamma talk that people continue to repeat thousands of years later.” Then he asked, “How did the Buddha get large like … 
  9. Tuning Your Lute
     … One of the Buddha’s recommendations is, “If you’re sleepy, try to repeat the Dhamma you’ve memorized.” You can repeat it in your head. Or if you’re sitting alone, you can repeat it out loud. In other words, in this case, even though you don’t have much energy, you try to use what energy you do have to wake yourself … 
  10. Realizing Cessation
     … After all, desire is the root of all dhammas. Even the path is based on desire. And, of course, all the things we do that lead to suffering are based on desire, too. The only thing that’s not based on desire is nibbana itself. But to get there, we have to desire to put the path together. This is in line with the … 
  11. Delight in Conviction
     … This is called delighting in the Dhamma. We look at the world outside, and if we’re looking for happiness out there, we will find some. The Buddha doesn’t deny that. But it’s not reliable. It comes and it goes. People give us happiness and then they decide to take it away. Sometimes they take it away in situations where there’s … 
  12. The Brightness of Life
     … At the very least, you don’t have to keep re-inventing the Dhamma wheel, because all too often, the re-invented Dhamma wheels aren’t even round. They’re all crooked and distorted. They don’t go anywhere, or if they do go anywhere, they fall down. So remember, the Buddha was a really good doctor. And we have this illness. But we … 
  13. Shelter Through Restraint
     … When it comes to the Dhamma, we can design the Dhamma anyway we want, nobody can say anything against it—as if our actions have no consequences. But the basic principle of the Buddha’s teachings is that our actions do have consequences, and there’s no one else there to protect us from our actions. There’s no one to save us, no … 
  14. Finding Balance
     … Or you can recollect the Buddha, the Dhamma, the Sangha—anything that you find to be a congenial topic for right now. And again, you want a topic that’s a good antidote for whatever imbalance there may be in the mind. When you feel lazy, it’s good to reflect on death. Death can come at any time, zapping you right in the … 
  15. Cutting Through the Hype
     … You don’t have to listen to the Dhamma talk. Let that be in the background. It’s like a wall. If you leave the breath, you’ll run into the Dhamma wall. The purpose of the talk is to point you back to the breath. Otherwise, don’t let it distract you. After all, where are you going to see what’s happening … 
  16. Tending the Flame
     … So here again, the “maintaining” shades into “using.” This fits into what the Buddha had to say about how you find the Dhamma, how you nourish the Dhamma inside. He said there are two activities. One is commitment, and the other is reflection. By committing yourself to stay with the object of your meditation as long as you can, you’re engaged in what … 
  17. How to Be Happy
     … That’s the first thing to think about—and ask yourself, why do we respect the Dhamma? Because the Dhamma respects our desire for true happiness. It wants us to respect that desire for true happiness, too. As the Buddha discovered in his awakening, true happiness is possible: something that’s not subject to any condition, so it’s not going to be affected … 
  18. Caring Enough to Doubt
     … You’ve been hearing the Dhamma for who knows how long now. What is it talking about? There’s only one way to find out. That’s simply by testing the Dhamma by testing yourself. You’ve got the chance to do that. Don’t throw it away.
  19. Worry
     … And those qualities are things we develop as we practice the Dhamma. When you’re facing uncertain situations, you need mindfulness to keep in mind what’s important, what’s not important, what’s skillful, what’s not. You need alertness to notice what has actually happened as the situation changes, becomes unexpected. And you need ardency, the strength to keep on wanting to … 
  20. Dharma Warriors
     … So as a Dhamma warrior, you want to make sure you’ve got your skills well-honed, and that you gain a sense of which battles are worth taking on and which ones are not. In this way, you become a wise warrior, the warrior who survives, who comes out victorious. Even though you may have to lose a few battles along the way … 
  21. Therapeutic Seclusion
     … I had a lot of ideas about the Dhamma— “It’s probably like this,” “It must be like that.” He said, “If you don’t really know, just don’t say anything.” If you want to find the Dhamma, you have to look inside. So we try to create a quiet atmosphere here, where it’s okay for people to be quiet, so that … 
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