Search results for: "Dhamma"
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- 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 …
- 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 …
- 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.
- 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 …
- 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 …
- Hope… Look at your desires and see if they’re in line with the Dhamma and if they’re in line with where the Buddha said true hope lies. Hope lies right here in this fathom-long body, as he called it, with its perceptions and intellect. That’s where the potentials lie. In the body, of course, the first thing we’ve got is …
- The World Is Swept Away… He had listened to a Dhamma talk by the Buddha, and these were the themes that he remembered from that Dhamma talk: *The world is swept away; it does not endure. The world offers no shelter; there’s no one in charge. The world has nothing of its own; one has to pass on, leaving everything behind. And the world is insufficient, insatiable, a …
- How to Use the Three Perceptions… And yet there developed the view that when the Buddha says that all dhammas are not self, he means that there is no self. But if you think about it, there are lots of times when that teaching would be extremely detrimental. For instance, if people are feeling tempted to do something really unskillful, they can tell themselves, “Well, if there is no self …
- Medicine – Timely & Timeless… And the Dhamma was his medicine. When we think about this analogy, it’s important to remind ourselves that the Buddha was not a doctor in a modern hospital. You didn’t go to him for a shot. He was a traditional doctor, and traditional medicine is a lot more strategic than modern medicine is. The Canon gives us a picture of Jivaka, the …
- Happy to Be Here… And the whole purpose of the teachings—the Dhamma that the Buddha left behind—is to give us some sense of how much good we can do with our actions. We have the power within us to create a lot of happiness. One of the important ways of doing that is to train the mind. We train it through generosity. We train it through …
- A Graduated Discourse… There’s that phrase we had just now in the chant, “respect in welcoming guests.” It relates to the fact that the Buddha said if you’re stingy with the Dhamma, there’s no way you’re going to get into right concentration. So when people come here, we’re happy to share the Dhamma with them as a way of opening our own …
- Near to the Buddha… As the Buddha once said, someone can be right at the edge of his robe, but if they don’t practice the Dhamma, they’re far away. Whereas those who practice the Dhamma are right next to him. This is why the term for lay follower – upasaka, upasika – means literally “someone who’s close.” And again, that’s “close” in terms of your behavior …
- Courage… The Buddha himself admitted that the life of his Dhamma was going to be limited. There will come a time when people will have forgotten it, and the name “Buddha” will just be a memory. There are parts of the world now where you can’t even learn about Buddhism—it’s forbidden by other religions that have moved in. It’s interesting how …
- Focus on What You’re Doing… You may listen to the same Dhamma talk many, many times, and only after a long while do you begin to hear some of the things that are being said in the talk. You slip over some of them. They’re maybe not important, or they just don’t fit in with your ideas of what’s needed in the meditation. This is where …
- You Can’t Eat the Buddha… I remember once hearing a Dhamma teacher saying he didn’t want to live in a world where there was no suffering, because he wouldn’t be able to exercise his compassion. He apparently didn’t stop to think of what a selfish attitude that is. You want the gratification that comes from exercising your compassion, so you need other people who suffer. What …
- Acceptance Isn’t the Issue… Look for those who are eager to listen to the Dhamma, who listen to the Dhamma and then think about it—think about it, then practice it. Those are the people he said you should associate with. Look for people you can emulate, people you can learn from, especially concerning what’s skillful and what’s not skillful: how to have conviction in the …
- Grasping the Snake… seven lists of dhammas that are useful for the practice—different ways of looking at the practice. You’ve got the four establishings of mindfulness, the four right exertions, the four bases for success, the five strengths, the five faculties, the seven factors for awakening, the noble eightfold path. They’re almost all exclusively lists of mental qualities. Now, that kind of view, you …
- Strength of Body, Strength of Mind… Well, that’s not Buddhism, that’s not the Dhamma. It’s defilement talking. Our main source of energy is the realization that our actions are important, the training of the mind is important; and as for the body, you want to use it as a *tool *in the practice. You look after it the way you would with any tool, but you need …
- Turning Anxiety into Heedfulness… Given that human life is so hard to come by, what are you going to do?” Of course, the king gives the same answer: “Calm the mind; practice the Dhamma.” That’s where our focus should always be, because that’s where our true wealth is. That’s where our true safety lies. And it doesn’t matter which mountain moves in first, the …
- Training in Commitment & Reflection… The Buddha says there are two activities that nourish the Dhamma—in other words, they nourish the Dhamma within you. One is commitment and the other is reflection. You commit yourself to doing this and then you reflect on how well it’s going, what you’ve learned. As we meditate we’re training ourselves in both activities: how to commit in a skillful …
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