Search results for: "Form"
- Page 46
- Patience… As the Buddha says, we engage in different activities that he classes under the aggregates, and each of those aggregates — whether it’s form, feeling, perception, thought constructs, or consciousness — is something we fabricate for the sake of something else. In other words, we have means and we have goals. The goals are either directly or indirectly aimed at happiness. This is how we …
- Fangs in the Static… the form of the body, feelings, perceptions, fabrications, consciousness—all very ephemeral things. How could you build anything lasting out of things that are ephemeral like this? Now, not all those perceptions are negative. The Buddha also has you think of the positive perceptions of how the cessation of these things would be a good thing, dispassion for these things would be a good …
- Perception… Another teaching from the ajaans is that when you focus on the five aggregates—form, feeling, perception, fabrication, and consciousness—you can start out with any one of the five and it will give you insight into all the rest. For instance, you can focus on the body, analyze your attachment to the body, and it will start spreading around to feelings and perceptions …
- The Path Is and Isn’t the Goal… After all, what’s the path composed of? There’s the form of the body sitting here. There are feelings of pleasure that you’re inducing, feelings of ease, feelings of equanimity. There’s the perception you hold of the breath, the mental activity of adjusting and investigating, probing, learning about the breath, learning about the mind. And there’s consciousness. In other words …
- Persistence… Another use is that when you get really sensitive to the breath energy, you begin to notice that when a thought forms in the mind—especially when it takes hold—there’s going to be a little bit of tension in the body. It’s the mind’s way of using the body to anchor a thought so that you can look at it …
- Calming the Breath… Even our basic experience of the five aggregates—our experience of the form (the body), feelings of pleasure and pain, our perceptions, our thought constructs, even our sensory consciousness: As the Buddha says, we *fabricate *these things for certain purposes. The best way to test this is by watching the breath. This is why this process of (1) being sensitive to the whole body …
- The Buddha’s Map… When you’ve made up your mind you don’t want to go there, that makes it a lot easier to see these disturbances simply as little becomings forming in the mind. And you can watch the process. As you try to nip the becomings in the bud, you see more and more clearly the stages by which the mind creates a state of …
- The Skill of Renunciation… You’re going to be trading one form of happiness for another: the sense of well-being that comes when the mind can settle down and be still, when the breath feels good in the body, and you allow that sensation of comfortable breathing to fill the whole body. When we talk of breath here, it’s not just the air coming in and …
- Mental Seclusion… This is called a pleasure of form, as opposed to the pleasures of sensuality. It’s a higher pleasure. It’s a pleasure where the mind is clear, satisfied. This is what we’re working on. Once you get this sense of well-being, then you realize you don’t have to depend on things out in the world being just a certain way …
- Cooking Skills… The irony, of course, is that the Buddha said that that was one of the worst forms of wrong view there is. The way he taught karma was a lot more complex and offered a lot more leeway for freedom of choice, and also freedom to not suffer—because after all, that’s the whole purpose of his teachings. They teach you how not …
- Living Honorably… As long as the mindfulness and concentration are not yet strong, you need other forms of strength, such as conviction and persistence. You’re convinced that this has got to be the way out, this has got to be the way to behave, and this is the noble way to look for happiness. You have to ask yourself: “Are you going to go like …
- For the Cessation of Dukkha… This is called the pleasure of form. It’s different from the pleasure of sensuality. The pleasure of sensuality depends on things outside being a certain way, but they almost never really correspond to our desires. As the Buddha said, it would have to rain gold coins and it still wouldn’t be enough for our desires. Obviously, though, it’s not raining gold …
- Control… people around us. But the important thing is the control. The Buddha points out how all the things we use to create a sense of self ultimately lie beyond our control. Forms arise, but they have to pass away; the same for feelings, perceptions, thought constructs, consciousness. You can’t always say, “I want my body to be like this. I want my feelings …
- Groundwork… If you can breathe through it—think of it combing out tangles in the energy—then the thought won’t form. You’ve learned an important lesson that helps you think the thoughts you want to think and learn how to ignore the thoughts you don’t. That gives you more control over your intentions. Something comes up in the mind and you’re …
- The Uses of Pleasure & Pain… You’ve got aggregates of form, feeling, perception, thought-fabrications, and consciousness. Learn how to treat them as tools, showing them the proper care and attention that tools need, but also realizing that they’re not the be-all and end-all of life. They’re processes, not things. They’ve got their uses, but they’re not ends in and of themselves. Once …
- How the Dhamma Protects… If they come together to form a body, it doesn’t mean anything to the elements. When this body starts falling apart, it doesn’t mean anything to them, either. All the dramas and narratives and fears are on our side. So we’re creating a lot of unnecessary suffering for ourselves, putting the mind in a position where it can be attacked from …
- In & of Themselves… That’s a world that forms part of the path. You turn these things into concentration: the breath, the object of the concentration; the feelings, the results are going to come when you direct your mind to the breath. You’ve got body, feelings, and mind all right here. This is where you can watch them. Then you look at what kind of perceptions …
- Get Out of the Way… As soon as you see a little knot forming, just breathe right through it. Open up the flow. That’s all you have to do. An important skill in the practice is learning how to do things more efficiently, to figure out where you’re expending unnecessary energy. Then the meditation gets a lot easier. This is what practice is all about. If you …
- Acceptance… This is why the Buddha’s teachings take the form they do. There are instructions on how to breathe. There are lots of instructions on how to think, how to talk to yourself. And then the Buddha gives you all those similes and analogies: Those are the mental fabrications, the perceptions he wants you to use. He provides guidance in how to develop these …
- Peace Requires Character… Sometimes we hear that the Buddha wanted to get rid of all forms of suffering, but actually he was looking at, “Where does suffering come from? Focus on the cause.” Stop setting fires that you then have to put out. Find a place where you’re setting a fire, stop doing it, and then you’re done. The suffering out there in the world …
- Load next page...
