Search results for: "Becoming"

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  2. The Wisdom of Incongruity
     … As we move from one state of becoming to another, what makes sense in one state of becoming is not going to make sense in another. When we meditate, we learn how to use that. For instance, with the contemplation of the body: We tend to think about certain aspects of our body in certain contexts and in other contexts we banish those aspects … 
  3. Not-self in Context
     … In other words, your discernment becomes quick and on target. You can pierce right through your ignorance. You want to get that good at your concentration. And to do that—it is, after all, a habit and practice that you develop—you have to have certain views about why it’s worthwhile. Otherwise you can’t do it. So you do hold on to … 
  4. Step by Step
     … It’s become Thai national day. The reason we’re commemorating him is because of the good examples he set, primarily in the area of generosity, persistence, and truthfulness. We look back on the history of the world, and there are very few people that really stand out for their goodness, but those who do, stand out because of these qualities. They’re generous … 
  5. Recollection of the Buddha
     … Right effort becomes ardency when you practice mindfulness. The establishings of mindfulness are the topics of concentration. The fourth jhana is where mindfulness becomes pure. So they’re very closely connected. When you’re doing concentration, it’s important that you work on all three. Now, one of the important elements of right effort is your motivation. In Pali, this is called chandam janeti … 
  6. Mindfulness, Discernment, & Peace of Mind
     … You want to be more in control of this area right here so that it becomes a good foundation. You’re establishing a good place for your mindfulness so that your discernment can see things more clearly. If everything’s running around, discernment gets blurry. Or if you feel hungry and lacking inside, then your discernment starts developing all the wrong opinions about what … 
  7. Feelings of Pain
     … You become more and more inclined to want to stay with your meditation, to stay with concentration. Or you could think, “Buddho, Buddho.” Or you could think thoughts of goodwill for all beings. See what works in getting the mind to settle down. If you’re working with the breath, find what kind of breath the body likes right now; what kind of breath … 
  8. Ingenuity
     … Sometimes what seems very simple as it’s written down becomes a lot more complex when you actually try to apply it. Especially, as you try to apply different principles at the same time. On the one hand, there’s the principle of goodwill, which the Buddha encourages you to have for everybody. But on the other hand, he says you have to be … 
  9. Potentials for Good
     … When you see somebody suffering, you focus on the potentials they have to become skillful, so that they don’t have to suffer from their bad karma. Then you learn how to look the same way at yourself. Of course, the more you look at yourself this way, the easier it is to look at other people in this way. So karma’s not … 
  10. The Focus on Suffering
     … But craving for sensuality; craving to become this, that or the other thing; or the craving that wants a particular state of becoming that’s been set up to be destroyed: Those are the three kinds of craving that cause suffering. Now, you can learn about that by hearing about it. And you can think about it to see where it makes sense. But … 
  11. Anger
     … But then as you go through the day, you begin to notice that you’re using these same three things to create states of becoming in the mind, and a state of anger is a very particular kind of becoming. It gives you a sense of freedom from certain constraints. Things you would never in your right mind think of doing or saying, you … 
  12. The Acrobat
     … When you’re a reliable in the outside level, you’re become more and more reliable as a meditator. Ajaan Fuang had very little use for unreliable people. He didn’t like to teach them, because he felt the way they behaved outside was an indication of how they would meditate. These qualities connect: the way you treat people outside, the way you treat … 
  13. Factions in the Mind
     … The more precise and sensitive you are, the more absorbing the breath becomes. The easier it is to stay here so that this mindful, alert faction of the mind gets stronger. It doesn’t get kicked out so easily. Ordinarily, when the factions of greed, anger, and delusion take over the mind, they kick out the mindfulness and alertness; they don’t want anybody … 
  14. Virtues Bright & Neither Dark nor Bright
     … Your practice of the precepts is based on a sense of goodwill for the beings you’re living with, but it’s for the purpose of a good future within the bounds of becoming. One of the motivations for following the precepts is not just that you will gain good results, but you also think about other beings: You wouldn’t like to be … 
  15. Learning by Doing
     … You start becoming more perceptive of your mind, appreciating a good state of concentration. When the mind is not willing to settle down, you get a sense of the steps you have to follow to make it want to settle down. It’s in this way that your insight develops. It’s your sensitivity to what you’re doing, seeing it in terms of … 
  16. Karma & the Sublime Attitudes
     … Here you’re seeing an example of someone who did good things at some point in the past and is reaping the results of those good things but has now become unskillful. It should make you stop and think about your own self, trying to create the causes for happiness but the happiness hasn’t yet reached a noble level. In other words, your … 
  17. Worldly Effort
     … Otherwise, if they haven’t, you become an ordinary Brahmā. You can stay there for eons, but then there comes a point where you have to come back down again. And it’s hard to come down. Don’t think that it’s easy. There was a woman I knew in Thailand who was quite poor, and she was extremely demanding, always hoping that … 
  18. Why We Practice the Way We Do
     … But if you can make it continuous, it becomes a force in the mind. Then, as you take that principle of being continuous and apply it to trying to do what’s skillful and abandon what’s not, that becomes your right effort. As the Buddha said, to maintain skillful qualities in the mind requires energy, requires nourishment. This is where mindfulness and concentration … 
  19. Volunteer Spirit
     … Sometimes you hear people berating people who sit and meditate, saying that they’re not doing enough for other people, that once you become a Buddhist you’re obligated to get yourself together as a decent self-respecting religion. After all, other religions have various projects by which they help the world, so why aren’t the Buddhists doing that? It’s not that … 
  20. Bringing Right resolve
     … If this is the kind of stuff you’re fascinated with, the kind of stuff you’re fixated on, then pleasure and pain become the big issues in life. The issue of purifying the mind, the issue of finding the happiness that comes from the trained mind, gets pushed off to the side. So there are areas where you have to make a choice … 
  21. Injustice
     … Practicing the Dhamma doesn’t mean becoming a doormat, or becoming totally oblivious to the problems of the world. Practicing the Dhamma means trying to develop a skillful attitude toward them. Meanwhile, your emotional feeding habits have to be taken away from the world and focused more on skillful qualities of the mind inside. When you’re feeding well inside, then your actions outside … 
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