Search results for: "Dhamma"

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  2. Cross-questioning
     … It’s also applied to times when you look at your mind, you say, “Where’s the stress? Is this constant? Is this inconstant? Is it stressful? Is it not? Is it self? Is it not? What’s the cause of this? When I have this feeling, where does it lead?” So he encourages people to ask questions about Dhamma talks, about concepts, about … 
  3. Inner Wealth Management
     … So remember that the qualities that lead to happiness on the material level in line with the Dhamma will have a carryover effect as you meditate. This means that as you go through the day and you’re doing your chores around the monastery, or if you’re living at home doing your chores around the house, you want to bring a quality of … 
  4. The Stakes Are High
     … Just as the Buddha observed, there are wealthy people who find it very easy to abandon huge amounts of wealth and go out and practice the Dhamma. There are poor people who find it hard to abandon their one little pot and their one little shack. And it’s the same with devas. Some of them are very good Dhamma practitioners and some are … 
  5. Two Guardian Meditations
     … He says that breath meditation is like your home—vihāra-dhamma. It’s a place where you can settle in, gain a sense of well-being, allow your awareness to fill the body. Your breath fills the body; a sense of ease fills the body. That’s where you can live. But you don’t stay home all the time. The mind has other … 
  6. Part I : Basic Instructions
     … What thoughts will help? This is one of the reasons that we chant the recollection of the Buddha, the Dhamma, and the Sangha every evening before we meditate. We bow down to the Buddha because the Buddha represents the things that we want to value within ourselves. We think of his qualities, his compassion, his purity, his discernment: These are good things to have … 
  7. Harmless & Clearheaded
     … You can listen to the Dhamma and hear all the wonderful things the Buddha has to say about goodwill, compassion, empathetic joy, equanimity, concentration, discernment, and release. It’s good to hear about those things, because it opens our minds to possibilities that we might miss otherwise. It expands the range of our imagination. But simply hearing about them is not enough. As with … 
  8. One Thing Clear Through
     … But the practice of the Dhamma is going to be turning us around, so that we start finding pleasure in giving things away, radiating goodness out instead of trying to suck it in. After all, when you’re feeding, you take in what you hope will be good things from the world. You’re looking for pleasure, and then you excrete—what? Greed, aversion … 
  9. Practicing on Your Own
     … This is how you stay rooted in the Dhamma. Years back, when we were first setting up the monastery here, people would come and say, “This tradition you’ve got here is not going to fit in America unless you change it like this, or change it like that, or change it the way basically I want it,” they would say. We resisted that … 
  10. Persistence
     … This is a lesson we had to learn as kids, and it doesn’t change when you come to the Dhamma. Some people like to think that when you come to the Dhamma, the rules change and you can think in non-dualistic terms, with no good or evil, no right or wrong. But the Buddha never said anything about not thinking in dualities … 
  11. Taking Responsibility
     … So you’ve got to be very careful about how you listen to the Dhamma to make sure that you’re filtering it in the right way: getting the points that are useful to you, that will open up new perspectives, that will question some of your basic assumptions. We all come to the practice with assumptions. Some of them are skillful, some of … 
  12. The Uses of Equanimity
     … While they were there, Ajaan Mahaboowa gave a Dhamma talk almost every night for the woman suffering from cancer because she knew she was going to die. The woman with cancer taped every Dhamma talk, and after she died, they found she had left behind a lot of tapes. So the old woman doctor set about transcribing the tapes, and ended up with two … 
  13. The Pursuit of Excellence
    The Pursuit of Excellence June 8, 2022 One of the strangest ideas about the Dhamma is that it’s all about being accepting and non-judgmental. This comes from getting the teachings backwards. We understand that things are inconstant and impermanent, but we also have a desire for happiness. If you put the inconstancy first, then that means you have to learn how to … 
  14. Tools of Perception
    Ajaan Chah once made the comment that when you study the Dhamma, you’re gathering lots of concepts. When you practice, you learn how to let them go. But it’s not the case that gathering the concepts is going to be useless. Concepts are useful tools. That’s why the Buddha talked so much. But we have to use the tools in the … 
  15. Help Others, Help Your Mind
     … But the principle, if it’s applied in line with the Dhamma, holds. It’s always better to get people to want to do what’s skillful rather than to just force them. ** Think about the old fable about the sun and the wind. The sun and the wind got into an argument one time as to who was stronger. The wind saw a … 
  16. Significance
     … But when it comes to other areas of the practice, you don’t have to keep on re-inventing the Dhamma wheel. What the Buddha taught about concentration is still true. What he taught about mindfulness is still true. All the teachings in the noble path are still true, always true, all down the line. These are the things you want to keep in … 
  17. Lust
     … As the Buddha says, the amount of suffering remaining for someone who hasn’t seen the Dhamma is like all the water in the oceans of the earth, whereas the amount of suffering remaining for someone who has seen the Dhamma, has touched the deathless, is like the water you can hold in your hand. That’s a good perception to hold in mind … 
  18. Inner Voice Lessons
     … On top of that, there are Dhamma tapes you can listen to, Dhamma books you can read, to introduce new and better voices into the conversation. This is also why we have the chanting. Some of the phrases of the chant keep coming back into your head at odd hours of the day, and they’re designed to be skillful additions to that conversation … 
  19. Can All Beings Be Happy?
     … The first thing to remember is that we’re trying to get our own intentions in line with the Dhamma, in line with the practice. Part of right resolve is getting rid of ill will, developing goodwill. We keep repeating the phrase because it’s part of the motivation we want to develop when we act and speak and think. When we make choices … 
  20. Responsible
     … So Ratthapala tells the king of the four Dhamma summaries he learned from the Buddha. These were his reasons for going forth. Now, regardless of whether you go forth in response to them, they are good reasons for wanting to practice, because they show the condition that we’re in. If we’re looking for happiness, what do we have to depend on? Where … 
  21. Creativity & Play
     … After all, what is the Dhamma? It’s a set of strategies — strategies for gaining happiness given the fact that there are certain laws governing the way action gives results. The laws are a little complex, like the laws governing turbulence in water. They’re complex but not mechanical. That’s what makes them challenging, like taking a boat through rapids. And the purpose … 
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