Search results for: "Becoming"
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- Determination… What kind of person will you become? What activities do you have to master to get what you want? You can go through all kinds of different possible goals and ask yourself, “Is it going to be worth it?” You also have to think about the amount of time involved. Do you have time for all of the things you want? If something is …
- In Accordance with the Dhamma… It becomes a cause for suffering. So remember that equanimity is the alternative to goodwill. Not that it replaces it. It just puts things into perspective. It’s where you back off and look at what really needs to be done, what has to be sacrificed for the sake of what other things. Because all too often we’re presented with situations where there …
- Concentration as Wilderness… When I was in the hospital with malaria in Thailand, I found that breathing was becoming more and more laborious, because, after all, the parasites were eating up my red blood cells. Very little oxygen was getting to the muscles that were doing the breathing. I realized that if I changed my mental picture of where the breath was coming in and how it …
- To Comprehend Suffering… And so, say, the pain and the sensation of solidity become one. Or the pain and sensation of warmth become one. Now, the solidity lasts for quite a while. The same with the other elements. That makes it seem as if the pain is one constant buzz right there because you’ve glued it together with something that’s more solid and lasting. But …
- The Committee of the Mind… When you do, then over time it does become a home. And it’s the same with the present moment. The more you stay here, the more you understand about it, then the more you find that there are potentials for comfort in the body. The mind can feel soothed and eased, simply by having one thing to think about, not having to worry …
- Basic Intro… Try to become more and more sensitive to this part of your awareness. You find that it gives you a good foundation, because the greater sense of well-being in the present moment, the easier it is to stay here. The body benefits, and the mind benefits as well. It doesn’t always go slipping off to thoughts of the past, thoughts of the …
- The Karma of Meditation… So the issue becomes moot. The real issue right now is if there’s anything bad coming in from the past, how you learn not to suffer from it. At the same time, how do you learn not to react unskillfully to bad or good things coming in. Sometimes good things come in and you can get complacent. Then you get unskillful in the …
- Strength to Be Good… You become more and more self-sufficient. Even when things outside turn bad, you’ve still got everything you need here inside. Because when things turn bad outside, that’s especially when you’re going to need this. It’s very tempting when things get difficult to say, “Well, the rules don’t apply anymore.” When things start breaking down in society, people start …
- A Home & a Mobile Home… That’s when he says mindfulness becomes a governing principle in the practice. So in this case, in order to keep the mind from running out after pleasures outside, you have to give it a strong sense of pleasure within. At the same time, as you have that sense of pleasure within, you find it becomes a good foundation for more skillful actions. If …
- Breath Meditation – The Four Tetrads… Then become sensitive to what he calls mental fabrication—feelings and perceptions—to see how they have an impact on the mind. Some ways of perceiving the breath are going to be calming; others are going to be more stimulating. Often it’s going to depend on what you need right now. But eventually as he says you want to calm those feelings and …
- Be Precise … You begin to see that your inner discussion about staying with the breath, adjusting the breath, becomes a disturbance. And when you really, clearly see that it is a disturbance, that’s when you let it go. Don’t let it go beforehand. In other words, it’s not simply because you’re told that if you want to get farther along in the …
- Clear of Defilement… Otherwise, the meditation, the practice, becomes one more way of providing a tool for the defilements. So you’ve got to learn how to recognize them. You’ve got to learn how to deal with them. This is where you learn how to use desire to cure desire. In other words, you try to foster skillful desires in the mind. Because the mind isn …
- Perspectives & Priorities… You have to remember that you’re one of them when you’re down there, and how you treat people is going to become your karma. This is why the Buddha recommends, as part of a daily practice, not only seclusion but also right view. This requires that you listen to the Dhamma regularly. You learn some of the chants so that they become …
- It’s All about Action… Interconnectedness suddenly becomes the basis for our morality. A sense of no separate self becomes our goal. None of this has anything to do with what the Buddha taught. He taught, as he said, action of different kinds. But particularly he taught the action that leads to the end of action, or the karma that leads to the end of karma. “Karma” here has …
- Do Jhana… It becomes disagreeable. To understand what the body needs, you try to listen to it. What feels best? How about deeper? How about more shallow? How about faster? Slower? There’s plenty to experiment with. This is how you understand fabrication: through experimentation. Then you begin to notice the kind of feelings that the breath gives rise to. You also get more sensitive to …
- Strong & Heedful… It doesn’t become a prey to delusion or craving ever again, because the assumptions that allow delusion and craving to have power get stripped away. This is real strength of mind. The Buddha says of the five strengths, discernment is the one that secures everything else, even though it often comes last. He makes a comparison with putting up rafters for a roof …
- One Thing at a Time… If we know what we’re doing as we come to these things, then it all becomes part of the path. The Buddha focuses attention on two things—what he calls fabrication, sankhara; and intention, cetana—and these things come first. Yet we don’t realize that fact, which is why we suffer. So as we come to meditate, we’re trying to get …
- Training the Committee… And when you can have goodwill for all beings, it becomes really hard for you to do anything unskillful because you don’t want to harm anybody. Another way you can protect yourself from the unskillful members of your committee is through contemplation of the body, especially the unattractiveness of the body. It’s not to make you disgusted with the body, it’s …
- Things that Arise & Pass Away… All of this is done in the pursuit of happiness in a noble way, trying to become happy in a way that develops wisdom, compassion, and purity. Of course, the wisest pursuit of happiness is one that goes for a happiness that doesn’t change. This is where the Buddha’s premises about fabrication come in, and they give focus to your practice. We …
- Independent of the World… Who told him to become Buddha? It was his own aspiration, it was his own independent decision that that was what he wanted to do. He kept on developing his perfections regardless of what was going on around him. No matter how difficult it was, no matter how much other people tried to discourage him, he was able to maintain his determination. So as …
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