Search results for: "Fabrication"
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- Respect Opens Possibilities… Thought fabrications—the way you put ideas together, the way you talk to yourself. And finally, consciousness—your awareness of whatever is coming in at the senses, of whatever is happening in the mind. We cling to these things. We cling to these things for sensual pleasure; we cling to these things because they provide us views about what is world is like; we …
- Battling the Hindrances… You have to exert, as the texts say, a fabrication, which means you have to think about things in a new way, breathe in a new way, change your perceptions, until you can finally get past that particular defilement. So it takes work, and as with all work it requires desire. So chandam janeti, try to generate that desire that you really do want …
- Your Own Karma… Then there’s another technique the Buddha recommends, which is relaxing the fabrication of thought. This applies to cases when you’re sensitive enough to the breath energy in the body that you can tell: When a thought arises, there’s a certain part of the body that will tense up. The thought is actually related to that tension in that particular part of …
- A Path Rooted in Desire… You can let go of all this fabrication of the path. That’s how desire leads to the end of desire. The Buddha takes our approach for trying to attain our desires and applies it to the most important desire of all: the desire not to suffer and not to cause any suffering for anybody. So recognize the fact that, as you’re practicing …
- Dedicating Merit… It’s also helpful to remember that we’re here in a large fabric of interconnected people: people we’ve depended on, people we’ve benefitted from, and now we’re in a position to benefit them in return. The attitude that’s willing to benefit others is an important nourishment for your own concentration. This is why dedicating merit is good for you …
- The Karma of Pleasure… Feelings are fabricated. In other words, even in the experiencing of a feeling, there’s already a certain amount of intention. We have potentials that come in from our past actions and then our present intentions shape those potentials into a feeling. That’s what the mind spends a lot of its time creating all the time. We’re doing it right here as …
- A Mind like Wind… The breath, after all, is a bodily fabrication that has an element of intention in it. So take advantage of that. As the breath gets more comfortable, you can start thinking about being aware of the whole body as you breathe in and as you breathe out. This helps you move into the present moment with a sense of belonging here. You’re not …
- The Power of Intention… You gain a sense of the power you have when you’re choosing to focus on something and, from that skillful focus, you can fabricate things skillfully and create a sense of ease even in the midst of a lot of pain. This is an important skill to develop. You might scan through the body to see where there’s some tension that you …
- The Riddle Tree… You see that as you get the mind through stages of concentration, you’re going to be shifting around among issues of thought fabrication or perception or feeling or consciousness or form, the body: all the aggregates. Or you may find that the issue is how you visualize things as opposed to how you feel them: those are issues of the sense media. Or …
- A Concentration Diet… That’s because you have to be very careful not to be overcome by the pleasure in order to hold on to the perception of the breath, which gets you more and more sensitive to the process of perception and thought-fabrication in the mind. You can also begin to see how these things can contribute a little bit of stress to the mind …
- Three Perceptions… Now, it’s true that you’ll frequently find in the Canon the statements that all things compounded or fabricated are inconstant, that they’re all stressful. And all dhammas — all objects of the mind — are not-self. So if that’s the way things are, why not just say that these are characteristic features of these things? Why make a big deal about …
- Letting Go… Relax around, as they say, the fabrication of the thought, and it won’t have anything to hold on to in the present moment. It’ll stop. If none of these approaches works, just make up your mind to grit your teeth, press your tongue against the roof of your mouth, and say, “No, I’m not going to think that thought.” Just stay …
- Culture Shock… In other words, these fabricated things, if you learn how to use them skillfully lead someplace. Even if you don’t learn how to use them skillfully, they still lead places: random places, miserable places. The question is, “Do you really want to go where they’re taking you?” If you make the effort to get skillful at fashioning conditioned things, they can lead …
- Acceptance & Equanimity… Take them apart in terms of your perceptions or in terms of your bodily, verbal, mental fabrication around the pain—how you breathe around the pain, how you talk to yourself about the pain, the perceptions you apply. Does the pain have an intention? Does it have a shape? Does it have a color? Is it solid? Call these perceptions into question. And simply …
- Question Your Perceptions… What do you perceive of the process of breathing? How does it happen? And what kind of perceptions help you settle down? As the Buddha said, perception is a mental fabrication. It has an impact on the mind. What ways of perceiving the breath have a good impact on the breath and a good impact on the mind? You want to test them. Ajaan …
- The Humble Way to Awakening… This is why the Buddha has us divide things into the aggregates, because the comings and goings of perceptions, the comings and goings of thought fabrications are going to have an impact on the pain. You see that the perception, the label you place on the pain, acts like a bridge. Certain perceptions come and they make the anguish flare up. When you can …
- Victory… There is, as the Buddha said, some fabrication going on. You have your ways of shaping this experience and if you’re not paying careful attention to what you’re doing, middle-level management takes over—in other words, your old habits. You can find yourself tensing up over a little pain here and there without even realizing that it’s happening. It’s …
- A Victory that Matters… The social fabric gets torn apart. This is what happens when a narrow view becomes ascendant and demands to be ascendant in every area. It’s not just now that people are challenging the Buddha about the metaphysics of rebirth. Back in his time it was a controversial issue, too. One of the major fallacies that you hear repeatedly is that the Buddha just …
- The Origination of Suffering… One of the events that leads up to the craving that leads to clinging is the process of fabrication: the breath coming in, going out, your conversation inside, your thoughts, acts of evaluation, perceptions, feelings. Try to see these things simply as “those events” until you get a sense of dispassion for them. That’s how you can get past this dilemma of the …
- Determined to Make a Difference… As the Buddha said, we fabricate our experience for the sake of happiness. So, there’s always a for the sake of in our experience, but you have to ask yourself, “For the sake of what?” What is your purpose? Fortunately, you get to decide. It’s not the case that there’s an overarching purpose for the universe that you somehow have to …
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