Search results for: "Conviction"
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- A Friend to the World, A Friend to Yourself… So you develop the kind of conviction that, yes, your actions do matter. That’s what conviction comes down to: Technically it’s conviction in the Buddha’s awakening, but what’s the message of the Buddha’s awakening? He gained awakening through his own efforts, and one of the things he learned in the course of his awakening was seeing all the beings …
- Freedom & Security… That’s why the first form of wealth is conviction: conviction in the Buddha’s awakening. What that means is that you believe it is possible through human effort to come to an end of suffering. You also believe that the qualities of the Buddha used in order to do that are available to all of us. We have those qualities in potential form …
- Food for the Mind… First is conviction in the principle of karma—in other words, that what you do is going to bear results determined by the quality of the intention behind your actions. Then there’s persistence. You stick with that conviction. You realize that the law of karma is not something that operates like traffic laws, say, only on Thursday afternoons or only on Saturday afternoons …
- Don’t Believe Everything You Think… Have your conviction instead in the breath; have your conviction in the Dhamma. Make that kind of conviction as strong as you can, because that helps you get past all the perceptions in the mind that might pull you away from the practice or lead to unfortunate mental states that could get you worse and worse and worse. So use your breath to return …
- Gifts of Noble Wealth… The first is conviction. It starts out with conviction in the Buddha’s awakening, that he really did know what he was talking about. It really was through his own efforts that he found an awakening that’s valid for everybody, everywhere, at all times. This past week I was reading some comments from people who were saying that “Well, you know, the Buddha …
- Suffering Comes from What You’re Doing… The question always is, “What am I doing? What can I do differently if I don’t like the results of what I’m doing?” This is one of the reasons why conviction is one of the foundations for discernment: conviction in the principle that your actions really do make a difference; that when you do something, you’re responsible; that your actions have …
- Take Heart… Part of it was his conviction. Part of it was his heedfulness. And part of it was desire. As he said, he didn’t want to come back and be the laughingstock of the defilements ever again. So think of those lists that the Buddha gives to the different stages of the practice in the Wings to Awakening. The first members of the lists …
- A Genius about Your own Mind… Having conviction in the Buddha’s awakening is pretty demanding because it sets forth the possibility that human beings can find a deathless happiness. There are a lot of people, even people nowadays teaching the Dhamma, who shy away from that. Conviction in his awakening also means that there are things that human beings can know about karma, about rebirth, about the path to …
- How & Why We Meditate… It’s in the period when you don’t see any immediate results coming that you need to have the conviction that the cookbook was right. It’s the same with the meditation. There are times when you sit in meditation and nothing much seems to be happening. And so you need the conviction to stick with it to give it time to do …
- Admirable Friendship… Conviction means conviction in the principle that your actions do matter and that you’re the one making the choices. You can’t blame other people for the choices you make. And your actions have results. They have consequences, so you have to be careful about what you do. This is a good principle to emulate. If you don’t believe in it, you …
- Commit & Reflect… You start out with conviction. You take as working hypothesis the principle that the Buddha really was awakened and you think about the lessons of his awakening, how they apply to you. When the Buddha talks about conviction, he’s talking about three things: who you believe, what you believe, and what you do in response. In this case, we believe the noble ones …
- The Light of the World… That’s what the Buddha’s awakening represents, which is why we have conviction in it. And why it is the focus of our conviction, something very specific always to keep in mind.
- Fear of the Truth… And in our fortress, our main foundation pole is conviction. Conviction starts with, simply, the belief that there are people who’ve gained awakening, who have been able to face-down their defilements and come out winning. And they did it not because they were gods or goddesses; they were human beings, just like us, and they were able to do it by developing …
- The Skillful Heart… Then there’s conviction, which, too, is a quality of the heart. This is where the quality of the heart begins to meld with the qualities of the mind. There are certain things you believe, and the word “belief” here has three meanings: There are things you believe, ideas that you believe; then there are people you believe in; then there’s how you …
- A Sense of Yourself… The first tool is conviction. How much conviction do you have in the Teaching? How much conviction do you have in this path that leads to the end of suffering? If you have trouble getting yourself to take on the path— or to get back on the path if you’ve fallen off—how can you talk to yourself to remind yourself that you …
- Greed for Outer & Inner Wealth… people who have conviction in the principle of kamma, people who are generous, people who are virtuous, people who are wise—and not only having these people as your friends, but also trying to emulate them. Because they remind you that there’s more to life than just getting and gaining wealth and spending it. You want to look at what good your wealth …
- Nobility Through Inner Strength… The first strength is conviction: the conviction that your actions really do matter. You’re not apathetic; you don’t say, “What the hell.” You realize that if you do something well, the results will be good, and that’s something no one else can take away from you. Your actions are your true possessions. Ajaan Suwat would often comment that the Buddha talks …
- The Buddha’s Universal Solvent… After all, that’s what conviction is all about. It’s through that conviction that we can actually get the strength of mind and the motivation to practice, so that we can find a way out of suffering, too. And the main topic of conviction is being convinced of the Buddha’s awakening. That’s a story that helps lead out. It shows us …
- Recollection of the Buddha… This is a theme that’s good for times when you’re feeling discouraged or your conviction is weak. You ramp up your conviction by contemplating what kind of person the Buddha was and the fact that we live in a world that has had a Buddha: someone who found true happiness through his own efforts, who was willing to teach to anyone who …
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