Search results for: "Impermanence"
- Page 6
- The Graduated Discourse… Heaven is impermanent. When people fall from heaven, they fall hard. You can think about the Buddha on the night of his awakening, having that second knowledge in the middle of the night. He saw beings dying and being reborn in line with their karma, going up and down and up and down. It’s almost as if samsara is playing a trick on …
- The Need for a Purpose… We hear so much about inconstancy, impermanence, to the point where some people say, “Well, everything that happens is going to disappear right away, so why bother? Just learn how to accept and be okay with what’s happening.” But the Buddha never said that. Long-term happiness is possible. And it can be attained through our efforts. So, wisdom lies in giving yourself …
- Part II : Common Problems… Learn how to see it as impermanent, coming and going, coming and going. And then, even better, just going, going, going, even though it will arise again. You want to focus on its going away, going away so that you don’t feel like you’re in the line of fire or that you’re the victim of the pain. That’s one perception …
- Getting Familiar with Concentration… If you’re looking at the inconstancy or the impermanence of mountains and trees and things like that, it doesn’t really hit home. But when you learn to place all of your hopes for happiness on one state of mind and let go of everything else, then you can turn around and analyze that state of mind: That’s when insight opens you …
- Rooted in Desire… And I was struck by how many times the authors, when explaining right view, would make a brief mention of the four noble truths and then shift almost immediately to the three characteristics, saying that the four noble truths are true because things are impermanent, unsatisfactory, not-self. That’s the reality out there, and we suffer because we cling to things that change …
- Unraveling the Present… Is your mind really still? Is it really solid? Is it really centered? Then, when you start looking at the rest of your life from the point of view of that concentrated mind, look for the stress, look for the impermanence, look for the extent to which these things are not under your control. Ultimately, you’ll turn those same tools around to analyze …
- Breath Energies… It wasn’t just that things are impermanent, and therefore they’re stressful, and therefore you should let them go. You use those three perceptions to see more: When things change, when they’re inconstant, what are you doing? Particularly when you’re working with the breath, working with the mind getting it to settle down, what did you do when something changed, when …
- Up for the Challenge… Sometimes we’re told that we suffer because we cling to impermanent things. But it’s possible to cling even to permanent things and still suffer. You have to learn how to let go of everything at some point. That’s the duty with regard to the cause of suffering. Wherever there’s craving that leads you to cling, that’s to be abandoned …
- Dreams & Voices… When that’s a possibility, then a lot of the things that otherwise would seem worth the effort even though they’re impermanent and inconstant, suddenly don’t seem so worthwhile after all. This is why the meditation is not simply a matter of noting what comes and goes. There’s going to be some arguing back and forth, some reasoning back and forth …
- Educating Equanimity… We hear so much about insight being insight into how things are inconstant or impermanent, stressful or suffering, or not-self. And that is one aspect of discernment, but the Buddha teaches many other aspects as well. It’s in working our way through those other aspects that you begin to realize exactly where the teachings on inconstancy, stress and not-self really function …
- Strategies for Happiness… If you identify with things that are impermanent, things that can be changed by causal conditions beyond your control, you’re putting yourself in a weak position, an exposed, dangerous position. And this is where the teaching on not-self comes in. Ajaan Maha Boowa compares this teaching to a stick that you use to hit the hand of a monkey that’s always …
- Mindfulness Aims at Concentration… You’ve gained an important insight, that even concentration is impermanent.” But that’s not what you’re supposed to do with concentration. You’re supposed to develop it. Now, it is true that there are passages where the Buddha says, “Before you do breath meditation, contemplate inconstancy.” But, that’s for the sake of putting aside greed and distress with reference to the …
- An Examined Life… Everything is very, very impermanent. The passage comes from a sutta where an old king is asking a young monk, “Why did you ordain?” The young monk says that the first thing he reflected on was that the world is swept away. The king says, “What do you mean?” The monk asks him a question in return. “When you were young, were you strong …
- Meaningful Freedom… Eventually, every tree will have to die, because the seeds are impermanent. But it may take a long time. As for things that happen together, you can think of putting your finger in a flame. It burns right away. You don’t have to wait until your next lifetime for it to burn. You take it out, there’s some pain that remains, but …
- Mastering Causality… When you stop clinging to these aggregates, then even though they’re still impermanent and there still may be some stress in them, it doesn’t weigh on the mind. The bridge has been cut so that it doesn’t connect. You stop lifting things up, as in Ajaan Suwat’s image: The mountain may be heavy in and of itself, but if you …
- Mature Strategies… It works to some extent, but then there are areas where it breaks down because the things we latch onto are all impermanent. No matter how much time we try to dress them up, fix them up, keep them going, they ultimately break down. Form, feeling, perception, thought constructs, even sensory consciousness: They all break down. But we’re strongly addicted to this approach …
- Layers of Selves… We sometimes hear that the reason that clinging is bad is because everything you try to cling to is going to be impermanent. And when the Buddha has you reflect on the drawbacks of clinging, that’s one of the main reflections he has you engage in. But even if you try to cling to something that you think is permanent, and it seems …
- Admit Your Stupidity… To think that you can simply give up feeding by realizing that food is impermanent is not very realistic. You have to understand why the mind is feeding on things that are unhealthy. You have to give it better health food, and then you strengthen it to the point where it doesn’t need food anymore. That’s where we’re headed. But first …
- The Pursuit of Excellence… 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 scale back your desire for happiness, to realize that whatever you may want is going to be inconstant, stressful, and out of your control, so you have to learn to be okay with …
- Breathing Skillfully… So however you define yourself at that point—permanent, impermanent; individual, separate, interconnected, whatever—you’ve got to let it go. But before you let it go, try to use your sense of self, in the sense that you are responsible for what you’re doing right now, you’re capable of doing it, you’re going to benefit from it, and you can …
- Load next page...
