Search results for: "Becoming"
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- Levels of the Breath… Your perception can become steadier. At first it’s not all that steady because you’re exploring: This is directed thought and evaluation. You’re exploring how the breath energy affects different parts of the body: which parts you tense up as you breathe in, which parts you squeeze as you breathe out. Then you work through those parts, section by section, clearing out …
- Patience & Urgency… How does the mind approach that issue? How does it relate to that issue? At what point does it move into it and take it on as a state of becoming? What are the attractions of that issue? Why do you feel compelled to keep going back to it? What are the drawbacks of holding on to that issue? If it’s something bothering …
- The Skill of Patience… And when you think about people you resent or people you’ve had really bad relationships with, the idea that if they could become skillful in their actions is not such a bad idea. Now, part of your mind may say, “Well, I’d like to see them suffer a little bit first, so that they could have a taste of what they’ve …
- Why It’s Good to Know Why… But for that to become genuine knowledge, we have to follow the directions ourselves, commit ourselves to what he’s taught us, reflect on what we’re doing, so that the path becomes our path—because we’ve done our best to take his explanation of why and use it to our advantage—coming to understand why there’s suffering, and how we can …
- Potentials Past & Present… Another thing we’ve learned is that some things become true because we imagined them first. William James, an American philosopher, noted that there’re two kinds of truth. There are the truths that simply are the way they are regardless of whether you want them to be that way or not, like the motions of the planets and the stars. But there are …
- Respect Opens Possibilities… Craving for becoming: Taking on an identity in a particular world of experience, your sense of who you are in the world you inhabit. You want to take on an identity in a world because there may be something you desire in that world that you might be capable of finding. And then, craving for non-becoming: You’ve decided that the world you …
- The Noble Truths of the Breath… And as he traces it back, one of things that he points out is that if you fabricate your experience—and fabricate here means not that you’re totally making things up, but that you do have a role in shaping things—if you do it in ignorance, you’re going to suffer; if you do it with knowledge, it becomes the path. And …
- Goodwill, Gratitude, No Guilt… Try to work on your goodwill and your gratitude, and in that way your goodness becomes healthy. And it really does act for the benefit of you and those around you, because it becomes a good example. They, as active beings, can act in wise ways, too. That’s how goodness spreads through the world from one person to the next: through the example …
- Getting the Most Out of Now… This is how meditation becomes a skill. And there’s a lot to be learned about the mind simply by getting it to settle down. There are two purposes in the meditation: One is to gain some tranquility, and the other is to improve your insight. A lot of insight can come, though, simply by dealing with all the issues that prevent the mind …
- Loving Yourself Wisely… Think of the reflection the Buddha has you make every evening: “Days and nights fly past, fly past, what am I becoming?” What you’re becoming, of course, comes from your actions, from the habits you develop. So what kind of person are you creating through your actions, through your thoughts, through your words, through your deeds? You want it to be a good …
- Equanimity… These are wishes we can have for all, but it’s not the case that everybody is going to become happy. After all, they have to choose the path that leads to true happiness. It’s not that you can touch people on the head with a magic wand and make them happy. They have to behave skillfully in their thoughts, words, and deeds …
- Dedicating Merit… That becomes their good kamma. The hungry ghosts tend to be sensitive to this, which is why they’re in a position where they can receive this. When I first met Ajaan Fuang, it was shortly after my mother had passed away, and the dedication of merit was one of the first things he taught me. “Every night, after your meditation,” he said, “dedicate …
- Know the Dhamma by Its Results… They become our baggage. And when you can recognize something in your mind where you’re carrying baggage around—old resentments, a sense of pride—you have to put them down. You begin to realize that you were weighing the mind down to no purpose. Even though you held onto these things tightly and cherished them, they really didn’t help you. That’s …
- Achieving Balance… If you find your thoughts wandering off, ask yourself, “Why do I need to think about that now? Isn’t it more important to get to work here?” If you’re worried about situations in the future, remind yourself that your best preparation for the future is to become mindful, alert, clear about where your mind is going. All the more reason to stay …
- Physical Pains & Painful Words… You’ll find that in exercising your discernment in this way, exercising your ingenuity in this way, the Dhamma becomes yours. It’s not something imposed by some outside authority or from some strange culture someplace else. It becomes a body of principles by which you manage your own mind, manage your own life in a way that gives rise to a happiness that …
- The Adventure in the Present… In this way, your life becomes an adventure in learning. Make up your mind that whatever the situation, you’ll try to do the most skillful thing possible. And then keep learning, so that you can become more skillful, and then more skillful, more sensitive to what it means to be skillful. As that sensitivity develops, as I said, you begin to see subtler …
- Step Outside the World… But back when I was with Ajaan Fuang, it was before the forest tradition had become very popular. And the way he lived was something outside the culture. His values were very different from any other Thai person I’d ever met. He represented the customs of the noble ones, which is a very different set of customs from those of ordinary society. Ajaan …
- Choices in the Present… If you find that you’re analyzing something, and it’s beginning to become clear—you’re learning how to let go of things—okay, keep at it. It’s a sign that you’re up for that particular task, up for understanding that particular problem. But if the more you think about something, the duller the mind seems, then it’s time to …
- Concentration Work… They’re different forms of becoming. Eventually you’re going to have to let them go, but you have to train them first. It takes work. I’ve heard some people say, “Well, it’s so much work. Why don’t we just let go? Why do we have to bother with all this work?” Well, if you let go like that, you’re …
- The Basic Medicine… You want to develop a quality where awareness and the breath become one, where you’re right in the middle of the breathing process, instead of being in one part of the body outside the breath, watching another part of the body breathe. You’re in the breathing-in, in the breathing-out. Allow those two things to stay together: your awareness and the …
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