Search results for: "Form"

1. Page 64
2. Play AudioBeyond Nature
    … As the Buddha points out, all of the aggregates — form, feeling, perception, fabrication, and consciousness — have an element of intention in them. There are lots of different potentials from your past kamma that you can focus on in any given moment. Your choice of what to focus on is going to determine what you experience. For instance, there are potentials for different kinds of … 
3. Play AudioDelight
    … As the mind settles down and a thought begins to form, you can watch the process and see, “Oh, there are these steps.” And they can be pretty arbitrary. When you see how arbitrary they are, it frees you from a lot of the unskillful things that can otherwise take over the mind. So you have certain choices: You can go with the thought … 
4. Play AudioMany Desires, Many Selves
    … The breath, of course, is an aspect of the form of the body. You hold on to a perception that allows you to breathe in a way that feels comfortable. You’ll also be thinking about the breath and adjusting the breath, evaluating it—that’s called fabrication. And you’re aware of these things: That’s consciousness. There are also intentions that keep … 
5. Play AudioA Noble Path
    … But it’s the teachings on karma that form the beginning of the path: the realization that your actions do have consequences. The path itself is a kind of karma. The Buddha said it’s the karma that puts an end to karma. You’ve got to do it, and you look at the consequences of what you’re doing. The path factors were … 
6. Play AudioThe Ten Priorities
    … Realize that there are better forms of happiness. The dangers of being attached to sensuality are much greater than the dangers of being attached to, say, jhana. Often, you find that the mind is not willing to really settle down and look for happiness inside unless it’s cornered in a place where things are not quite so comfortable or where things are not … 
7. Play AudioOn Not Twisting the Cow’s Horn
    … You’re peeling away the noise that you make that gets in the way of hearing the more subtle noises of defilements as they’re beginning to form in the mind. It’s as if you’ve been humming a tune to yourself all along that prevents you from hearing the subtle noises in the room, the scratchings of the mice in the wall … 
8. Play AudioA Larger Perspective
    … This is also why the reflection on birth, aging, illness, death, separation, and the principle of karma comes in two forms. In the first, you reflect on the fact that these things apply to you. In the second, you go further: You realize, “It’s not just me. It’s everybody. We’re all subject to aging, illness, death, separation. We’re all related … 
9. Play AudioTuning-in to the Breath
    … In other words, there’s a potential for a form, a potential for a feeling, potential for perception, fabrication, consciousness; and the act of fabricating is what turns these potentials into actual aggregates. It sounds abstract, but it’s a very important lesson for the meditation even from the very beginning. You sit here in the body — and of course, that’s a fabrication … 
10. Play AudioWorking Hypotheses
     … So, what if we applied that insight to everything? One of the forms of suffering is not getting what you want. And the way the Buddha defines that is by saying that we all want not to grow ill, not to die, we don’t want to have any separation. And yet once you’re born, these things are going to happen. These things … 
11. Play AudioRefuge & Strength
     … It’s a form of strength. So you want to work on your strengths—conviction, persistence, mindfulness, concentration, discernment—doing whatever needs to be done to strengthen these qualities in the mind. If you have trouble getting the mind to settle down, sometimes you have to think your way to settling down. Ask yourself, “What’s the problem?” Is it the breath? Well, work … 
12. Play AudioRespect for the Path
     … As I said, not all forms of desire are bad, but many of our strongest desires, we have to realize, are not in line with the Dhamma. Which is why in the forest tradition they put a strong emphasis on the teaching that you have to practice the Dhamma in accordance with the Dhamma, and not in accordance with your likes and dislikes. That … 
13. Play AudioIronies
     … clinging to form, to feeling, perception, thought constructs, consciousness. This is what it all comes down to. Again, it’s stuff that’s happening all the time in the present moment, but we tend to miss it. So we need to develop our powers of mindfulness and alertness to see these connections and to understand our duty toward suffering, which is to comprehend it … 
14. Play AudioInner Negotiating Skills
     … The Buddha doesn’t have a term for it, but he does provide you with alterative forms of happiness. Think of his image of the six animals. Say, you’re trying to practice sense restraint. You need to have a sense of well-being in the body to maintain that restraint, so you develop mindfulness of the body, based on the breath. In the … 
15. Play AudioMetta Metacognition
     … You realize that goodwill is a form of generosity as well. You do it not because people deserve it, but because it feels good to do it, and you’re going to benefit in the long term. After all, if you have ill-will for anybody, you’ll find it easy to do things that are unskillful, and that’s going to come back … 
16. Play AudioDistractive Thoughts
     … How are you going to relate to the pain in such a way that the mind doesn’t suffer from it? If you’re up for that kind of analysis, you can learn a lot, particularly about how your perceptions of the pain, the labels you apply to the pain, can form a bridge so that the physical pain turns into a mental pain … 
17. Play AudioWhat You Don’t Like About Yourself
     … Forgiveness is one of the forms of generosity. It’s a good thing to give to yourself, to others. Then you finish off with some goodwill, goodwill for everybody, realizing that if you have goodwill for everyone, it can help dissolve a lot of those narratives. It helps you look at your habits that you’ve been carrying over since who-knows-when without … 
18. Play AudioSelf View & Conceit
     … There’s no desire to define yourself in any way, shape, or form. Finally, there’s no longer any clinging to precepts or habits and practices. In other words, your virtue is mastered. What does it mean not to cling to virtue? It doesn’t mean you don’t hold to the precepts anymore, it’s just that the precepts are part of your … 
19. Play AudioStrength of Conviction
     … Basically, instances of name-and-form. When he looked at things in those terms, he was able to step back from a lot of his preconceived notions and see simply, “Okay, where’s the stress? What’s causing it? Is it possible to put an end to it by attacking the cause?” And the answer was: Yes. “Okay, what are the qualities you have … 
20. Play AudioInterdependence & Death
     … When the Buddha talks about working with the sixteen steps of breath meditation, he’s also talking about mental fabrication, and the instructions themselves are in the form of verbal fabrication. The purpose of this focus on fabrications is to get you sensitive to the way you shape your mind through your perceptions and feelings. That’s what’s going to hold you in … 
21. Play AudioHeedfulness
     … Your heedfulness of the importance right now forms the basis for all the other good qualities in the mind—and for the potential to develop them as far as they can go.
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