Search results for: "Dhamma"
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- The Gift of Goodwill… Sometimes it’s a Dhamma book; sometimes it’s a book on something else. And they’ll usually have a little biography at the front, and the biographies always end the same way. So-and-so started out having little symptoms of an illness here and there. At first the doctors were able to take care of the illness, they did their best, but …
- Easy to Instruct… What’s typically done in Thailand is that, under the spot where the Buddha image is going to be, they make a concrete box and put all kinds of auspicious things in there—passages of the Dhamma, little Buddha images, relics—and seal it up, kind of like a cornerstone. So that’s what they did in Wat Asokaram. But as the building progressed …
- Analyzing Suffering… As Luang Puu Dune once said, the Dhamma is one thing clear through, unlike other things in the world that come in pairs and dualities, where this leads in one direction and that leads in another one. When you hold on to the Dhamma, it’ll take you all the way to the end. You don’t have to change planes in the meantime …
- The Sport of Wise People… The other thing he said was when he heard me in conversation with another young monk about a point of Dhamma and I was saying “Well, I think it’s probably like this.” And he said, “If you don’t know, then why expose your ignorance? Why inflict your ignorance on other people?” He went on to say, “You should have a rule for …
- No One in Charge… There’s a passage where the Buddha says that if you want to get the most benefit out of a Dhamma talk, 1) you don’t have contempt for the talk, 2) you don’t have contempt for the speaker, and then, what’s really interesting, 3) you don’t have contempt for yourself. In other words, you don’t belittle your potentials or …
- Awaken to Your Potentials… One of the reasons why stream-enters have no doubts about the Buddha, the Dhamma, and the Sangha is because they’ve seen that, Yes, that’s right: You follow the path taught by the Buddha and it does lead to this experience of the deathless. That’s how your conviction is verified and becomes unshakable. Not even an earthquake can shake it. The …
- Ask Yourself the Buddha’s Question… This is why we have Dhamma instructions: to open your mind to possibilities you might not have thought of before. That’s what’s really special about the Buddha, not only that he was trying very carefully to make his actions more skillful, but that he was also very demanding in what he was going to accept as a desirable result, a result that …
- For the Sake of the Deathless… From his point of view, what good is knowledge if it doesn’t lead to happiness? What good is action if it doesn’t lead to happiness, a happiness that you can really rely on? You have to remember that’s what the Dhamma is all about. Its purpose, its attha, is to find a happiness that you can rely on. As the Buddha …
- Here Be Tigers… All too many people have read books on the Dhamma and say, “Well, these are the kinds of insights I’m supposed to get. I’m supposed to get insight into the three characteristics, insight into emptiness.” Or whatever. But the first thing you’ve got to get insight into is the workings of your own mind, because some thoughts will want to pull …
- Victory… On a TV show I saw one time, a Dhamma teacher was being interviewed, saying that what the practice comes down to is learning how to accept things as they are, realizing that you can’t change anything, and being okay with that. The interviewer, who was usually very gentle with her interviewees, said, “But isn’t that defeatist? Isn’t that pessimistic?” The …
- Good & Bad Meditation… I spent hours breathing in different ways to see how it affected the pain in the foot, and I learned a lot more from that pain than I did from a pile of Dhamma books. So this is the Buddha’s approach to meditation. He would make sure you have the right personal qualities, that you could be trusted to conduct experiments and be …
- Sanity for the Holidays… You’re not obliged to follow what they say if it has nothing to do with the rules, nothing to do with the Dhamma. If it’s just that person’s feelings spouting off, you learn how to let it go. If you can’t let it go, there’s a lot of trouble. I was talking to someone the other day who was …
- Protection in all Directions… I know someone who built a really beautiful new Dhamma hall in Thailand. He put years and years of work into it. More recently, he’s been complaining that it requires a lot of upkeep. You’ve got the hall, but now you’ve got all the upkeep that goes along with it. Is it worth the trade? That’s something we each have …
- Uncertainty… You look at the Dhamma teachings of the ajaans and you’ll notice that a huge percentage of them are pep talks saying: “Yes, you can do this.” The Buddha taught human beings. You’re a human being. The Buddha taught people who have five aggregates. You’ve got five aggregates. The Buddha taught people who were tired of suffering. You have to ask …
- Two Kinds of Defilements… And because a lot of people come to the practice with neurotic problems, that’s why so much of the emphasis in popular Dhamma is on just allowing things, admitting things, accepting things. That helps take away a lot of the sting. But if you start believing that that tactic works with everything, the second kind of defilement is going to laugh at you …
- Your Actions Are Yours… Which one of those are you still lacking? Are you lacking in conviction, lacking in a sense of shame or compunction, lacking in virtue, lacking in learning about the Dhamma, lacking in generosity and the goodwill that goes with generosity, or lacking in discernment? If you see that something is missing, work on that. Think of this as a set of skills you’re …
- Non-Verbal Discernment… There have been a lot of people who gain full awakening, like the private Buddhas, who couldn’t formulate the Dhamma. They sensed their way into awakening, recognized it when it came, but couldn’t put it into words. Or you can look at the different forest ajaans: Some of them are people of very few words who don’t explain much; others are …
- Suffering Comes from Those You Love… If you see that anything is accomplished by eulogies, Dhamma talks, and meditation, go ahead and do that—because admitting our grief, feeling our grief, is our entry into compassion, both for ourselves and for those around us. If you deny that there’s any loss, then it’s as if you deny your own suffering. If you deny your own suffering, then you …
- Focus on Your Skill… That’s how you get the best Dhamma lesson out of the knowledge that you gain while you meditate. I had a student one time who was quite psychic. She’d get visions about what the meaning of the world was, what the meaning of life was. I kept having to tell her, “Those are not the issues. The issues are: What are you …
- Loving Yourself… He said, “Bring me an observant person who tells the truth and is no deceiver, and I’ll teach that person the Dhamma.” That’s the basic requirement to practice. And being no deceiver means not only that don’t you deceive other people but also that you don’t deceive yourself. And although you may think that being honest with yourself means seeing …
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