Search results for: "Becoming"

  1. Page 67
  2. The Path of Adventure
     … So if you develop a mature attitude toward being on the path, everything else becomes a lot easier, because you’re not measuring things against your own impatient standards, you’re not wanting to do all 10,000 steps at once so that you can have it over and done with and move on to something else. As the Buddha said, the path is … 
  3. The Airplane Mechanic
     … If it’s a soldier’s uniform, you suddenly become a soldier. If it’s an apron, you have to become a cook—whatever. But here, you just put it aside and say, “Okay, there’s a piece of clothing on the floor, but I don’t have to go there. I don’t have to get into it.” If you’re going to … 
  4. In the Eyes of the Wise
     … Because, after all, those are the people whose club you want to join—you want to become a wise person, too. It’s like Ajaan Mun, when he was accused of not following Thai customs: eating only one meal a day, living in the forest, wearing robes that were made up of scraps. People would say, “You’re not behaving in line with Thai … 
  5. Part V : Finding a Teacher
     … He or she helps clear up your misunderstandings on those topics, but the friendship becomes admirable when you find yourself growing in those qualities yourself. After all, the purpose of an admirable friend is to help you recognize who your admirable friends are inside. One of our main problems is that we suffer from delusion. Thoughts come into the mind and it’s hard … 
  6. Harmless & Clearheaded
     … So the pride he felt around his youth, his health, and his life was not really becoming, and it was setting him up for a major fall. So that was one problem with all the sensual pleasures he was enjoying. They had him intoxicated. He was drunk, couldn’t see things clearly. He had to get away from those pleasures if he wanted to … 
  7. Start with Goodwill
     … Or if they’ve had a lapse — in other words, they’re experiencing the happiness that comes from their past actions, but their present actions are not all that skillful — empathetic joy means, May they resume becoming skillful. They’ve been skillful in the past, but as we all know, some people get the rewards of their goodness and then they turn bad. It … 
  8. Coming into the Present
     … Birth follows immediately on becoming and so on down through dependent co-arising. That’s a synchronic level of causality. It’s because the Buddha discovered synchronic causality that he realized that we’re not a victim of past fate, our old karma, orsome primary cause or ground of bein, or first mover. There are decisions that are being made freely in the present … 
  9. Understanding Pain
     … After all, the body is solid, so the solidity of the body gets glommed together with the pain, so that it becomes solid pain. Learn how to question that. Is the body the same thing as the pain? The body is something physical; the pain is something mental. They may lie in the same spot, but it’s as if they’re on different … 
  10. Mature Strategies
     … Our standards for what counts as true happiness have become more refined. Particularly as we develop our powers of concentration and get used to a more and more refined sense of ease, a more expansive sense of ease, we grow more discriminating in our taste, in our appreciation for what true happiness can be. And there comes a point where we’re willing to … 
  11. Multi-Dimensional Dhamma
     … If the body gets diseased, it becomes a burden to other people, especially now that medicine and treatments are so expensive. One of our responsibilities as practitioners is to make sure that we stay healthy, although we have to fight the tendency to get passionate about perfecting the body and being really fit. That’s one way you have to look for a balance … 
  12. The Questions of Suffering
     … All the four noble truths become clear. And you see why they’re called “right view.” They form the view that’s right for solving that original problem. So when questions come up in your mind, remember that the really important ones are those that relate to this question: What is the suffering? What causes it? What can be done to put an end … 
  13. Establishing Priorities
     … It becomes a lot more interesting. You begin to realize that this breath work we do in the body is a useful way of getting the mind interested in the breath, so that you don’t have to force it to stay here. You’re here through the power of your curiosity. At the same time, you have to keep an eye on the … 
  14. Taking Responsibility
     … It just becomes plain technique without any real insight. This is why Ajaan Fuang always said to observe, to watch. And his attitude when he gave meditation instruction was not, “Just do this and don’t think, and come back when you’ve got guaranteed awakening.” He said, “Try this out. If it doesn’t work, we can work with it.” He wanted you … 
  15. Setbacks
     … It’s also not necessary that when you’re virtuous, the mind becomes concentrated or when you’re concentrated, you gain discernment. These things are not billiard balls, where you hit one and that goes to hit the next and that goes to hit the next and you get the last ball into the pocket. It’s not that neat a process. The mind … 
  16. Eyes in the Back of Your Head
     … After all, this state of concentration is a form of what they call bhava, or becoming. It’s a state of being. Every state of being is usually focused on something. There’s a craving, there’s delight, there’s an attraction to one thing that becomes the focus for a whole sense of who you are and of the world around you. You … 
  17. Heedfulness is the Path
     … When you’re choosing a teaching to follow, you can become the best judge of whether the teacher is good or his teaching is good when you yourself become more and more a person of integrity. As the Buddha said, a person of integrity can tell when someone else has integrity or not. People without integrity can’t tell. They themselves are used to … 
  18. More than a Sliver of Mindfulness
     … It’s not the hungry equanimity of just telling yourself, “I’ll be okay with whatever comes up.” It’s equanimity that’s been well-fed, that’s at peace, what Ajaan Fuang would call large-hearted equanimity, as opposed to the small-hearted equanimity that just grits your teeth and says, “Okay, I’ll bear with it.” You’re becoming equanimous because the … 
  19. Three Recollections
     … If he was going to become Buddha, he had to test his awakening to make sure it was the real thing. So he tested it again and again. You read in the Canon about the different standards against which he tested it. What was his knowledge of the devas? What was his knowledge about suffering? What was his knowledge about different states of being … 
  20. To Discern Suffering
     … Sometimes the sense of rapture or refreshment gets really strong to the point that people feel threatened by it, in which case it becomes unpleasant. But if you can learn to accept it simply as a sign that the mind is settling down, then your perception of it is going to change. It becomes pleasant again. And then you’re aware of all these … 
  21. Lust
     … It becomes a way of nurturing, of training the mind in that particular direction. But when we come to actually developing the factors of the path, somehow it seems awfully hard. This is where we have to generate desire to abandon what’s unskillful and develop what’s skillful. Right effort is, in part, the ability to generate that desire. Try to think about … 
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