Search results for: "Dhamma"

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  2. Attached to Concentration
     … In his Method Two, Ajaan Lee gives a fairly detailed guidelines on where you can focus on the breath and the different ways the breath can flow in the body, but if you look in his Dhamma talks, you’ll see that he played with the breath in lots of other ways as well. He was always coming up with new ways of conceiving … 
  3. The Raft of Jhana
     … But when you come to the practice of the Dhamma, you have to think of intelligence in another way: intelligence in terms of seeing where your thoughts are coming from and where they’re going to go, what they lead to. And realizing that what may seem like a really great thought, or something that someone else has to hear, may not be so … 
  4. Sober Up
     … You’re going to follow the voice of the Dhamma, because it’s the voice that has your own true best interest in mind—and at heart. So, use these thoughts to change the conversation in the mind. Any ways of talking to yourself that keep you weak—replace them. Any thoughts that are discouraging—replace them. That’s when you sober up.
  5. Unlearning Helplessness
     … But it turns out that Ajaan Lee would also recommend still other ways in some of his Dhamma talks. In other words, he gives you some ideas to start with, and then you can run with them. And then you can try running in the opposite direction. See what happens. This is how you learn. This is how you develop your sense of agency … 
  6. Inner Wealth
     … having heard the Dhamma, being generous, and having discernment. These are more on the positive side. The precepts, shame, concern: These deal with the negative things you don’t want to do. Generosity is something positive you do like to do, because when you’re generous, you benefit. The people around you benefit. You see this clearly when you’re generous with other people … 
  7. Defilements as Not-self
     … She couldn’t live with anybody but she really wanted to practice the Dhamma. One day she came and offered him some sugarcane juice in the afternoon. He took a slight sip and then he gave the glass back to her and told her to drink the whole glass of juice. That’s when the nasty voices started coming on. So he started talking … 
  8. Focus on the Precepts
     … But you’re getting into dangerous waters that way, because that brings the different principles behind the precepts into conflict with one another, and it’s up to you to decide how to resolve that conflict, because there’s no guidance from the Buddha or from the Dhamma on which principle overrides which other principles. You lose your focus, and you end up breaking … 
  9. The Positive Side of Heedfulness
     … We had a question today about whether creativity was in line with the Dhamma as you work. Well, it’s an exercise of your discernment. Again, all too often, we think of discernment as simply observing things as they’re happening. But you don’t observe things, really, by just watching them. You have to get involved with them. You have to create good … 
  10. Look in the Mirror
     … This image of a mirror has a long history in the Dhamma. When the Buddha was introducing his son to the practice, one of the first images he used was of a mirror. He said that just as you would look into a mirror for reflection, you look into your actions—bodily actions, verbal actions, mental actions—and reflect on them before you act … 
  11. Metta Isn’t Love
    I read a Dhamma talk by someone saying that metta shouldn’t be translated as “loving-kindness,” because loving-kindness is too weak. It should be translated as “love.” Part of the reason, he said, was that nobody writes songs about loving-kindness, but everybody writes songs about love. I didn’t know that we were in the business of taking love songs as … 
  12. Weathering Karma Storms
     … When Ajaan Mun gave his last Dhamma talk, that was the theme he concluded with: determination. In his terms he said, “Be determined not to come back and be the laughing stock of the defilements ever again.” It may feel like the defilements are laughing at you right now, but you learn to put up with it. You’re determined, “I don’t want … 
  13. The Escape of Discipline
     … All of those passages we chanted just now, the four Dhamma summaries, come from the story of Ratthapala, a young man who came from a very wealthy family. He heard these teachings from the Buddha and he realized, “I can’t stay at home. If I want true happiness, I’ve got to go out and become a monk.” And whether or not we … 
  14. Guiding Truths
     … This is why the Buddha said the Dhamma is paccatam , individual. It’s universal in its truth, but very individual and very direct in how you’re experiencing it right now—which is why the truths are also opanayiko pertinent, relevant all the time. They’re always there to put to use. They’re always there to depend on. So don’t ever let … 
  15. Choiceful Awareness
     … And then we’ll have to go through the process of growing up again and finding the Dhamma all over again. Who knows when your next chance is going to be? So we don’t listen to the neuroscientists who say that people don’t really have choices, because we realize that our choices do matter, and they matter right now. That’s the … 
  16. Harmony, Right & Wrong
     … I know communities where, when you give a Dhamma talk, nobody else in the roster of teachers is allowed to criticize you—both in lay communities and in some monastic communities. No matter how wrong it is, you’re not supposed to say anything contrary. This is what gives harmony a bad name. As the Buddha said, true harmony is based on having goodwill … 
  17. Feel-Good Religion
     … It’s in this way that Buddhism, the Dhamma, is a feel-good religion. It’s not a Pollyanna-ish placing hopes on clouds. It’s feeling good right in the very foundation of your experience of the mind, your experience of the body. After all, nobody’s forcing you to breathe in a way that’s uncomfortable. No one is forcing you to … 
  18. Look at Yourself
     … You can take that as a Dhamma lesson: If you place your heart with other people, they can squeeze it. So you’ve got to place your heart inside, place your gaze inside, and look at yourself. This is what the four noble truths are all about. The cause of suffering is craving. Whose craving? Yours. The cause of suffering is ignorance. Whose ignorance … 
  19. Mindfulness Immersed in the Body
     … You want to make sure, at the very least, that the purposes for which you hold on to the body are connected with the Dhamma. And then you have to release the mind from that. So we work our way up. Let’s start by being comfortable with seeing the parts of the body, regarding the body in this way so that it’s … 
  20. Brahmaviharas at the Breath
    I came across an interesting Dhamma talk by Ajaan Suwat in which he reverses the usual order for spreading thoughts of goodwill. He says, “First you start with other people.” You’re planning to sit down to meditate; you don’t want thoughts of issues from the day to get in the way of your meditation. So you clear the decks, remind yourself: You … 
  21. To Gladden the Mind
     … As he said, you’re always going to have doubts about him until you’ve found the Dhamma within, and he pointed out how to do it. He didn’t ask that you simply just believe, believe, believe. He said that we all come with uncertainty, and where are you going to cure the problem of uncertainty? You can cure it by looking into … 
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