Search results for: "Dhamma"

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  2. Recognizing Fools
     … What is the actual Dhamma lesson here? Once you’ve figured out the lesson, you have to test it. Often, it won’t pass the test. But to be able to judge that, you have to be very honest with yourself. This is where integrity comes in again. You have to learn how to view your visions and your insights with a certain amount … 
  3. Responsible Happiness
     … He says he doesn’t reject pleasures that are in accordance with the Dhamma, but that means pleasures that are harmless. Certain pleasures, though, come only when you act in unskillful ways, or when you try to hold onto them you’re going to do unskillful things: Those are the ones you’ve got to watch out for. But here you’re developing good … 
  4. Imagine Your Breath
     … But when you look through his Dhamma talks, you’ll see that he’s got other ways of playing with the breath that he doesn’t mention in the guides. You wonder how many other ways he would have found with playing with the breath if he had lived longer. Meanwhile, though, you’re here, you’re alive, you can play. You can think … 
  5. Mistakes
     … That’s why we have all the teachings of the Dhamma. It’s up to us to learn to take on that guidance and say, “Yes, that really does apply to me. I’m not a person who makes exceptions. I’m a person who’s willing and able to practice.” As I said last night, develop healthy conceit, the attitude that “Other people … 
  6. Protective Meditations
     … If we think about it in terms that go beyond its real utility in terms of practicing the Dhamma, we’re going off-course. This is where we get greedy, selfish, holding on to things for the sake of the body. But then, what is it? It’s going to fall apart. There’s a disease for every part of the body—many diseases … 
  7. Craving & Desire on the Path
     … On the other hand, it’s rooted in your own desire like every other dhamma. This may sound paradoxical, but as you get a sense of the path, you see that it all makes sense. The Buddha was wise in the way that Ajaan Lee would define wisdom: the sort of wisdom that can take almost anything and get good use out of it … 
  8. Stepping Back
     … As the Buddha said, “As long as you’re uncertain about the true Dhamma, there’s always the fear of death.” What’s going to happen when you die? The only way you can know is by looking at the processes of the mind, because it’s already going through death and birth on a small level all the time. It just keeps coming … 
  9. Noble Right Concentration
     … It’s an extension of evaluation, but it can be applied to any of the levels of jhana, because it fits in with the Buddha’s observation that the Dhamma is learned through commitment and reflection. With commitment, we’re sticking with one object. With reflection, we’re trying to do it well, trying to notice when what we’re doing is working, what … 
  10. Pain & Distraction
     … So do your best to develop the sense of a center, a place where you belong, vihāra-dhamma, your home for the mind, so that when pains come up in other parts the body, you don’t have to get sucked into those parts of the body. You have the choice as to exactly how much you’re going to lay claim to the … 
  11. Understanding Aggregates
     … The word attha in Pāli means both “goal” and “meaning.” The deathless is the attha of these dhammas. It’s their goal, and it’s what makes them meaningful. So, make sure that you use this way of looking at things for its intended purpose, and that way you really understand it, at the same time getting the most out of it.
  12. Encourage Yourself
     … Recollection of the Sangha, recollection of the Dhamma, recollection of the Buddha, recollection of the good you’ve done in the past: These are all useful techniques. They’re all a legitimate part of the meditation. We tend to forget that. Oftentimes we want just the technique. Some meditation teachers say, “Okay, all you need is a technique.” They turn it into super science … 
  13. Three Levels of Concentration
     … Ajaan Lee gives some recommendations, but notice that in his Dhamma talks he talks about the breath energy in all kinds of ways. There’s no one way of conceiving the breath that’s going to work for everybody. So explore and work things out on your own. After all, it is your body that you’re settling into. You listen to the instructions … 
  14. Second Wind
     … I’ve been going through the Canon, trying to find all the passages where people gain awakening while listening to the Buddha or one of his disciples give a Dhamma talk. It’s amazing how many of those talks are in the form of questions, trying to get the listener to look into his or her mind from a new perspective. You can play … 
  15. The Precepts
     … You reflect on the Buddha, the Dhamma, the Sangha. You reflect on your own virtue, your own generosity, your own good qualities. These are reflections on the past that you bring into the present to put the mind in good shape. You take your ability to think, your ability to form thoughts, and you put it to good use. It’s not that you … 
  16. Things as They’ve Come to Be
     … So ask yourself, what would be inspiring right now? The Buddha, the Dhamma, the Sangha? Your own past generosity? Your own past virtues? Or do you need something besides the carrot? Do you need a stick? Think about death. It could come at any time, and you can ask yourself, “Am I ready to go?” Almost universally the answer is, “Not yet.” Okay, what … 
  17. Safety All Around
    A lot of the suttas end with the listeners saying that they take refuge in the Buddha, the Dhamma, and the Sangha. It seems to have been a custom in the time of the Buddha. You found a teacher you respected and you asked for protection. I was reading a book a while back in which the author, a scholar of Buddhism, was saying … 
  18. Discerning Actions
     … The Dhamma is all a guide to action. The basic image that the Buddha gives of his teaching is of a path: something you follow, something that you have to engage in, in an active way. All his various teachings, even the ones that seem very theoretical, are guides to action. Take the teaching on emptiness. It sounds awfully abstract. But basically the Buddha … 
  19. Concentration Food
     … They have their weapons, which is knowledge of the Dhamma. But both the gatekeeper and the soldiers need to be fed, and that’s what concentration is for. Concentration is compared to the food stores: grass for the horses; honey and ghee for the soldiers and the gatekeeper. So, nourish your mind well with stillness, so that the other aspects of the path can … 
  20. To Comprehend Pain
     … This is in line with the Buddha’s principle that you don’t weigh yourself down unnecessarily with pain, and you don’t deny pleasures that are in line with the Dhamma. So you’re trying to clear things out. See which pains in the body you have to live with and which ones you don’t. That makes it a lot easier to … 
  21. Think Like a Thief
     … When something was well done outside, could you take that lesson and apply it into your mind? And don’t think that any lesson or any task is too small to provide you with a useful Dhamma lesson. Take Ven. Rahula as your patron saint. Rahula was the student that the Buddha extolled for being outstanding in his willingness to learn, his desire to … 
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