Search results for: "Becoming"

  1. Page 72
  2. In Training
     … As he said, if you have no shame at telling a deliberate lie, then what’s to keep you from doing other things that you shouldn’t do? All kinds of things become open to you. You’ve really got to be on top of your precepts. The more you are, the more you learn about your own intentions, because we’re not following … 
  3. A Doctor’s Strategies
     … The king said, “You can keep your wealth but stay on here as my doctor.” Eventually he becomes the Buddha’s doctor. One of the people he treats on the way back is a millionaire who’s got horrendous headaches. Doctors have come and looked at him, and some said he was going to live only two more days. Others say, “Well, he is … 
  4. Audacious & Undaunted
     … We hear so much that the Buddha was against craving, and it’s true, as he said, that three types of craving—craving for sensuality, for becoming, and non-becoming—cause suffering. But the desire to be skillful, which is the desire that drove him on his path all the way to the deathless, is part of the path. So try to nurture that … 
  5. Karma in the Present
     … The worst thing you can do to somebody is to persuade them to do something really unskillful, because that karma then becomes theirs. If you hit them, it may be something in their past karma but now it’s gone, it’s been paid off. It’s now your karma. But if you get them to do something unskillful, the impact of that on … 
  6. But Not Sick in Mind
     … As long as you perceive things in this way and you hold on to these perceptions, there are going to be stories around all this: “Why is this body doing this to me? And what’s going to become of my life?” You can think about things you can’t do while you’re sick, all kinds of things: the possibility that the illness … 
  7. On the Surface of Things
     … As you get quicker, things will seem to slow down, so that what sounded like a raucous squawk actually becomes a series of notes. You can see: Oh, this follows on that, that follows on this, and it’s all right here. You’re learning how to watch more carefully what’s right here, to look for patterns right here. In the beginning, of … 
  8. Do Jhana
     … That’s how the meditation actually becomes successful. It is something you can succeed at. You focus your desire on the causes. You try to fine tune your efforts so that they’re just right. You’re intent on what you’re going—you’re not just going through the motions. And you learn how to be judicious in figuring out, if the mind … 
  9. Worth
     … If you can’t depend on your own mind, that’s the biggest thing to fear, because everything then becomes a danger. So to live a life without fear, this is what you’ve got to do.
  10. Stick with It
     … And a part of concentration is a sense of ease and well-being, a sense of fullness, so that the mind is willing to settle down to become one with the breath. Then as you develop that sense of ease, the sense of being centered, try to maintain it. That’s one of the more difficult parts of the meditation—sticking with it—because … 
  11. Karma & Not-self
     … That way, you become more and more skilled as a meditator. One of the things you begin to notice as you meditate is that thoughts come up in the mind totally unintended. It’s important to realize that you have the choice to get involved with them or not. That choice is the present intention. It takes a thought on and moves with it … 
  12. Factors for Awakening
     … These are qualities of mind you develop in order to become awakened. You can’t take awakening and develop it. You can’t clone the awakened state. But you can work on developing everyday factors of the mind that eventually will lead to awakening. This is one of the important aspects of the Buddha’s teaching: The path to awakening is built out of … 
  13. Prepare to Die
     … As you focus more and more on the breath, and the breath gets more and more still, a state of awareness just in and of itself becomes more and more clear. When that’s solid enough, then you can switch your focus there. You realize that there’s a sense of intense well-being that can come when the mind is really focused, settled … 
  14. Unparadoxical Happiness
     … But as the skill becomes more and more second nature, you find you can carry that sense of ease, that sense of well-being, fullness, and refreshment, into any situation. It goes deep down inside. As the Buddha said, once you gain a sense of ease from a concentrated mind, a sense of ease from, say, staying with the breath, you can allow that … 
  15. Advice for a New Monk
     … sensual craving, the craving to be become this or that, or the craving to destroy what you’ve become. That’s where your look to put an end to suffering. You look using the leverage of the concentration and the discernment you’ve developed here as a meditator. Once you understand that, it’s much more likely that your meditation will get results, because … 
  16. Nuts & Bolts
     … If you understand how the mind creates lots of different senses of self around its different states of becoming, you realize that you’ve got a whole stable in there and you don’t need to keep all the horses in the stable. Some of them are getting old. Some of them are troublemakers: They kick you when you feed them. Those are the … 
  17. Forest Bathing
     … Have the perception of wilderness, and allow the concerns of home life to become small. And appreciate the lack of those concerns. It’s a kind of emptiness. As the Buddha said, you notice what’s present and you notice what’s gone in terms of disturbance. You appreciate whatever emptiness, whatever lack of disturbance there is. That’s one of the original meanings … 
  18. Choosing Sides
     … As the Buddha said, when mindfulness becomes a governing principle in the mind, it sees things that are unskillful and it works toward getting rid of them. It sees things that are skillful and works toward giving rise to them. It actively gets involved in making things arise and making things pass away. So you are taking sides as you practice. Hopefully, you’re … 
  19. Starting from Within
     … You become less and less a prisoner of your old ways of doing things. Learn how to take more advantage of this opportunity you have in the present moment to act in a way that doesn’t cause suffering, to act in a way that’s skillful. Now this is a gift, not only to yourself but also to the people around you. When … 
  20. Self Power, Other Power
     … A little prince can grow up and become a king. If you mistreat him when he’s small, he’s going to remember that.” That principle applies to little tiny defilements in the mind. But it also applies to the good things in the mind as well. Whatever amount of concentration, whatever amount of mindfulness you’re able to muster: If you look after … 
  21. The Value of Concentration
     … Precision becomes an integral part of it. So don’t be careless. When things are bad, don’t get discouraged. Just keep coming back to whatever concentration you have. When things go well, don’t get complacent. Don’t let the concentration fool you into thinking that it’ll always be there no matter what. After all, it’s something fabricated, something intentional. So … 
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