Search results for: "Becoming"

  1. Page 78
  2. Centered on Concentration
     … So this ability to get the mind centered and still in the body in the present moment, to be familiar with the body, to get in touch with the energy flow in the body and learn how to direct it in such way that it becomes more and more livable here in the body: You’ve really got to respect this ability. You’ve … 
  3. Quiet in Every Way
     … Stay with that particular level as long as it keeps you focused, and learn to let it go when it becomes an obstacle to seeing things that are even more subtle. You can take this approach as a basic principle all the way through the practice because it embodies a lot of different teachings, like the four Noble truths: look for where there’s … 
  4. Social Anxiety
     … We become sensitive to other people’s moods, sensitive to what they might do, what they might say. As a result, our center of gravity is placed outside because we’re afraid of them, and we try to put up a wall outside ourselves to protect ourselves from them. What this means is that our psychic center of gravity gets moved outside the body … 
  5. The Interactive Present
     … It becomes the repressed part. But if you can ferret out the part of the mind that’s really enjoying the lust and say: “Hey, wait a minute, what kind of enjoyment is this? How about that stress over there? How about that discomfort over there? The sense of dissatisfaction that comes along with the lust, the cloudiness that comes into the mind because … 
  6. Cooking with Kamma
     … And then you’ve got the question, are you going to stay with the breath or are you going to go to the new topic? That becomes your present kamma: whatever you decide to do. So we’re making kamma all the time. We’ve been making it many, many times. So we have to learn how to manage our kamma field, because it … 
  7. Conceit
     … And this way you become your own best friend.
  8. A Culture of Restraint
     … I’ve been able to say No to it, and I haven’t died.” This way you can maintain your mental health, and the meditation really does become an ongoing process of developing — developing the skillful qualities you want: mindfulness, alertness, a sense of calm, a sense of wholeness and wellbeing in body and mind. As the Buddha said, “The mind well trained brings … 
  9. On Idle Chatter
     … That’s a bad habit to develop if you’re trying to become a meditator, both in terms of trying to get the mind into concentration and just learning how to watch your own mind. If you’re used to just talking all day, then when the time comes to sit and meditate, the mind says, “Hey, I’ve been churning out thoughts all … 
  10. Goodwill
     … So our first order of business in being kind to others and showing true goodwill is to develop our own skillfulness, because one way of encouraging other people to become skillful is to have ourselves as an example. When people see that we’re happier than we were before, they’ll be interested: “How did you do this? What kind of food are you … 
  11. Totally Secure
     … Not only do you want to admit the truth about what’s going on inside and about the things you’ve been doing outside, but you also want to create an environment where the truth becomes clear, where you’re true. When you make up your mind to do something, you stick with that determination. You want to be true to the practice, because … 
  12. The Power of the Mind
     … He started with aging, illness, and death, and worked back down through becoming and craving, sensory contact, the things that come prior to sensory contact, and finally got down to fabrications. When he brought knowledge to the process of fabrications, they ceased, because this was a knowledge that put an end to passion for fabricating. When there’s no passion for fabricating, why would … 
  13. The Community of the Wise
     … They’ve become part of the landscape, so much so that you hardly notice them. It’s like staying here on the mountaintop in Wat Metta. You see the same view every day, every day, every day. After a while, you begin to forget that it’s a really nice view. It just seems normal, unremarkable. It fades into the background. The same applies … 
  14. Metta Meditation
     … It hurts here, it’s tight there, it’s tense here, and if you focus on those areas, they become the little monster in the hall of mirrors. Try to find the spaces between the pains and the parts of the body that feel okay. They don’t have to be great. They just have to be relatively pleasant. Focus on them and allow … 
  15. To Sustain Your Practice
     … You become a person of conviction, generosity, virtue, and discernment, too. That’s how this external quality helps you maintain your energy on the path. Of these qualities, conviction is probably the most important. If you’re not convinced that the Buddha was really awakened, it’s very easy to start thinking, “Well, maybe he was just somebody who had some interesting ideas 2 … 
  16. Learning & Respect
     … It becomes an aid—as we respect one another, as we respect watching what’s going on in our own minds. Have a willingness to learn. That’s how you show your intelligence.
  17. Ideals
     … When you develop these strengths, then the ideals can become a reality. You’re focusing not so much on “things as they are” as on things as they have come to be so that you can manipulate them and can figure out what things can be. You can make them into a path to the deathless. That’s when the practice gets really good … 
  18. Speaking Truth to Defilement
     … And the more people who tell the lie, then the more “truthiness” it gets until finally it becomes what everybody accepts as the truth. It gets very hard to go against. This is another reason why, as a meditator, you want to separate yourself out from the general run of things and learn how to question these attitudes, these values of our society. Are … 
  19. Right Livelihood
     … That way, as honesty becomes second nature, it’s easier for the mind to settle down because you see everything that’s going on: All the curtains and the barriers of the mind are taken down. So it’s not so much a matter of fitting meditation into our lives but of readjusting our lives so that they fit around the meditation. After all … 
  20. Always Willing to Learn
     … It’s because he was willing to admit his mistakes that he was able to become Buddha. And if he could make mistakes, what about you? Of course you’re going to make mistakes. The important thing is your attitude toward them. If you’re too proud to admit your mistakes, you’re not going to learn. You have to recognize that you have … 
  21. A Good Narrative
     … This feeling gives rise to a sense of urgency, but it can become a sense of hopelessness if it’s not balanced by the sense that there is a way out. Once you sense there is a way out and it’s something that you can actually do, that calms the lake, and once the lake is calm, it grows clear. There’s a … 
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