Search results for: "Persistence"
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- Taking Charge… The next strength is persistence. You really stick with this. Once you’ve decided that a certain quality needs to be developed in your mind, you stick with it. You do whatever needs to be done. If you need to work on concentration, just keep coming back, coming back, coming back to the breath. If you find that certain defilements are getting in the …
- Something Good to Cling to… At first it doesn’t put up clear arguments, but after a while, if you’re persistent enough, and say, “I’m not going to go with that,” it’s going to start screaming and yelling. Then you listen to that. And if you have a good, solid place to stay, you can listen to it and not get persuaded by its screams or …
- De-thinking… There’s the desire, the interest, the persistence as you keep after it, the close attention you’re paying to it, and then the ingenuity you’re putting into the questions you ask. All these things contribute to concentration, help the concentration get settled, get solid, get very clear. It’s this ability to ask questions that makes all the difference in your practice …
- The Path Requires Effort… If you don’t have the desire, work on developing the desire, being persistent, being intent. Give your full attention to this one big issue, the one that the Buddha said was all he taught: stress and the end of stress. Once you take care of this issue, you’ve taken care of everything else. And you do that through right effort in developing …
- Clearing Your Space… Sometimes the pains go away when you get up from the meditation, while others are more persistent. So what do you do? You read the instructions in the Canon where they say that through concentration you develop a sense of ease and well-being, a sense of rapture, and then you let it work through the body, saturate the body so that there’s …
- Goodness… This leads right into the next strength, which is persistence. Once you see that the qualities of the mind are important, you have the desire to prevent unskillful ones from arising and to let go of unskillful ones that have arisen; to give rise to skillful qualities and to develop the ones that have arisen so that they become fully developed. And you’ve …
- Judging Your Efforts… Sometimes you have to work on the perfection of endurance, the perfection of persistence, or right effort, generating desire, upholding your intent, activating your persistence. These are skills of attitude and they’re as crucial as anything else in developing the mind. And remember: We’re working on a duty here. We’re not just here for a good time. Ajaan Chah has a …
- Calm… The Buddha has you start with the factors for awakening that are more energizing—analysis of qualities, persistence, and rapture or refreshment—because if you start out calming the mind down, it’s very easy to put yourself to sleep. So first, you have to energize yourself, thinking about the work that needs to be done. We’re not here just to rest. We …
- Refuge… So be patient with it but persistent. If it wanders off, bring it back, then reward it for coming back. Ask yourself what kind of breath would feel really, really good right now, and give it that kind of breathing. This way, you not only create a sense of well-being, but you’re also developing good qualities in the mind. These are the …
- Why We Practice the Way We Do… That’s persistence, or right effort. A sense of refreshment comes from that, then a sense of calm. From the calm, the mind can get concentrated. The more deeply it goes into the concentration, it finally arrives at a state of equanimity where it’s really solidly based. It’s not easily shaken by anything. It’s on that basis that you can look …
- When Aging Closes In… This leads to the other strengths of mind, such as persistence, when you really keep at it. When it’s going well, you keep at it. When it’s not going well, you keep at it. You do it because this is the only way to escape the suffering that can come when aging and illness start closing in. When the results aren’t …
- Abandoning Effluents (3)… That leads to the next factor for awakening, which is persistence. Once you see that something is unskillful, you try to abandon it. If it’s skillful, you try to maintain it, develop it. That will ideally lead to a sense of rapture as the mind gets more and more at peace, as unskillful qualities fall away. From the rapture then comes calm. From …
- The Reflective Self… The fourth quality is persistence. How much energy are you putting into the practice? Could you put in more? You find that out by putting in more and seeing how it goes. It’s only when you realize that you’re getting burned out, that you should back off somewhat. Otherwise, you never really know what you’re capable of. The fifth quality is …
- Meditate to Win… Bases for Success on the iddhipādas. He looked at the title and said, “The basis for success is working your ass off.” I said, “Well, yes, that is one of them: persistence.” But then he also admitted that that wasn’t all. You don’t just put in a lot of effort. You also have to be observant. And you have to take pleasure …
- Look Around as You Follow the Trail… Learning to be cheerful, patient, and persistent. Cheerful in realizing that you’re on a good path. Patient in realizing that the mind has put up a lot of obstacles to itself over the many, many lifetimes, so getting rid of those obstacles will take time. And you’re persistent in that you don’t let that get you down. So follow the path …
- Good Humor… When you develop this sense of good mood, you can ratchet up the level of pressure — the amount of time you spend with the meditation, the persistence with which you pursue it — without snapping. So whatever comes up in the meditation, whether it’s good or bad or whatever, always try to keep a good sense of humor. Even when things seem to be …
- A Refuge from the Winds of the World… The fact that you’re virtuous, that you’ve heard a lot of the Dhamma, you have admirable friends, and you’re easy to teach, you’re adept at the skills needed by the people around you, to help the people around you, you desire the Dhamma, you’re persistent, you’re content, you’re mindful, and you’re discerning: These are the supports …
- Appropriate Attention Always… What mind states are bright? What mind states are dark? You’re able to make those distinctions and then, based on that, you work on your persistence to give rise to what’s skillful and to get rid of what’s not. As the Buddha said, appropriate attention underlies all of the factors for awakening. Once you can exercise your persistence, get rid of …
- Five Strengths… The second form is persistence, as when you’re sticking with the breath here. Each time you slip off, you just come right back. Don’t let yourself get discouraged, don’t get frustrated. Just keep coming back again and again and again. That quality of coming back again and again is going to strengthen all the good qualities of your mind. So when …
- Intelligent Design… Second, there’s persistence, sticking with that conviction, acting on it all the time. Third, there’s mindfulness: You remember to keep that conviction in mind all the time and to apply it to all of your actions. Fourth and fifth are concentration and discernment. The discernment there is to help find ways over the obstacles that we all inevitably find on the path …
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