Search results for: "Becoming"
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- Your Inner Mob… Wait for the craziness of the mob psychology to run its course, but the important thing is that you don’t become part of the mob. If you can gain this kind of perspective on your thoughts, you can save yourself a lot of grief. As that bumper sticker says, “Don’t believe everything you think.” Don’t identify with everything that’s coming …
- Staying in Position… It’s to be expected that you’re going to fall off, but learn how to get back into balance as quickly as possible, so that this balanced state of mind—centered but full throughout the body, with the breath comfortable, the mind awake—becomes more and more your second nature, your normal way of operating. Upasika Kee talks about the state of mind …
- Meaning in a Meaningless Universe… It becomes pretty obvious that this is a universe without a purpose. A lot of people find that thought chilling, but it’s directly related to the issue of suffering. If this universe had a purpose, and your suffering were part of the purpose of the universe, there’d be no way out. You’d have to continue suffering. But here, there’s no …
- Doing Nothing… Mindfulness turns into directed thought, alertness turns into evaluation, and ardency becomes singleness of preoccupation. You really stick with your object and you learn how to stick with it skillfully so that it gives rise to a sense of rapture. This is where you get energy in your practice. That sense of rapture is your food. Ajaan Fuang compared it to the lubricant for …
- Understanding Goodwill & Equanimity… They can often become even more and more unskillful. So, ideally you’re hoping that they develop an understanding, along with the willingness and the ability to act on the understanding. At the very least, the understanding is the important part. Think about what that means. We’re wishing for happiness and what it comes down to is that we’re wishing that people …
- Let Pleasure & Pain Fall Off the Plow… All of a sudden, the whole hour becomes an hour of pain. Even though it’s only one moment that you’re feeling the pain, you’ve already sketched out the rest of the hour as being a painful hour. And however long the pain’s been there in the past, you carry that around in your bag as well. No wonder you get …
- The Wall of Discernment… The clearer you are, the more precise you are in understanding what is really worth doing in terms of giving rise to long-term happiness, the more useful your discernment becomes. This is where you have to keep in mind the Buddha’s statement that there is no happiness apart from peace. We may think of other kinds of happiness and pleasure that are …
- Two Hands Washing… You’ll know the antidote has worked when the mind finally does become willing to settle down. Then once you’re with the breath, you can ask questions on a different level: “Exactly what sensations are breath? How does the body relate to the breath? Where does the in-breath begin? How do you tell if the breath is comfortable or not? What are …
- Food for the Mind… And in doing so, you find that you have to become very mindful, very clear about not only your actions but also the intentions behind your actions. In order to see those intentions clearly, the mind has to be very still. This is where concentration practice comes in. And when concentration is strong, discernment develops. When discernment is strong, the mind is released. So …
- Just Rightness… That’s where you hold to the right questions to keep in mind all the time: “What am I doing that’s unskillful? What am I doing that’s skillful? What makes it unskillful? What makes a skillful? What can I do to become more skillful? What actions would be more skillful?” It’s a question of balance, keeping the mind balanced right here …
- Still… Once you’ve got this stage, then the skill of using it for the sake of discernment will become a lot clearer. So. Patience. Steadiness. Consistency. Learn to regard those as real virtues.
- Perception… What’s the desire behind them? Usually, they serve our sense of becoming. The world that we’re perceiving around us and our sense of who we are in that world is based on a desire, but it’s built out of perceptions. And the desire warps the perceptions in its direction. So even though no perception is a totally accurate representation of what …
- Humility & Confidence… When we start out, we’re not capable of doing the high levels of the practice, but by doing the basic levels we train ourselves, we become new people. Our capabilities grow. It’s like starting out at school. If someone gives you a calculus textbook in first grade, you think there’s no way you’re ever going to be able to do …
- Radical Questioning… And the clinging can take any of four forms----clinging to a sensual desire, clinging to a particular view, clinging to a way of doing things that’s become almost ritualistic in your mind, or clinging to certain views about yourself. Those are four areas to look into if you’ve noticed that a particular thought is making you suffer. Does it involve any …
- Freedom… Any area of your life where you can devote your full attention to it is an area that can become skillful. This is a pattern you see throughout the Buddha’s teachings. As he once said, the essence or the core of his teaching is freedom or release. The goal is nibbāna: unbinding, total happiness. So freedom and happiness are the big themes here …
- Mindfulness of Death… The more they become habitual, the more likely you’ll be able to draw on them. So as you’re sitting down under the trees, walking through the orchard, you don’t want to be just sitting, just walking. You want to be developing good qualities in the mind. If you find yourself slipping off, remind yourself: “Who knows when death will come?” The …
- True to the Breath… It becomes your feeling. Then you feel happy, you feel pleasant, or you feel pained. It’s no longer just a process. It’s your feeling, and that starts getting you entangled as well. You’re worried about what it means. Especially if it’s pain: You really worry about what it means. But if you can see it simply as a process, something …
- In Restraint Is Strength… That way, your thinking becomes useful. So look at the practice as an all-day affair. You’re developing your mind all the time. You’re exercising the mind all the time. And as you do, it builds up momentum. When you’re really focused on maintaining the state of your mind, a lot of the issues that tend to come up when people …
- A Master of Your Thoughts… Then as your powers of concentration get better, this line of thought will become more and more useful, and will go deeper and deeper into understanding the wellsprings of these thoughts—where they come from and why you go for them—until they lose their appeal. Once they’ve lost their appeal, then you’re in charge. It’s not that the Buddha’s …
- Reflect… But the potential for putting an end to suffering also comes from watching these things, seeing them in action, and becoming very discerning in how you shape your experience, how you react to your thoughts. So reflect. Remember: This practice is a mirror. It’s not for looking outside. It’s for looking at yourself and trying to be very precise in figuring out …
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