Search results for: "Becoming"

  1. Page 84
  2. Mindfulness Like a Dam
     … They become more meticulous, and you get to see things that are more and more refined happening in the mind. Now, you’re not going to like a lot of what you see. Well, just accept that fact. Again, take a very matter-of-fact attitude toward that: that this is the way the mind has been all along. You’re trying to uncover … 
  3. Positive Capability
     … We’re here to become more perceptive, more inquisitive. Things we ordinarily take for granted, we want to start questioning them, especially when you say, “I like this, and of course I like this. Who wouldn’t like this?” Well, arahants don’t let liking or disliking get in the way of getting beyond these things. So it’s something you’ve got to … 
  4. Me, Me, Me
     … You look at them and the question isn’t, “What’s wrong with me?” or “How can I get rid of me?” It’s simply: “What’s going on here? Where is the stress? Where is the suffering?” When you take things apart in this way, then the job becomes a lot more manageable, and you can do it without a lot of self … 
  5. Self-esteem
     … But the less burdensome your behavior is, then it becomes less and less and less anybody else’s business—until finally you reach the deathless. That’s totally your own business. Nobody else has to know. They just sense it in that you’re less of a burden on them. Basic to those nine kinds of conceit is another one the Buddha talks about … 
  6. The Sport of Wise People
     … In this way, you become a wise person whose sport is jhana. You’re not the old person you were whose sport was indulging in different kinds of fantasies and finding your entertainment that way. Even though you’re engaged in restraint, the fact that you’re not asked to have opinions about things means you’re more free to play inside. It’s … 
  7. A Pervasive Well-being
     … As you work through all the various blockages in the body, you find that the body becomes a more comfortable place to stay. It’s easier to settle down right here. When you’ve gone through the body as a whole several times and have opened up the roadblocks, there finally comes a point where you can just settle down. You don’t have … 
  8. Awaken to Your Potentials
     … That’s how your conviction is verified and becomes unshakable. Not even an earthquake can shake it. The realization is that overwhelming.
  9. Wisdom Requires Integrity
     … Only when the mind is very, very still can the little actions of the mind become apparent. But it’s the same principle all the way through. Be honest with yourself about what you’re doing and what the results are. If the results aren’t up to standard—and you try to make sure your standards are high —then you realize you’ve … 
  10. Ask Yourself the Buddha’s Question
     … Where there’s a sense of ease in the breath, you can think of it spreading around throughout the body so that it becomes even more pleasant to stay here. At the same time, you’re exercising a really important function in the mind, this ability to pose questions and then look for yourself to get the answers. This part of concentration is called … 
  11. For the Sake of the Deathless
     … If the Buddha had tried to give all the information he gained in his awakening, the map would become unreadable. He gave us just enough to get us on the right course. But the path also requires that we look at ourselves, because the problem that this path overcomes is something that lies within each of us. You have to take care of what … 
  12. Right but Wrong
     … It’s very easy to get into Dhamma discussions where the point of the discussion becomes who’s right and who’s wrong. A lot of conceit can develop around being right in discussions like that. Even though you don’t abandon conceit until the end of the path, it’s a good idea to avoid those kinds of discussions as much as possible … 
  13. Sensitive to Stress
     … So the question, as we meditate, is how to become more and more sensitive to the stress that’s actually going on in the mind. Over time, as the mind gets more and more quiet, your sense of what counts as stressful will change. This is probably one of the reasons why the Buddha doesn’t define stress, just as he doesn’t define … 
  14. Moods Are Not-Self
     … But it doesn’t become good or bad with the mood. That’s the part you can make like earth. Then look at the way you talk to yourself around goodwill, compassion, empathetic joy, and equanimity; the way you talk to yourself about your body; the way you talk to yourself about things around you outside. Try to get yourself in the right frame … 
  15. Disenchantment & Dispassion
     … This becomes the mind’s basic default mode. So this is the aim of the Buddha’s teachings. In the final evening of his life, he talked about how people were paying homage to him in the wrong way. Actually, devas were paying homage with heavenly music, heavenly scents, etc., yet he said that that’s not genuine homage for the Tathagata. True homage … 
  16. Here Be Tigers
     … If you can develop a sense of clear priorities and stick with it, you find that your thinking becomes a lot more useful. Now, the top-priority question here is: What can you do minimize the amount of unnecessary suffering you’re causing yourself? When the Buddha taught the four noble truths, he put this problem—the suffering caused by craving, suffering caused by … 
  17. In Gratitude- Ajaan Suwat
     … He was deviating from a lot of things that had become customary in Thailand and Laos. When people commented on this to him, he said, “The customs of the people in Thailand or Laos or any country in the world are the customs of people with defilements. If you want to get past your own defilements, you have to follow the customs of those … 
  18. The Gift of Speech
     … Think about all the trouble you went to in order to become a human being who has a human mouth. So what do you do with this human mouth? Animal mouths can express only very limited ideas. Your human mouth can express all kinds of things. Given that you’ve got this wide variety of things you can talk about, do you want to … 
  19. Victory
     … You wouldn’t let them become obstacles, because otherwise you’d simply go back to your old ways. It’s because your old ways were not satisfactory that you came to the practice to begin with. So, this is one of the ways the Buddha has you develop a sense of heedfulness: through goodwill for yourself. Then, of course, there’s goodwill for others … 
  20. A Position of Strength
     … In fact, it’s in the really strong levels of concentration that your mindfulness becomes pure. So be mindful to stay right here and do your best to make things comfortable right here, because mindfulness doesn’t mean just remembering to be here. It remembers other things as well: How do you settle in right here so that it feels really good? When something … 
  21. Freedom through Restraint
     … The world of the mind, as you get to know it, becomes a much bigger, more interesting place than the world outside. Look at the world outside: How much of it can you control? You read the news: Everything is going crazy. Why clutter up your mind with what’s going on out there? You’ve got enough clutter already in here that’s … 
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