Search results for: "The Sangha"
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- Unlearning Helplessness… When you think about the Buddha, and he seems a little too super-human for you, then you can think about the Sangha. In the Theragatha and the Therigatha there are lots of verses about monks and nuns who got really discouraged in the practice. Some of them were even suicidal, but they managed to pull themselves together. The response that’s encouraged when …
- Meaning & Importance… As for his own importance, shortly before he did pass into total nibbana, he said to the monks, “As for the minor training rules, as the Sangha sees fit they can do away with any of them that they want to do away with.” This statement means a lot of different things, but one of them is that, if you think about it, the …
- De-domesticated… This is why they say that when we take refuge in the Buddha and the Dhamma and the Sangha, the word sarana, which we translate as refuge, also means something you hold in mind, something you remember. Always remember the Buddha. Ajaan Suwat, after he’d had his accident, found that his ability to give Dhamma talks was pretty severely curtailed. He wanted to …
- Before Your Face Was Born… This is one of the reasons why we have the recollection of the Sangha to set our standards right. You look at all the people who’ve been practicing: There have been men, women, and children; rich people, poor people; healthy people, sick people. And what do they have in common? They wanted true happiness and they were willing to do what it takes …
- Meaning & Happiness… This one of the reasons why sanghanussati, recollection of the Sangha, is so useful, especially when you’re going away from the monastery. We’re surrounded by so many people with so many different opinions, and anything goes in this land of wrong view. So it’s good to keep alive in your mind the fact that there have been real people who were …
- Fear of the Truth… And, of course, the Buddha, the Dhamma, and the Sangha are a refuge. We find that refuge by developing their qualities, so that the mind becomes a refuge—directly for itself, and indirectly for others. Now, the nature of this refuge is not that it’s simply a place where you run away and hide. It’s like the fortress. You’re there on …
- It’s Good to Talk to Yourself… contemplation of the Buddha, the Dhamma, and the Sangha to deal with times when you’re feeling discouraged in the practice, and contemplation of death for when you’re feeling lazy. You realize that death could come at any time, and you’ve got work to do in your mind if you want to be ready to die and not suffer from it. Contemplation …
- Saṃvega & Pasāda… He left the organization of the Sangha as a community of people who could continue the practice. So in his search for happiness, he wasn’t the only one who benefited. He benefited lots of people. He’s still benefiting us today. The fact that he searched for happiness in a wise way is probably one of the most important events in world history …
- Samvega Transformed… In the Apadanas, which are probably the very last texts added to the Sutta Pitaka, they talk about people who’ve made a gift to the Sangha or to the Buddha, and as a result of that—and here we’re talking about gifts many eons ago—they received the forecast that they would become arahants in this lifetime under the Buddha Gotama. The …
- Analysis of Qualities… This is why we have those other meditation topics—like recollection of death, recollection of the Buddha, the Dhamma, and the Sangha, recollection of your own generosity and virtue—to incline the mind to see the importance of getting trained, settling down, developing some concentration. That’s one thing you have to watch out for in the mind. The other thing you have to …
- Training Heart & Mind… We learn of the goodness of the Buddha, we learn of the goodness of the Saṅgha, the people who’ve gone before us, but there has to be something within us that says, “Yes, that really is good, and I want to do some goodness like that.” That requires a sense of yourself as an independent starter, yourself as an agent. So it’s …
- Clearing Your Space… If the breath seems to be too subtle, you can think about the Buddha, the Dhamma, the Sangha—any of the recollections that you find inspiring. So, even though you can’t stake a claim right now for all of your awareness of the body, all your awareness of the mind, at least you can find your own space—you clear your own space …
- Judging the Dhamma… This is one the reasons why the Buddha has the recollection of the Sangha as one of his ten basic recollections. Go reading through the Therigatha and Theragatha, the verses of the elder monks and elder nuns, and you’ll see that many of them concern the people who were ready to give up. One monk tells of how he had been meditating for …
- The Precepts… You reflect on the Buddha, the Dhamma, the Sangha. You reflect on your own virtue, your own generosity, your own good qualities. These are reflections on the past that you bring into the present to put the mind in good shape. You take your ability to think, your ability to form thoughts, and you put it to good use. It’s not that you …
- Things as They’ve Come to Be… So ask yourself, what would be inspiring right now? The Buddha, the Dhamma, the Sangha? Your own past generosity? Your own past virtues? Or do you need something besides the carrot? Do you need a stick? Think about death. It could come at any time, and you can ask yourself, “Am I ready to go?” Almost universally the answer is, “Not yet.” Okay, what …
- Safety All AroundA lot of the suttas end with the listeners saying that they take refuge in the Buddha, the Dhamma, and the Sangha. It seems to have been a custom in the time of the Buddha. You found a teacher you respected and you asked for protection. I was reading a book a while back in which the author, a scholar of Buddhism, was saying …
- Mission Possible… The Buddha recommends that you either reflect on the Buddha, the Dhamma, and the Sangha, the examples they give, or on your own generosity, your own virtue, remembering that you do have some good to you. Or you can reflect on the fact that you’re here, you’ve got this opportunity, which means you’ve got the merit someplace that allows you to …
- Refuge… One of chants we had just now was about taking refuge in the Buddha, the Dhamma, and the Sangha. You take refuge in them in the sense that you take them as examples. See how the Buddha found happiness. He challenges you and says that true happiness is possible, and that you can attain it through your own efforts. So you take up that …
- Bring the Right Attitude… Ajaan Fuang, when you would first come to meditate with him, would have you pay homage to the Buddha, the Dhamma, and the Sangha as examples of the values you want to have in your life. Then he’d have you focus on the breath. But in some cases, he’d have people spread thoughts of goodwill, to realize that the search for happiness …
- Single-minded… We take refuge in the Buddha, the Dhamma, and the Sangha, but on the outside level, they’re just examples. They’re not the actual refuge. The true refuge comes from the qualities you build into the mind, that you develop in the mind. Those qualities require focus, they require your attention, they have to have top priority. In other words, you have to …
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