Search results for: "Becoming"

  1. Page 91
  2. Why Now
     … As the mind settles in, it can see itself a lot more clearly and become a lot more discerning about where it’s causing itself unnecessary suffering. And whatever the activity is that’s causing that suffering, it’s in a better position to let it go. So this is some of the work we do right now. We put the mind in good … 
  3. Single-minded
     … That way, the meditation, instead of being a battle against an enemy, becomes more a sense of having your safe spot, your secure spot, protecting it from all the forces inside and outside that would pull you or lure you away. So remember that image from Ajaan Lee, the white cloth that you can hold in your fist, all crumpled up—but don’t … 
  4. Afraid of Inner Pleasure
     … And sometimes you’ll be surprised at how strong the sense of well-being can become. If you’re too surprised, you get shocked and scared. So remember that there are outlets for the energy that can come with a sense of ease. In some cases, a tightness in the neck holds it in. Energy goes up into the head and doesn’t seem … 
  5. The View from the Mountaintop
     … We see this sort of thing all around us—and because we’re surrounded by it, it becomes normal. It’s good to hear the Dhamma to get a sense of true normalcy. As someone once said, one of the amazing things about human beings is that we know we’re going to die yet we act like we don’t know. And it … 
  6. Don’t Just Fatten Your Mind
     … In fact, the more you indulge in most pleasures, the weaker you become. When you get hooked on certain pleasures, you get really irritated when you can’t have them. Those are the pleasures that are really bad for you. Think about that experiment where they found the little pleasure center in the brains of mice. They put an electrode right into it, and … 
  7. Analysis of Qualities
     … We practice meditation to become more sensitive to exactly what the mind is doing, where it’s skillful, where it’s not, so that we can stop creating that suffering. Discernment, or wisdom, is pragmatic. We’re not here to discover great truths about the world outside. We’re here to understand why we’re causing suffering and how we can stop. It’s … 
  8. Mindfulness in the Driver’s Seat
     … That’s what becoming is: getting into a hindrance, getting into an emotion. You’ve got to realize that they’ll take you places you don’t want to go. So you basically say, “Okay, stop the car. I want to get out or change the direction we’re going in.” This is mindfulness in the driver’s seat, making sure you’re going … 
  9. Universal Truths
     … Which ways of focusing on the breath make the mind uncomfortable? Which make the breath uncomfortable? Which ways of focusing, which ways of thinking about the breath, which ways of labeling and understanding the breath help make it more comfortable, easier to stay here so that it does become your home? — so that no matter where you go, you have this home inside, this … 
  10. Take the One Seat
     … You need mindfulness to stitch together your moments of awareness, moments of attention, so that they become continuous. Mindfulness is the ability to remember you’ve got to stay with the breath. Alertness is what watches the breath. As you settle down with the breath, you notice there are a lot of other things right next to the breath: all the activities of the … 
  11. Values of the Noble Ones
     … The Buddha gives you tools for analyzing suffering into what he calls a state of “becoming.” That’s a world of experience and your identity in that world of experience, and these two things are centered on a desire. You can ask yourself, “What is it that I desire that keeps pulling me into this world?” Sometimes it’s the fact that you desire … 
  12. Admirable Friendship
     … The more you apply appropriate attention to your own experience, the more you become an admirable friend.
  13. Think of the Consequences
     … You protect your concentration and it’ll mature and ripen, becoming something you actually can rely on much better than using your preconceived notions to squeeze it in some direction or to paint it something else that it’s not. So, show some respect for your concentration. That’s a way of showing goodwill for yourself as well.
  14. Goodwill in Action
     … If you think of goodwill as lovingkindness and you’re there like the mother protecting her only child, as some people believe that passage in the Karaniya Metta Sutta says, it becomes pretty oppressive—and very inflated. How are you going to go running around protecting everybody the way a mother would protect her child? It’s hard enough to protect one child, much … 
  15. A Home for the Mind
     … focusing on their actions, trying to see where they were skillful, where they were not, learning from their mistakes, and holding on to that desire to become more and more skillful in every aspect of their behavior. You can maintain that as a steady goal only if the mind is well trained, if you’re mindful, alert, concentrated, discerning. These are the qualities that … 
  16. Feeding on Feeding
     … He just teaches you a new way to eat—the difference here being that as you feed on the path and develop the qualities of conviction, persistence, mindfulness, concentration, and discernment, these become strengths. Ultimately, they get so strong that they bring the mind to the point where it doesn’t need to feed anymore. This is the part of the practice that really … 
  17. Wherever You Go, There You Aren’t
     … If you maintain the habit of looking over there, then even when you do get over there—in other words when “over there” becomes right here—you’re going to be looking someplace else. Actually, what you see over there when you get there is going to be pretty much what you see right here, right now. So you have to learn how to … 
  18. Calming the Breath
     … It becomes more a willed activity, not just something happening on its own. You want to be sensitive to that fact. You want to be sensitive to how your *willing *affects the breath, and then learn how to calm that, because often the willed part of the breath is based on our cartoon ideas of the body. What happens when you breathe in? Our … 
  19. Discernment Is in the Doing
     … After all, when right resolve becomes noble, it turns into right concentration. The renunciation, the non-ill will, and the harmlessness all come together when the mind settles down in the right way. So try to bring the mind to stillness. For some people, it’s very easy—just drop everything and there you are. But other people have trouble dropping things. They need … 
  20. The Carrot & the Stick
     … That’s when you become your own teacher, not simply siding with your likes and dislikes, but really being objective about what the mind needs so that you keep it on the path. You don’t go wandering off, enthralled with beauty queens or involved with their audiences, not sticking your hand into the tar trap, but staying right on the path that the … 
  21. A Clean Break at Death
     … Do that many, many times, so that it becomes your automatic reaction to thoughts about that person. That way, when the time comes to go, you can make a clean break. The same principle applies to your attachments You want to make a clean break here as well. The two main things we’re attached to our sensual pleasures and to our bodies. If … 
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