Search results for: "Becoming"
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- Taking Charge… So regardless of the quality that needs to be developed in the mind, or whichever one you’re focusing on, you’ve got to keep coming back, coming back, coming back, to make sure that it’s strong, that it really has become a new habit, a new skill. This requires mindfulness, keeping in mind what you’ve got to do. Mindfulness is always …
- Intelligent Equanimity… That way, instead of being a blanket indifference to everything — which would be like being a dead person — equanimity becomes an important tool in keeping you alive and active, making sure all the energy and activity you’ve got to devote to the present moment is used in the best possible way. Otherwise you drag yourself down by taking on too many responsibilities, too …
- Taming the Elephant… This is where your concentration really becomes one. Some people say that jhana is not absorption, that it’s simply learning how to think skillful thoughts consistently. Well, the Buddha says that’s how you start getting the mind into jhana, by thinking skillful thoughts consistently about the breath. But in the next step, as I said, you’re keeping track of the breath …
- Four Roles to Play… In the same way, the tension you build up around a pain often becomes the real problem. You have to be willing to allow it to dissolve and see what happens. That’s one way of dealing with the pain. There are lots of ways of dealing with the pain. It’s all part of your set of skills. With all of the skills …
- Cleansing the Mind… Take yourself patiently step by step by step to the point you can say, “I hope this person would understand the causes for true happiness and act on them.” When you can think in that way, you become a more trustworthy person. There’s no sense that you have to get back at somebody or settle a few scores. When you have this attitude …
- Cause & Effect Right Now… You develop the four noble truths to the point where, as Ajaan Mun says, they all become one. In other words, there’s just one duty: Everything gets let go. But that can happen only when you’ve been working on developing the path all the way. And where do you do that? You do it right here, right now, so that you can …
- It’s Good to Talk to Yourself… Here, we’re staying with the breath, and the breath feels good.” When it feels like it’s saturating the body, the signals it become just, “breath, breath, breath.” When the mind can settle down like that, that’s one of the signs that your questioning has worked. Your ability to step back from the questions and watch the process leads to a different …
- Patience & Curiosity… But if you can combine patience and curiosity well, you get so that you become a better player. The music sounds better because you want it to be better: That’s the curiosity part. You’re willing to take all the time and effort that’s required to make it better: That’s the patience part. As you come to know the guitar in …
- A Mind Without Inertia… As you become more and more passionately engaged in the Dhamma, you can see more and more clearly exactly where you’ve been weighing yourself down. You can drop all the weight. It’s like those old balloons that people used to travel in. They’d have big bags full of weights and when the balloon was ready to go up, they’d drop …
- Minding Your Own Business… We become oblivious to our impact on the world where we really are responsible. We were talking this afternoon about ethics, of how our actions have an impact on other people and how that might in turn have an impact on still other people and ripple out that way. When you try to track down the ripples you go crazy. The Buddha once said …
- Frustrated Desires… What started out as simply an impetus from your past karma suddenly becomes something your present karma is entangled in. Then you drop your concentration. You’ve forgotten it totally; you don’t know where it was. Then you suddenly remember. It’s as if you’ve gone into another world for the time being. What you’re doing is that you’re identifying …
- Great Expectations… Even if you cling to a fluid identity, the fluidity becomes the object that you cling to. So you have to learn how to see all that narratives and any other embroidery that you place on your lust as a form of suffering. The same goes with anger. We may not like the object—the person who’s gotten us angry—but we certainly …
- Focus on What You’re Doing… Yet, still he hadn’t become an arahant. Something was still lacking in his meditation. Sariputta pointed to that concern: “I haven’t got that far yet. I’ve got to push what’s left to push.” He said to Anuruddha, “That’s your restlessness right there.” Sometimes you have some preconceived notions about how things should work, and you just push, push, push …
- Taking Responsibility… That’s the point, as he says, where you become independent in the Dhamma. Prior to that point, you have to depend on other people to give you advice, to point out where you’re wrong. With stream-entry, you reach the stage where you can begin to monitor yourself reliably. That doesn’t mean you can’t use advice from other people. The …
- Something Good to Cling to… If you’re clinging to unreliable things, the mind itself becomes unreliable. So give yourself a good place to stay right here. This makes it a lot easier to live in the world without suffering from the world. And because we’re not leaning on the world, we’re taking that much of a burden off them, too.
- Saṃvega & Pasāda… You become a better person to be around. This relates to that second emotion, pasāda. Ajaan Suwat would encourage an attitude of pasāda each time as you begin to meditate, that what you’re doing here is important work. Trying to get the mind in concentration is good for you and for the people around you. As the Buddha said, if you don’t …
- Grasping the Snake… Then, as we engage in these activities, our right views become more precise. The Buddha talks about three kinds of discernment. There’s the discernment that comes from listening and the discernment that comes from thinking things through, but then there’s also the discernment that comes from developing good qualities through the practice. You can listen to the Dhamma, and you get right …
- Right Resolve, Right Concentration… Not that you become a doormat for other beings, but for the time being, at least, you let those thoughts go. The mind needs to rest. So first counteract the thoughts and then allow it to rest. It’s in this way that discernment can lead to concentration. You see the need for skillful intentions and so, on the one hand, you develop thoughts …
- The Knife of Discernment… But when the distinction becomes clear in the doing, then you’ve cut the mind away from those attachments and cravings. When the Buddha said that his job was done, this is what he meant. There were still pains in the body, there were still issues in life, but the mind no longer had to suffer because of them. That’s where Awakening makes …
- Choose Your Battles… But then, the snapping back becomes your karma. You’ve won that battle maybe but you’ve lost a bigger one. So those are the kinds of things you should endure: painful feelings and hurtful words. Things you shouldn’t endure are thoughts of ill will, thoughts of sensuality, and thoughts of harmfulness that arise in the mind. You don’t let them stay …
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