Search results for: "Skillfulness"

  1. Page 92
  2. The Language of the Heart (2)
     … So you’re taking on the culture of the noble ones, the values around wanting to abandon unskillful actions and wanting to develop skillful ones in their place. And we take on their language—which the ajaans often call the language of the heart—for analyzing what is skillful, what’s not. How do things get developed? How do things get abandoned? These tools … 
  3. Giving Weight
     … Where does the weight go? Where does the importance go? Make it a habit, make it a skill, that you’re going to give the weight to the mind, that you’re going to keep the importance centered right here inside. After all, that’s where it really belongs. And when it’s here, then it can function in the most skillful, most appropriate … 
  4. Blowing Bubbles
     … Replace it with a more skillful one. This emphasizes the point that you really do have a choice. You’re not stuck with whatever comes up in the mind. Lots of different things could come up, and you learn to choose the things that are most skillful. That’s an important lesson in kamma right there. There are lots of different potentials that could … 
  5. The Bright Tunnel
     … But if you try to look at it without any tools, without any skills, though, it can seem overwhelming. This is why we have the path of practice. You work on the precepts so that when you come to the issue of suffering, you don’t carry around a lot of guilt, a lot of denial. These two things really get in the way … 
  6. Mundane Right View
     … basic principle of mundane right view is the principle of karma, that actions do yield results, and that those results are determined by the quality of the intention behind the action. Skillful intentions lead to pleasant results; unskillful ones lead to unpleasant results. Ajaan Fuang once said that this is a principle you have to believe in if you’re going to practice meditation … 
  7. Friendship
     … As with any skill, it often begins by just playing around, but you come to see that it really does have an important impact. It’s like learning to play the guitar. You get your first guitar, you pick it up and play with it, and it doesn’t sound all that good. But it’s fun to try this, try that. After a … 
  8. A Poker Mind
     … This is a skill you’re going to need to develop. So work at it outside of the meditation, too. When I was staying with Ajaan Fuang, he would test me to see if my concentration was getting better. He would say things that he knew would usually get me upset. And in the beginning, I didn’t realize what was happening and I … 
  9. Equanimity & More
     … As the Buddha pointed out, there are skillful and unskillful forms of equanimity. So do your best to develop the kind of equanimity that really is skillful. That gets you focused.
  10. The Uses of Concentration
     … And although the path leading there involves some harsh lessons in looking at our own ignorance, our own craving and clinging, our own unskillful intentions, it also involves developing skillful intentions: realizing that we do have the potential for skillfulness as well, and learning to use that potential wisely, developing a sense of ease and wellbeing that enables us to do this work in … 
  11. Evaluation
     … It’s just that you’ve learned the skills to bring out other potentials. Well, it’s the same with your mind—and with your body. Sit here watching your breath and you’ll see: Where’s the potential for ease? Where’s the potential for rapture or refreshment? It’s there. Look for it. Where in your mind is the potential for stillness … 
  12. In the Driver’s Seat
     … In other words, if there’s something skillful that you haven’t given rise to yet, you give rise to it. Once it’s there, you maintain it. You make sure it doesn’t fall away. This is different from the popular notion of mindfulness, which simply watches things arising and passing away. Mindfulness as a governing principle means, one, you keep things in … 
  13. Protection Through the Practice
     … You can watch things arising and passing away in the mind, good or bad, and not give in to their power unless you see that it’s something really skillful to do. That’s the kind of quality you’re trying to develop, that kind of stability—along with the alertness to see clearly what’s happening. Because all too often, the unskillful things … 
  14. Sensitive to the Breath
     … And ingenuity is an important skill you want to develop on your own as a meditator. You work with the basic principles and then you stretch them to see how far they stretch before they reach the breaking point. There are times when you experiment too much and you go too far away, and then you’ve got to recognize that and come back … 
  15. Respect Your Center
    One of the most important skills you want to develop as a meditator is to find where your home base is: the place in the body where the breath feels good, and the mind feels at home when it’s focused there. You want to know that spot and learn how to work with it, learn how to come back to it as quickly … 
  16. Standards for Thinking
     … In other words, you work with what you’ve got, but you work with skill. Bring some knowledge to these processes and they can form a path away from the suffering that they’ve been causing up to now. So much of the path depends on how you talk to yourself: giving yourself encouragement when you need it, coming down hard when you need … 
  17. Worldly Equanimity & Its Uses
     … It’s a series of skills you have to develop. And, as with any skill, you’re going to be running into difficulties. So you’re going to need the kind of equanimity that allows you to face them down and—from a calm, cool state of mind—figure out what’s going on and what can be done about it. So it’s … 
  18. The Three Perceptions as Tools
     … He’s more concerned with how are you creating a sense of self? And is it skillful? When it’s not, how can you stop clinging to it? Now, there is a provisional sense of self that you need to use on the path: the sense that you’re competent to do the path, and that you’re going to benefit from it. That … 
  19. Using Your Many Minds
     … But if you look around in this committee you have in the mind, you find that you have all kinds of selves in here, some of which are skillful in one area, while others are skillful in another area. So you want to learn how to train them to work together. Take advantage of the strengths of the individual members. Years back in high … 
  20. Taking the Long View
     … So the question is, which side do you want to take with you—the skillful side or the unskillful side? Because these are the things that you can take with you. The things of the world cannot be taken. The position you’ve gained in the world, the power you’ve gained in the world, even the wrongs that you’ve righted in the … 
  21. Your Territory
     … How long can you stay here? You’re working on a skill. Now, the mind can think about anything it wants to at any time. But having time to work on this skill, that’s a real privilege. So here’s the time. Make the most of it. You’ll come away refreshed and with a new perspective on things. The combination of the … 
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