Search results for: "Dhamma"
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- On the Path of the Breath… You can think about the Buddha, the Dhamma, the Sangha. All of these are valid topics of meditation. They’re there to inspire the mind, to gladden the heart. You can think about the good times you’ve been generous in the past, when you didn’t really have to share something but you felt moved to share. Or of the times you could …
- Thinking About Rebirth… And the Buddha applies this to the teachings on the what he calls the lokadhammas, the dhammas of the world. There’s gain, loss, status, loss of status, praise, criticism, pleasure, and pain. These things come to you in the course of this life, but they’re not really yours. So you want to learn to define yourself around what real use you can …
- Guardian Meditations… That’s the kind of person who taught this Dhamma. Not someone who was running a retreat center and needed to bring in cash, and who was willing to say anything to attract clientele, but someone acting totally out of pure motives, pure compassion. So that’s the kind of practice we’re practicing as we follow his path. And it’s ennobling for …
- Equanimity… As the Buddha said, of all fabricated dhammas, this is the highest: the noble eightfold path. It’s fabricated in the sense that it’s something you have to put together. So when you reflect on the nature of the world, reflect on your relationship with other beings, and you realize the limitations on what you can do for the world, that’s when …
- The Buddha’s Wisdom… Ajaan Lee gave a Dhamma talk one time in which he pointed out how each of the five factors of jhāna counteracts a specific hindrance. It’s the only talk I can find in all of his teachings where he tried to make that connection. The nun who was taking notes on the talk could remember only two of them. Maybe he sensed that …
- Basics… There’s so much pressure to succeed in the material area that we don’t want to hear about standards for success in the area of the Dhamma. But if you’re serious about putting an end to suffering, the issue of success is something you can’t avoid. When you approach the meditation skillfully, you get results. Your efforts have succeeded. They’re …
- How & Why We Meditate… This is why we have the chants on the Buddha, the Dhamma, and the Sangha prior to the meditation: to remind ourselves that this path we’re following here is not a brand new path. It’s not something we just recently cooked up. In fact, the Buddha himself said he didn’t invent the path. He discovered an old path. There had been …
- Basic Breath, Basic Insight… As the Buddha said, there are four noble dhammas. The first is virtue, where you learn how to behave in a way where you’re not harming anybody. Then there’s concentration, where you get the mind centered. There’s discernment, when you begin to see what’s going on in the mind and understand why the mind is creating suffering and also what …
- A Good Buddhist Ego… The nuns are watching this and they say, “Wow! This is the most effective Dhamma talk we’ve ever seen.” He gets carried away, so he keeps on displaying his powers until after sunset. Then he dismisses them. They have to go back to the nunnery in the town. But the town gates back in those days would be closed at sunset. There would …
- The Sport of Wise People… Building a Home for the Mind November 25, 2015 The texts often talk about concentration as being a home for the mind—vihara-dhamma—the place where the mind can settle in. Before you can settle in, though, you have to build a house. And as Ajaan Lee said, the work in building this house lies in the directed thought and evaluation. You find …
- Skillful Effort… The other is relaxing into the present, into the Dhamma that’s already here. Now, if those were the only two choices, it’s obvious which would be the wiser choice. Everyone likes the idea of relaxing. It seems to be built into American culture. I was reading a biography of William James recently. It turns out that there was a movement during his …
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