Search results for: "Skillfulness"

  1. Page 95
  2. Breath Meditation: The First Tetrad
     … One of the key factors to his awakening was his unwillingness to settle for second best; an unwillingness to be content, as he said, with skillful qualities. If he felt that there was a way in which he could possibly be even more skillful, he’d go for it. So he studied with two teachers. The teachers didn’t satisfy him. He subjected himself … 
  3. The Wall of Discernment
     … As he said, the secret to his awakening was being discontent with skillful qualities. In other words, as long as his mind hadn’t reached the ultimate level of skill, he wasn’t going to rest content. So the value judgement of discernment is that the peace of mind you can find through the practice is the most important thing to work for. And … 
  4. Two Hands Washing
     … You’re getting more and more skillful in your thinking. That’s something a lot of people don’t like to hear. We like to think, “I’m pretty good at thinking things through, all I need to do now is to learn how not to think.” And with some people that is the case. They do have a tendency to analyze things pretty … 
  5. The Five Faculties Confirmed
     … But if you realize that it is in your best interest to adopt the principle of conviction so that you’ll be more careful in your choices, then, based on the conviction, the heedful path is to work on developing skillful qualities of the mind and abandoning unskillful ones, to develop mindfulness, to develop concentration, to develop discernment. Heedfulness underlies all of these things … 
  6. Being Responsible
     … Meditation is a skill. You learn by doing it and then looking at the results, and caring enough that, if the results are not good, you’ve got to go back and change what you did. Like weaving a basket—if the first basket doesn’t come out well, you don’t just sit there and complain about the materials. You’ve got to … 
  7. Intoxication
     … It also means remembering what you’re supposed to be doing in the present moment, remembering where different kind of actions lead, remembering where skillful actions lead, remembering where unskillful actions lead, remembering when you look at something attractive, someone attractive, that you have to ask: Where is the person’s body going to go? It’s going to go toward aging, illness, and … 
  8. Evaluation: The Voice of Heedfulness
     … That, the Buddha said, is the basis for all skillful behavior. It’s not that we’re innately good. And, of course, he doesn’t say we’re innately bad. But the reason we behave well is because we see there’s a need for it. If we don’t behave well, there’s going to be danger. Some people don’t like the … 
  9. The Mind Undefined
     … not resting content with skillful qualities. In other words, he kept asking, “Is there something more skillful than this?” Sticking with that question requires a lot of determination. This is one of the reasons why a lot of people didn’t make it to awakening ahead of the Buddha. It’s all too easy to say, “This is as far as I can go … 
  10. Protection Through Mindfulness Practice
     … It reminds you not only what you’ve read in the texts or heard from teachers, but also what you’ve learned on your own in your practice, as to what works and what doesn’t work in giving rise to skillful qualities. That’s how your power of memory is a protector. Then there’s alertness. Alertness watches what’s actually happening—and … 
  11. Dedicating Merit
     … That has to be gained by skillful methods. And other people benefit at the same time. There are the two ways they benefit. One is automatically. If you have less greed, aversion, and delusion in your mind, you’re not the only one who’s going to benefit. Other people will benefit from the fact that they’re not the victims of your greed … 
  12. Mountains Moving In
     … So learn how to encourage the ones that are skillful. Even though you may have unskillful attitudes in the mind, you don’t have to regard them as your true nature. They’re no more true than your good motives, and they certainly don’t take you in a good direction. So encourage the good ones, discourage the unskillful ones. Keep careful watch over … 
  13. Beyond Likes & Dislikes
     … Learn how to develop this skill — and it really is an important skill — this willingness to give up on your normal inner conversations and try something really new. It requires some imagination to try it. And it requires a lot of mindfulness and a lot of alertness to stay there because we’re so good at creating little worlds right away, letting these things … 
  14. Breath Energies
     … So this approach of looking at the breath, working with the breath, making it more comfortable, is basic training in the skills that are going to lead to awakening. You’ve got yourself started on the skills right away. So do your best to perfect them.
  15. Gradually Sudden
     … They say that anthropologists, when they try to learn the skills of the various tribes they study, have found that hunting is the hardest skill to learn because it requires a lot of patience and a lot of alertness: unrelenting alertness, steady alertness, all-around alertness. Which is precisely the quality we’re trying to develop here. As you maintain that alertness, you’ll … 
  16. Boxed Stories
     … So this ability to see these boxes as fabricated, and the realization that you can create a more skillful box to encompass a less skillful box, or get you out of the unskillful box: That’s an important ability in the practice. In addition to mindfulness, it’s useful to have a sense of humor. You can laugh at some of the dialogs or … 
  17. Stake Out
     … We’re going to settle in here.” One of the reasons why we work with the breath is to give us something to do, partly so that we can settle in comfortably, and also so that we can have a few skills up our sleeve. That way, when thoughts do begin to appear, you’re sensitive to them not only on the mental side … 
  18. Passion for Nostalgia
     … You want to master this as a skill: how to step out of mind states, how to take them apart, so that you can end this process of wandering into them—creating worlds and then wandering into the worlds. It just goes on and on and on, and never really arrives anywhere. As the Buddha saw on the night of his awakening, if you … 
  19. Accepting the Way Things Function
     … Now, that might take some talking to yourself and using some skillful perceptions. You’ve been learning how to breathe in a way that feels good so that you can have a sense of well-being that you can then wish for other people. If you don’t have any sense of well-being inside, it’s hard to think of the well-being … 
  20. Gladden, Steady, Release
     … And again, you’re going to need these skills. This is something a lot more reliable, a lot more dependable. You’re training yourself to be a more dependable person, more trustworthy to yourself. Those are thoughts that can help steady you. As for releasing: What are the burdens that weigh you down? What are the things you carry around with yourself all the … 
  21. In Tune
     … Another source of joy is when we follow the teachings and find that we’re able to act in more skillful ways, more harmless ways. That gives rise to a sense of joy. Another source of joy is living in harmony. The Buddha defines this as living in harmony together in terms of our virtue. The monks all adhere to the Vinaya. The lay … 
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