Search results for: "Becoming"

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  2. Recollection of Hell
     … Only when we bring that knowledge to the process can it become a path that really does lead away from stress and suffering, does really lead to security where there’s no more potential for any more stress. When the Buddha described those hells that can open up to us if we don’t reach that security, he said at the end of the … 
  3. Delight in Persistence
     … They’ve done studies about people who become really, really good at certain skills. In every case, those people have a very live sense of the advantages that come from mastering the skill, and the dangers that come from not. If you feel that “It doesn’t make much difference whether my mind is concentrated or not, whether I understand my mind or not … 
  4. Break Things Down
     … Separate things out like this, and the job becomes a lot easier. So when you tell yourself, “I’m bad,” remember that the Buddha said that kind of thinking is not helpful at all. When you tell yourself, “I’m good,” that’s not helpful, either. After all, if you were really good, you wouldn’t be suffering. Our problem is that we glom … 
  5. All Winners, No Losers
     … And your self becomes trustworthy and reliable as well. That’s the kind of self you can use on the path. Like the raft: You hold onto it as you go across the river. When you get to the other side, that’s when you let it go. But, in the meantime, make sure the raft is good and hold on tight. Look for … 
  6. The Challenge
     … The deeper the concentration becomes, then the easier it is to withstand the thoughts, and the more clearly you can see the process of how a thought lures you in, or how you lure yourself into jumping on a thought. You get more skillful in evading unskillful thoughts. Either you see their drawbacks or you simply don’t follow them. You learn how to … 
  7. The Solvent for Sticky Narratives
     … If you allow yourself to stew in thoughts likes this, it becomes more and more of a habit, and the mind gets more and more bent in that direction. Then you may find that as you’re dying, you’re suddenly going to take birth with the intention of getting revenge, seeking justice, seeking a settling of old scores. And that’s a miserable … 
  8. To Know the Unconditioned
     … So, what can you do to find genuine rest? Become unconscious? Well, no. The Buddha says it’s possible to understand the processes of consciousness and to peel them away until all the passion for everything that is fabricated in this way gets uprooted or ended. Then something remarkable is revealed: a consciousness without fabrications, a consciousness without suffering, without limits. That’s the … 
  9. Don’t Believe Everything You Think
     … But as you become more alert and sensitive, what used to be unconscious or subconscious gets brought into the light of day. You see that you do have choices, and your choices are informed by your understanding. This is why teaching yourself the right attitude toward distraction is an important part of the meditation: realizing it’s not you, it doesn’t necessarily have … 
  10. A Happiness Based Inside
     … And it will, but there comes a time, as you get more and more used to being centered here, that it becomes more natural. You find that you’re coming from a more solid place, so that after walking meditation, you can try other more complicated activities until eventually you can do just about anything in your daily life and stay centered with this … 
  11. Take Nothing for Granted
     … the causes in line and maintain as consistent an alertness as I can.” In this case, the verbal fabrication is there to encourage you, but at the same time it, itself, becomes an object of inquiry. This mind talking to itself: Who is it talking to? Who’s doing the talking? Why does there have to be talking? There’s a little bit of … 
  12. Factors for Stream-entry
     … If you want to become a noble one, you can’t practice in line with those. You can’t practice in line with defilements because that just leads to more defilements, leads to more trouble, leads you away from any hope for awakening. You practice in line with the Dhamma, in line with the customs of the noble ones. When the Dhamma says, “Meditate … 
  13. A Much Better Place
     … Often, as you get more and more focused on the breath, there’s a very strong sense of becoming one with the breath. You’re in the same place together. And for the time being, that’s fine. Because as you get to know this place, you get to know all kinds of things. But you want your awareness to fill this place. How … 
  14. The Joy of the Battle
     … That’s when the language becomes yours. It’s the same with the practice as you begin to see the patterns, not the patterns that have been pointed out in Dhamma talks or pointed out in books, but from your own observation, “Oh, this is how lust overcomes my mind. This is how ill-will overcomes. When sleepiness comes, this is what I give … 
  15. Self-Doubt
     … But Ajaan Fuang saw that if you become a doctor, you’re at everybody’s beck and call all hours of the day and night. He didn’t want that. So as he got older, being around the monastery—you’d think the temple boys would have heard a lot of Dhamma, but it goes in one ear and goes out the other until … 
  16. There’s Work to Be Done
     … You don’t turn them into little states of becoming where you slip off and travel around the past for a while, or slip off and travel around the future. You stay right here. The fact that your awareness is so broad helps prevent it from shrinking down so that it can enter into one of your little thought worlds. So there’s work … 
  17. To Be Sure
     … What seemed to be just a nice idea suddenly becomes a reality, a very real reality: the sort of thing that can’t be forgotten. Having a glimpse of that doesn’t mean that you’re totally there yet, because you also realize there’s more work to be done. But from that point on, the Buddha says you’re a person who’s … 
  18. Discernment All Along
     … As you get better and better, your handicraft becomes more and more something you can use for your livelihood. But it has to come from observing what you’re doing: learning from the object you’re focused on. In his case, you learn from the silver. Silver reacts to heat in different ways. You can get rid of impurities in different ways. If you … 
  19. Protest Your Virtue & Right View
     … You can learn how to fabricate thoughts with knowledge, without craving, without clinging, and that way it becomes a path. You’re turning the present moment into a path that leads to something beyond the present moment. So this is the message of right view: that everything you need to know is within your power. Even when things get bad outside and a lot … 
  20. Factors for Stream Entry
     … Take the case of Anathapindika, who was a treasurer in Savatthi and a very busy man, but he had become a stream enterer. Once he was visiting a group of adherents of other sects and they wanted to know from him what the Buddha’s views were. And here he was, a stream enterer, yet he said: “I really don’t know the entirety … 
  21. Seven Facets of Discernment
     … I’ve told you many times that with Ajaan Fuang, as I was becoming his attendant, he never told me where things went or what things should be done. He told me what they shouldn’t be, sometimes, especially if I’d done it wrong. So I’d have to guess: What’s the right way to do this? What’s the right way … 
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