Search results for: middle way
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- The Dhamma Eye… What was the path was the middle way, starting with understanding the truths about suffering, its cause, its cessation, and the path to its cessation. The reason it’s called a wheel is because each of those truths has a duty, and then there’s the stage of having completed the duty, so you have three stages altogether: One is understanding what the truth …
- Safety… If you want to change the image, you may say the island may be your way-station on the way across the river, but you finally get across the river on high ground and you’re safe. This is where total security lies. It’s doesn’t lie in things outside or people outside, because those things can get washed away. And they are …
Four Noble Truths
The Fourth Noble Truth
… In his first talk, the Buddha introduced this path of practice as the Middle Way because it avoids two extremes: (1) indulgence in the pleasures of sensuality, and (2) devotion to the pain of self-torment. Yet this does not mean that the path pursues a course of middling pleasures and pains. Instead, it fosters the pleasures of concentration, along with insight into the …-
A Meditator’s Tools
Mindfulness of Death
… Then King Pasenadi of Kosala approached the Blessed One in the middle of the day and, on arrival, having bowed down, sat down to one side. As he was sitting there, the Blessed One said to him: “Well now, your majesty, where are you coming from in the middle of the day?” “Just now, lord, I was engaged in the sort of royal affairs …Show 4 additional results in this book
- Immersed in the Body… Be in the middle. When you hold things back, there are big blind spots in the mind. Those blind spots are ignorance, and it’s precisely because of the ignorance that we suffer. So as you begin to settle down and the breath begins to feel good, allow yourself to plunge into the body. Put the breath on. Wear it. Remember that image of …
- Faith in the Practice… This is what’s special about the Buddha’s teachings in the middle way. It’s not a middle way between pain and pleasure—in other words a neutral feeling tone. It’s the realization that you can use pain and pleasure as means rather than as ends. For example, there’s the pain of knowing that “There’s work to be done.” But …
- Respect… When the Buddha talks about the right effort of the middle way, it’s not just a halfway effort or a mediocre effort. It’s an effort appropriate to whatever is needed. Sometimes it’s a very gentle effort; sometimes it requires a lot more willpower and strength. But you have respect for whatever is required and you do your best to fulfill the …
- Meaning Through Perfections… These are the qualities that the Buddha in his previous lifetimes had been developing, and it was in dependence on these that he was able to practice in such a way as to gain his awakening. These are qualities that all of us have in a potential form, all of us can develop them, so we can find a way of giving meaning to …
- Mindreading… And then meditate in appropriate way, so that you can bring the mind into balance. For example, if things are too active, try to find something that’s really soothing. You can think thoughts of goodwill, thoughts of compassion, thoughts of equanimity: These are soothing. You can work with the breath in a way that feels good for the body, relaxing the tension in …
- Looking after Yourself with Ease… This way, you don’t have to think of pulling the breath in from outside. You just think of opening things up so that the energy can spread smoothly from those spots: from around the navel, or just below the breastbone, in middle of the chest, the base of the throat, or the middle of the head. Think of the breath as originating there …
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Good Heart, Good Mind
Selves & Not-self
… At the same time, when you learn how to get more separated from the pleasure and pain, and not be so affected by them, this is how practice in concentration puts you on the middle way. As you may remember, the middle way avoids the pain of self-torture and also the extreme of sensual pleasure. Now, the fact that it’s in the …Show 6 additional results in this book
- Friends with The Breath… In normal life, an intention moves in, pushes another one out of the way, and another one comes in, pushes that out of the way. We’re like a boat on a river with no anchor. Whichever way the currents flow, that’s the way we tend to go. If you were to draw a map of where the mind goes in the course …
- Mindfulness of Death… We’re out in the middle of nature. It’s a comfortable day to meditate. And the problem is that on the comfortable days to meditate, we tend to just fall for the comfort and get lazy. We need to remind ourselves that good days like this don’t often come. We don’t know when the next one’s going to be, or …
- Outside of the Box… So, either way, the solution to the problem is to settle the mind down. Think in this way if you’re having trouble getting the mind to stay with the breath. Ajaan Maha Boowa once compared meditators to two types of trees. One type of tree is standing alone out in the middle of a field. If you want to cut it down, it …
- Befriending the Breath… Allow the flow to be easy all the way through the in-breath, all the way through the out-, and all the way through the spaces in between, so that you’re floating on a comfortable breath energy. When you can maintain that, the sense of well-being inside begins to grow. Allow it to become continuous, so that it develops momentum. And then …
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The Skill of Release
The Skills of Jhāna
… There’s no way it can not become sharp. So we should keep at the practice in the same way that we sharpen a knife. If any part of the body or mind isn’t in good shape, we keep adjusting it until we get good results. When good results arise, we’ll be in a state of Right Concentration. The mind will be …Show 4 additional results in this book
- Feelings of Pain… For instance, say you focus on the middle of the chest. It feels good breathing in, it feels good breathing out, right there at the middle of the chest. You breathe in a way that feels like it’s massaging the muscles around the heart so that the blood flows all around, nice and evenly. And there’s a sense of fullness there—not …
- Respect… It might be in the middle of the head, the chest, the abdomen. Focus your attention there and let it stay there for a while. See what kind of breathing feels good there. It could be long breathing, short breathing, fast or slow, heavy or light. Just try to focus, pay careful attention because we’re trying to get ourselves grounded in the body …
- Limitless Compassion, Limited Resources… Remember that phrase in the expression of goodwill, “May we all look after ourselves with ease”—in a way that we’re not harming ourselves, we’re not harming other people. Is there some way you can teach other people to act that way? That’s one of the best gifts there is. As for people you can’t teach in that way: To …
Talk collections | dhammatalks.org
… Breath Meditation 12 Taking a Stance 13 The Joy of Effort 14 Experimental Intelligence 15 The Path of Mistakes 16 A Post by the Ocean 17 The Active Truth 18 The Middleness of the Path 19 The Grass at the Gate 20 A Magic Set of Tools 21 Perception 22 Little Things 23 Stepping Back 24 Generosity First 25 Self Esteem 26 Goodwill All …- Load next page...
