… 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 …
… This way you can be at peace and at ease both within and without. As the Buddha said, ‘Happy is the person content in seclusion.’
When this kind of seclusion arises in the mind, all sorts of worthwhile qualities will come flowing in without stop. The heart will keep growing higher and higher, until it no longer wants anything at all. If you used …
… 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 …
… 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 …
… 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 …
… 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 …
… When the Buddha talks about the Middle Way, it’s not necessarily what our preconceived notions of the Middle Way are. You have to test them. And the effort required is not blind effort. Right effort involves using your eyes: knowing what’s skillful in the mind, what’s unskillful, being determined to let go of anything unskillful that arises in the mind, and …
… He makes known—having realized it through direct knowledge—this world with its devas, Māras, & Brahmās, this generation with its contemplatives & brahmans, its rulers & commonfolk; he explains the Dhamma admirable in the beginning, admirable in the middle, admirable in the end; he expounds the holy life both in its particulars & in its essence, entirely perfect, surpassingly pure. It is good to see such a …
… 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 …
… So you can stay with these breath sensations all the way through the in-breath, all the way through the out-, and all the way in between. In this way, your focus doesn’t have pauses.
Often when we meditate, our attention is present in phrases, like phrases of music. A few notes are connected, and there’s a pause. The next few notes …
… 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 …
… 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 …
… This circles around annihilationism.2 Avoiding these two extremes, the Tathāgata teaches the Dhamma via the middle:
From ignorance as a requisite condition come fabrications.
From fabrications as a requisite condition comes consciousness.
From consciousness as a requisite condition comes name-&-form.
From name-&-form as a requisite condition come the six sense media.
From the six sense media as a requisite condition comes …
… He makes known—having realized it through direct knowledge—this world with its devas, Māras, & Brahmās, this generation with its contemplatives & brahmans, its royalty & commonfolk; he explains the Dhamma admirable in the beginning, admirable in the middle, admirable in the end; he expounds the holy life both in its particulars & in its essence, entirely perfect, surpassingly pure. It is good to see such a …
… 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 …
… For bodhisattvas to succeed in this way, they have to give themselves over to perfecting ten qualities –
1. Dāna-pāramī: generosity.
2. Sīla-pāramī: virtue.
3. Nekkhamma-pāramī: renunciation of sensuality (and of the household life).
4. Paññā-pāramī: the search for discernment.
5. Viriya-pāramī: persistence.
6. Khanti-pāramī: endurance, patience.
7. Sacca-pāramī: truthfulness.
8. Adhiṭṭhāna-pāramī: determination.
9. Mettā-pāramī: goodwill …
… Let the breath spread throughout every part of the body, from the head to the tips of the fingers and toes, in front, in back, in the middle of the stomach, all the way through the intestines, along the blood vessels, and out through every pore. Breathe long and deep until the body feels full. The body will feel light, open and spacious, just …
… This is the middle path. If you make your awareness of the breath too narrow, you’ll end up sitting stock stiff, with no alertness at all. If you make your awareness too broad—all the way to heaven and hell—you can end up falling for aberrant perceptions. So neither extreme is good. You have to keep things moderate and just right if …
Psychologists who have studied the way people look for happiness
report that most people will pursue a particular type of happiness
until they see that the cost is too great and then they’ll stop. In
other words, there are too many difficulties, too many drawbacks, too
many side effects. The problem is that most people are very
insensitive to the costs of the …
… 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 …
Taking the Long View | Food for Thought: Eighteen Talks on the Training of the Heart
… This way you can be at peace and at ease both within and without. As the Buddha said, ‘Happy is the person content in seclusion.’ When this kind of seclusion arises in the mind, all sorts of worthwhile qualities will come flowing in without stop. The heart will keep growing higher and higher, until it no longer wants anything at all. If you used …
Sn 3:7 Sela
… He makes known—having realized it through direct knowledge—this world with its devas, Māras, & Brahmās, this generation with its contemplatives & brahmans, its rulers & commonfolk; he explains the Dhamma admirable in the beginning, admirable in the middle, admirable in the end; he expounds the holy life both in its particulars & in its essence, entirely perfect, surpassingly pure. It is good to see such a …
