Search results for: middle way

  1. Page 17
  2. Self-esteem
     … But most of us don’t use it that way. We find other ways of using it and we can get eaten up by the way we compare ourselves with other people. And so, as with any defilement, the best way to look at this is to see: What do you gain by making those comparisons? There may be a little sense of satisfaction … 
  3. The Sport of Wise People
     … Instead of focusing in the middle of the body, start out on the periphery and then move in. See what that does. In this way, you become a wise person whose sport is jhana. You’re not the old person you were whose sport was indulging in different kinds of fantasies and finding your entertainment that way. Even though you’re engaged in restraint … 
  4. Analyzing Suffering
     … You try to find the middle way, where you feed the body enough to get along. Keep it comfortable enough so that it can function. Find pleasure in the wilderness. Even Ven. Maha Kassapa has a long passage talking about the beauties of the wilderness, because it’s a conducive place to practice. He doesn’t go out there just to enjoy the wilderness … 
  5. Here Be Tigers
     … What are you doing? Why are you doing it? And is there an alternative, a way of thinking and a way of going through the world that does not add unnecessary suffering? Those are the big questions the Buddha has you ask, because otherwise, if you can’t solve this problem inside, then everything else in the world is going to be a problem … 
  6. Sensitive to Stress
     … It’s shaped by the way you breathe, shaped by the way you talk to yourself, shaped by your perceptions and feelings. There’s a karma, there’s an intention that keeps the present moment going, and there’s a subtle stress that goes along with that. Eventually, you want to get to see that too, but you have to see it as something … 
  7. An Auspicious Day
     … the ways in which feelings in the body influence the mind, and the ways the acts of the mind have an impact on the body. Try to filter them through the breath. The breath here can be long or short. It’s good to start with long breathing for a while to energize the body. You’re going to be calming it down, and … 
  8. Book search result icon In Simple Terms In Simple Terms: 108 Dhamma Similes
     … Then it would go back and hold on, quiet in the middle of the web where no one could see it, every time. Seeing the spider act in this way, I came to an understanding. The six sense spheres are the eye, ear, nose, tongue, body, and mind. The mind stays in the middle. The eye, ear, nose, tongue, and body are spread out … 
  9. Page search result icon MvV: cammakkhandhako
     … Lord, just as in the Middle Country (we use) eraka grass, moragū grass, majjāru grass, and jantu grass: In the same way, lord, in Avantī and the Southern Route, (they use) hide-coverings: sheepskin, goatskin, deerskin. appevanāma bhagavā avantidakkhiṇāpathe cammāni attharaṇāni anujāneyya eḷakacammaṁ ajacammaṁ migacammaṁ “‘Perhaps the Blessed One would allow, in Avantī and the Southern Route, hide-coverings: sheepskin, goatskin, deerskin. (Mv.V … 
  10. Right Here, Right Now
     … You have a little fragment here, a little fragment there and it’s like archaeologists coming across a site where only fragments remain and they’re just trying to piece them together, filling in the big blank spaces in the middle. But what is that filler if not just ignorance dressed up as knowledge? This is the way most of our knowledge is. We … 
  11. Not-self in Context
     … Then the Buddha says, there is this middle way that is noble and does lead to awakening. So the Buddha set the five brethren onto the noble path before saying anything about not-self at all. First, he got them to develop their actions. As we know from other suttas, the eightfold path is a path of action that leads to the end of … 
  12. Page search result icon Shoulds & Desires
     … Simply by the way you think, you can create a good energy. You can create something that’s a gift to others. Of course, you benefit. If you have goodwill for all beings, you’re very unlikely to do unskillful things. You’re very unlikely to harm them. In that way, you protect yourself. So this is a basic pattern of the path: Instead … 
  13. Count Yourself Lucky
     … If you learn to look at these things in the right way, you can work with them in a productive way. So regardless of what raw material your past karma keeps popping up in the present moment, as long as you’re not in the hell of totally unpleasant sights, sounds, smells, tastes, tactile sensations, ideas, and as long as you’re not in … 
  14. The Alternative of Concentration
     … That way, instead of fighting back-and-forth between indulgence in pleasure and then self-affliction, you’ve got this other place to go which is much better than either one. This is the Middle Way. Having this sense of well-being that can come simply from being centered changes the equation, changes the balance of power in the mind. You get less tied … 
  15. Settling In
     … Watch that for a while until everything feels easy and open there, and then move up to the solar plexus, the chest, the base of the throat, middle of the head, and then move down the spine, past the hips, down the legs to the tips of the toes. Then start again at the back of the neck and this time, go down the … 
  16. Attached to Concentration
     … He was always coming up with new ways of conceiving the breath. And Ajaan Fuang would talk about other ways of conceiving the breath, too. One was to imagine a line of energy running down the middle of your body, and the breath comes in and out of that line of energy. You try to keep that line of energy stoked. In other words … 
  17. A Tale of Two Kings
     … No one can tell anyone else what’s the right way or wrong way to think about and react to the impermanence of things. But the Buddha points out that it is possible through our actions to put an end to suffering. That changes the equation. It’s no longer a matter of personal preference. The question is: Here this opportunity is there. Are … 
  18. Generating Desire
     … They say, “Do a moderate amount of practice”—which is the middle way of the defilements. They say, “Well, do it a little bit but don’t take it too seriously.” So the practice is always going to be countercultural. This is why, as Ajaan Mun said, you have to replace the culture you were raised in with the culture of the noble ones … 
  19. Think Your Way to Stillness
     … You have to train it how to think in a way where it can think itself into silence. So how do you talk about the breath to get more quiet about the breath? Well, to begin with trying to get yourself out of the way as much as possible—particularly judgments about how good you are or how bad you are. This is one … 
  20. Merit: Goodness of the Heart
     … Even though they had shown disdain for him for abandoning his austerities and going for the middle way, still he wanted to help them. So he searched them out and taught them. After that, he went home and he taught his family, to repay his debts to them. In other words, the kind of happiness that comes from doing good is something you naturally … 
  21. Book search result icon Bases for Success Generating Desire
     … They say, “Do a moderate amount of practice”—which is the middle way of the defilements. They say, “Well, do it a little bit but don’t take it too seriously.” So the practice is always going to be countercultural. This is why, as Ajaan Mun said, you have to replace the culture you were raised in with the culture of the noble ones … 
  22. Load next page...