… There’s a passage where the Buddha calls concentration a “perception
attainment.” The perception lies at the heart of what we’re doing
here, maintaining the perception of breath all the way through the in-
breath, all the way through the out-, and then learning how to augment
that perception, because a perception on its own can’t withstand the
force of a lot …
… If they are in good shape, try to maintain them that way. This
way, you give yourself strength. Again, it’s the strength of having
friends.
In Thailand, one of the old ways of teaching the strength of harmony
or of concord in a group would be to show a little kid a stick, and
say, “Can you snap the stick in two?” The …
… This gives you an island that gets you out of the flood for a bit, but you’re still in the middle of the river. You haven’t made it all the way across. But it gives you something to hold on to in the meantime.
You want to be really good at this. As Ajaan Lee used to say, the people who manage …
… to find some way around it. In Ajaan Lee’s image, the three main divisions of the path—virtue, concentration, and discernment—are like the posts for a bridge over a river. Virtue is the post on this side of the river, discernment is on the other side of the river, while the concentration post is right in the middle of the river, where …
There’s a passage where King Pasenadi comes to see the Buddha in the
middle of the day, and the Buddha asks him, “What have you been
doing?” The king in a remarkable display of frankness says, “Oh, the
typical things that obsess a person who’s obsessed with power.” And
the Buddha asks him, “Suppose a trustworthy person were to come from
the …
… We should hope that they see the error of their ways, change their way of action, because that’s how goodness gets established in the world—not by going around and punishing all the wrong doers, because often the punishment won’t make them see the fact that they were wrong to begin with. You can pile up all kinds of evidence, but if …
We’re in the middle of a heat wave. It seems that no matter what you
do in the course of the day, you feel drained by evening. It takes a
fair amount of effort simply to come here and meditate. And when
you’re feeling weakened by the temperature and tired from your work,
your defenses are down, and feelings become very prominent …
… Now at that time—it being the uposatha day—Visākhā, Migāra’s mother, went to the Blessed One in the middle of the day and, on arrival, having bowed down to him, sat to one side. As she was sitting there the Blessed One said to her, “Well now, Visākhā, why are you coming in the middle of the day?”
“Today I am observing …
… But the brightness isn’t only in the third noble truth; it’s also in
the fourth, that the way to put an end to suffering involves nothing
but good activities. We chant that again and again and again:
“admirable in the beginning, admirable in the middle, admirable in the
end.” Think about the path: It speaks to our better natures.
In the actual …
… We have to remember that this is a middle way. If
it were a way of extremes, it would be very easy. You’d just push,
push, push to the extreme and break through. But to find the point of
just right requires that you act and then you reflect on your actions.
Step back a bit. That’s what humor is all about …
… And if you can’t do this with your
words and deeds, there’s *no way *you’re going to be able to do it
with the subtle movements of the mind. It’s in seeing cause and
effect—and particularly the difference between a skillful way of
speaking and an unskillful way of speaking, a skillful way of acting
and an unskillful way …
… Then you look out after me, and I’ll look out after you,
and that way, we’ll come down safely.” His assistant says, “No, that’s
not going to work. I have to look out after myself, you have to look
out after yourself. In other words, I have to maintain my balance, you
have to maintain your balance, and that way we …
… Or you can think of the breath
energy being centered in a line that goes down the middle of the front
of the body, radiating from there. It doesn’t have to be pulled at
all. As you breathe in, it radiates.
When you can do this, you find that it changes the way you relate to
the body. It’s a lot easier …
… And as they say with climate
change, it’s not just that things are gradually warming up in every
way. The weather goes through wild swings—extreme hot, extreme cold,
floods, droughts—and that’s the way it is with human life. There are a
lot of wild swings back and forth. But we want to be in the middle of
the swings without …
… For a lot of people, it’s right in the middle of the chest or down at
the tip of the sternum. Someplace in that central corridor of the
body, you may call it, there’s a really sensitive spot. Try to breathe
in a way that feels really good there. You can think of the breath
energy coming in from the front; you …
… These are blameless ways of looking
for happiness. And the Sangha is designed in such a way as to
facilitate that.
So as monks we should practice in a way to make ourselves worthy of
people’s gifts. We do that by focusing on our practice, training the
mind in an institution that places the training of the mind as its
bottom line. As …
… Because each of us is trapped in the system of interconnectedness by our own actions, only we, as individuals, can break out by acting in increasingly skillful ways. The Buddha and members of the noble Saṅgha can show us the way, but actual skillfulness is something we have to develop on our own. If they find us trying to sleep in the middle of …
… Now, this doesn’t mean that you go out of your way to help other people when they abuse your help. Remember, one of the best ways to help others is to get them to act wisely. If you can’t do that, maybe it’s time to go your separate ways, wishing the other person well, but staying out of each other’s …
… What kind of breathing would gladden your
mind right now? What way would be fun to breathe? Can you think of
breathing in and out through the palms of your hands, the soles of
your feet, through the base of your spine? What way of perceiving the
breath would make it more interesting right now and have a good
effect?
Think of someone learning …
… You can breathe in any way. You can breathe long in, long out;
short in, short out; long in, short out; short in, long out; heavy or
light; fast or slow; deep or shallow—any way that feels good right
now. That’s the carrot that pulls you in to the present moment,
realizing that simply paying good attention to the way you breathe …
AN 3:71 Mūluposatha Sutta | The Roots of the Uposatha
… Now at that time—it being the uposatha day—Visākhā, Migāra’s mother, went to the Blessed One in the middle of the day and, on arrival, having bowed down to him, sat to one side. As she was sitting there the Blessed One said to her, “Well now, Visākhā, why are you coming in the middle of the day?” “Today I am observing …
We Are Not One | Noble & True
… Because each of us is trapped in the system of interconnectedness by our own actions, only we, as individuals, can break out by acting in increasingly skillful ways. The Buddha and members of the noble Saṅgha can show us the way, but actual skillfulness is something we have to develop on our own. If they find us trying to sleep in the middle of …
