Search results for: middle way

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  2. 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 … 
  3. 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 … 
  4. 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 … 
  5. 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 … 
  6. 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 … 
  7. 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 … 
  8. Mindfulness of Death & the Deathless
     … So that if, in the middle of a task, you suddenly realize you can’t stay in your body any longer, you can drop the work outside, focus on the work inside, and prepare yourself to go. To go well. That’s the whole purpose of this. Because the way the Buddha teaches mindfulness of death, it makes sense only in the context of … 
  9. Basic Breath, Basic Insight
     … As for the particular ways we do that—as Tolstoy once said, “Happy families are all alike. Unhappy families are all unhappy in their own way.” We all create suffering for ourselves in different ways based on different assumptions, different ideas of what happiness would be and how we can go about finding it. Meditation gives you a good opportunity to look at exactly … 
  10. Intro to Breath Meditation
     … And the breath has a lot to offer because the way you breathe has an enormous impact on the body, and it has a large impact on the mind as well. There are ways of breathing that can cause illness; there are ways of breathing that can cure illness. There are ways of breathing that can aggravate emotions like anger or fear, and there … 
  11. Discernment Through Ardency & Evaluation
     … Once you’ve got a good way of breathing that maintains a good sense of fullness in at least one spot in the body, in one of the centers—in the middle of the chest, the base of the throat, the roof of the mouth, the nose—try to expand that sense of well-being because you’re going to be trying to inhabit … 
  12. Guiding Truths
     … It’s like the watering hole in the middle of a desert or savannah. If you want to see what’s living in the savannah, go to the watering hole, for all the animals have to go there in the course of the day. So watch there at the pain, at the suffering, to see what else comes around. See what arises together with … 
  13. Watch Your Mind Whenever You Can
     … And the more you’re aware of how much suffering you’ve been causing yourself, the more you want to find a way out. That’s what makes a dedicated meditator: looking for the way out. So when you have a short time to meditate like this, make the most of it. It may be hot. The air is awfully still, there’s not … 
  14. Finding Balance
     … Death can come at any time, zapping you right in the middle of a nice sleepy meditation. Would you be prepared to go? No, especially not if you’re sleepy. So try to put in some more energy, try to find some way of stirring your energy up, so that if you were suddenly called upon to die right now, you’d be prepared … 
  15. Look at Yourself
     … Yet you can look at the rest of the world and try to straighten out the rest of the world as much as you like, but, one, the world refuses to be straightened out in a lot of ways; and two, you can develop a lot of unskillful qualities that way. So you’ve got to turn around and look at yourself. Some people … 
  16. A Taste of Freedom
     … The ways of the world don’t offer any way out, but this path of developing the mind does offer a way out. As the Buddha said, it’s good in the beginning, good in the middle. It’s even better in the end. So look at each opportunity to meditate as just that—an opportunity, and not a task, not a chore. A … 
  17. Caring Enough to Doubt
    There are two ways you can have doubts about the practice or doubts about your own ability to do the practice. One is from caring a lot, and the other is from not caring at all. The second kind is not encouraged, of course. You say, “Well, I doubt that anyone could overcome sensuality or I doubt that I could overcome my anger or … 
  18. The Fortress
     … That way, it gives rise to a sense of pleasure and rapture. That’s the food. Because as we’re practicing, there are lots of things we have to give up. Like right now, you’re taking the eight precepts. Ways in which the mind used to go looking for food outside are suddenly cut off. But you’ve got better food inside, to … 
  19. The Skill of Happiness
     … tip of the nose, the base of the throat, the middle of the chest, just above the navel—anyplace where you can clearly notice now the breath is coming in, now it’s going out. You breathe with a sense of refreshment. We’re trying to master this skill because it opens the way to other skills as well. As the Buddha says, you … 
  20. The Perception of Inconstancy
     … The question is, how do you relate to the body in such a way, how do you relate to the breath in such a way, that you can actually bring this out? You have to look at the way you breathe. The problem is that you’re used to your way of breathing, and it’s hard to think, “Maybe there might be other … 
  21. Book search result icon The Heart a Flowing Stream Thinking about Jhāna
     … So, just as the Buddha’s path to the end of suffering follows a middle way in general, his teachings on the practice of right concentration teach a middle way, too. Of course, the middle here is not simply a matter of finding a halfway point between two extremes. It requires that you be sensitive to where you are in the practice and to … 
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