… One way of cutting off those
little Velcro hooks is to keep reminding yourself: Where’s the stress
right now? The things that you latch on to as being especially true or
especially real: You have to remind yourself, are they really so real?
Are they really that true? You can think in terms of their
inconstancy, their stressfulness, the fact that they’re …
… Even the Buddha himself made mistakes before his awakening,
going down the wrong path many, many times in many different lifetimes
before he discovered the Middle Way. It was through those points in
his practice when he realized, “What I’ve been doing, sometimes for
years, was a mistake,” and he was willing to look for other ways to do
things: That’s what …
The word samaṇa, which we translate as contemplative, literally
means someone in tune, someone in harmony—someone who tries to live in
harmony with the way things really are. It’s by living in harmony that
you can understand how things are: what causes what, what kinds of
causes are proportional to what kinds of results, and looking for the
best results. In other …
… What feels best? And what does the body need? If it’s
tired, can you breathe in a way that’s energizing? If you’re tense,
can you breathe in a way that’s more relaxing? If there are pains in
the body, can you breathe in a way that’s soothing for the pains?
This is something you have to evaluate for yourself …
… Or like the spider in the middle of a web: The spider is in one spot, but it’s sensitive to the whole web. Try to maintain this sense of centered but broad awareness all the way through the in-breath, all the way through the out. Maintain this quality of awareness as long and as steadily as you can. Try to master it …
… Where is the stress? What are you doing
that’s putting extra stress on to the mind? And what could you do to
stop that and put an end to that stress?
You have to examine all the various issues in your life that you’re
concerned about, and you have to peel away the other ones that get in
the way of this …
… In that case it’s
goodwill, and goodwill expresses itself in different ways—in this
case, a wish for safety.
One of the chants, the Ratana Sutta, has a story to go with it in the
commentary: There was a plague in Vesālī, and the Buddha had Ven.
Ananda go around the city chanting this sutta as a way of driving the
plague out …
… Like those old maps of the
North American continent, the big white space is in the middle. They
knew the coast, but they didn’t know the interior. That’s the way it
is with most of us. We know the surface of our lives, but we don’t
know what’s going on inside.
When you’re meditating, this is what you want …
… 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 …
… Avoiding both of
these extremes, the middle way realized by the
Tathāgata—producing vision, producing knowledge—leads to calm, to
direct knowledge, to self-awakening, to unbinding.
“And what is the middle way realized by the Tathāgata
that—producing vision, producing knowledge—leads to calm, to
direct knowledge, to self-awakening, to unbinding? Precisely this
noble eightfold path: right view, right resolve, right speech …
… So it’s not a Catch-22,
it’s simply that these two faculties of the mind—the ability to watch
things and observe and come to reliable conclusions; and your
inventiveness in trying out different ways to experiment with the
breath and the way you focus on the breath—go hand-in-hand. They
develop together.
After all, a lot of things are …
… 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 …
King Pasenadi once came to see the Buddha in the middle of the day,
and the Buddha asked him, “What have you been up to today?” And in a
remarkable display of candor, the king said, “Oh, the typical things
of someone who’s obsessed with power, consumed with the desire for
more power.” The Buddha asked him, “Suppose a reliable person were to …
… In the same way, a pure mind—even if we can make it pure for only a little while—can give results way in excess of its size. People who are really intent on purifying the mind may even lift themselves over and beyond the world.
So we’re taught that people whose minds aren’t pure—regardless of whether they’ve given donations …
… 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 …
A king once came to see the Buddha in the middle of the day, and the
Buddha asked him, “What have you been up to?” The king was remarkably
frank. He said “the typical things of people obsessed with power.”
It’s hard to imagine politicians admitting that today.
The Buddha asked him, “Suppose a reliable person came from the east
and said there …
… Phenomenon; event; the way things are in and of themselves; the basic principles that underlie their behavior. Also, principles of behavior that human beings ought to follow so as to fit in with the right natural order of things; qualities of mind they should develop so as to realize the inherent quality of the mind in and of itself. By extension, ‘Dhamma’ is used …
… It develops a sense of
samvega, a sense of dismay over the way life is everywhere for
everybody who’s still intoxicated.
It also gives you sense of confidence in the path, that this is the
way out. The people who have followed this path seem trustworthy. The
happiness that it offers seems special. It’s really something worth
giving your life to. It …
… 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 …
… 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 …
Introduction | The Karma of Mindfulness : The Buddha’s Teachings on Sati and Kamma
… Or like the spider in the middle of a web: The spider is in one spot, but it’s sensitive to the whole web. Try to maintain this sense of centered but broad awareness all the way through the in-breath, all the way through the out. Maintain this quality of awareness as long and as steadily as you can. Try to master it …
AN 3:64 At Venāga Sutta | At Venāga
… 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 …
