Search results for: middle way

  1. Page 23
  2. The Buddha’s Investment Strategy
     … Even good qualities of the mind are inconstant, but the more you invest in them, the longer their impact, the longer their ability to support you, all the way through the process of aging, all the way through the process of illness, all the way through the process of death. These things stay there. And they can help you. The body is something you … 
  3. The Image of the Raft
     … You talk to yourself about which ways of breathing are skillful, which ways of breathing are not, and how you might change things. Once the breath is comfortable, how do you maintain that sense of comfort? And when you can maintain it, how do you let it spread? All that talking to yourself is fabrication. Then there’s consciousness, which is aware of all … 
  4. Feeding on Open Wounds
     … If you can’t get your food in good ways, you’re going to start getting it in bad ways. You can’t really trust yourself.” But the Buddha isn’t telling you to just run away. If you’re going to leave the world, he says, you’ve first got to develop all the good qualities of the mind: your generosity, your virtue … 
  5. W.W.B.R.
     … When Ajaan Lee is talking about the different ways of meditating in his book, Frames of Reference, he starts out with different ways of thinking. Think about the 32 parts of the body, think about the body in terms of the elements, think about how inconstant things are, to develop a sense of *samvega. *It’s the samvega that helps pull you away from … 
  6. What We’re Here to See
     … That way, we can actually deal with those stupid things in an intelligent way, in an effective way, in a way in which we find something that’s more than we expected—that it really is possible to put an end to suffering and find a happiness that’s totally blameless, totally changeless. When the mind finds that, it’ll take on a new … 
  7. Three Virtues for the Mind
     … But if they see only one or two cases and then go out and say, “This is the way it is in every case,” they can develop all kinds of wrong views. Someone who sees the person who behaved in unskillful ways but goes to a good destination will say, “There are no results of good or bad actions.” Other people who see someone … 
  8. Directed Thoughts, Random Thoughts
     … It might be around the heart, around the stomach, in the neck, or in the middle of the head. Keep directing your thoughts to the breath energy there. Ajaan Lee’s image is of holding on to a post. You can run around the post, and as long as you hold on, you don’t get dizzy, you don’t fall down. But if … 
  9. Delighting the Mind
     … way of approaching the step of gladdening the mind is to think of the six kinds of delight that the Buddha talks about as being conducive to the practice. The first is delight in the Dhamma. It’s similar to recollection of the Dhamma. You think about what a great Dhamma this is; how it’s admirable in the beginning, admirable in the middle … 
  10. A Real Education
     … We come out to a place like this, where you can sit under the trees in the middle of the day and you’re face to face with your own mind, because it’s the mind that’s going to determine—when aging, illness, and death come—whether you’re going to suffer or not. You need to get it under control. This is … 
  11. Trust Your Desire for Happiness
     … good in the beginning, good in the middle, good in the end. The Buddha never asked you to do anything mean or spiteful or ignoble. The path builds on good qualities and it leads to good results. So even if you don’t go all the way to the end of the path, it’s a good path to be on.
  12. Make the Most of What You’ve Got
     … With some pains, if you breathe in a particular way, the pains get worse. If you breathe in another way, they go away. With other pains, the breath has nothing to do with them. They’re just there. How do you learn this? You learn by experimenting; you learn by trial and error, by trial and success. We’re bringing the mind into a … 
  13. Discernment Through Right Effort
     … After all, it’s all about the middle way, right?” But the question about moderation in observing the precepts: The precepts themselves already describe a moderate way of life, a moderate path of practice, so you want to be strict in adhering to them. That’s how you stay right there in the moderate spot. When things start going overboard is when you start … 
  14. Purity
     … But when you put them together in a particular way, they lead someplace else. They lead to the end of karma. That’s why they require practices for getting them together just right. This element of just right, the middleness of the path, is something we’re working on all the time. The basic elements are pretty simple. As when we’re sitting here … 
  15. The Breath Soufflé
     … Notice what that does to your sense of what’s a comfortable way of breathing, because sometimes a way of breathing that feels comfortable when you’re focused on one spot doesn’t feel so comfortable when you’re aware of the body as a whole. Think of the breathing as a whole-body process. There are lots of different ways of approaching this … 
  16. Strategic Friends
     … You might notice that sensation someplace in your hands or in your chest, at the point of the sternum, which is a little breastbone that sticks out between your ribs right in the middle of the chest. Anywhere you have that sense of fullness, allow it to stay there. Make sure that the way you breathe doesn’t disturb it. Then allow it to … 
  17. Negotiating with the Committee
     … Now, there are several ways of doing this. One is to banish all the unskillful members. That’s what you have to do in the beginning: If any unskillful thought comes up, you just say, “No, no, no. I am not going there.” Sometimes you have to reinforce that determination with reasons. As the Buddha said, one of the ways of dealing with unskillful … 
  18. The Six Properties
     … in different ways. As I said, first there’s just the energy flowing through the body, then you perceive the breath as originating in the body, then you allow it to spread smoothly. You think of that sense of radiating energy from any of the resting spots that Ajaan Lee talked about—the tip of the nose, the palate, the middle of the head … 
  19. What Are You Doing Right Now?
     … It could be the tip of the nose, the middle of the chest, the abdomen, anywhere in the body. Then try to keep that spot open and relaxed, all the way through the in-breath, all the way through the out-. Don’t squeeze it out. Allow it to remain open all the way through the breath process. A sense of fullness will develop … 
  20. Food Insecurity
     … The Dhamma is admirable in the beginning, admirable in the middle, admirable in the end. It’s a good path all along the way. Whatever’s required to make you want to follow it, talk to yourself in that way. As long as the mind has energy to think, think in ways that are positive. Try to find food in the path itself. Let … 
  21. Educating Equanimity
     … That way, if the mind wants to jump into a particular situation and say, “We’ve got to help it this way or change it that way,” you can step back and ask, “Okay, is that really the wisest thing to do? Or are you just being reactive or operating out of fear?” In other words, the best expression of compassion or of equanimity … 
  22. Load next page...