… Step back a bit, learn to laugh at yourself in a good-humored way—not in a sarcastic way, but a good-humored way, a sympathetic way—and then get on with the practice. You’ll find then that things go a lot better.
So all of this comes under the issue of right attitude. It’s not listed as one of the factors …
… There’s a right way and there’s a wrong way. The right way is to
pull on the udder. The wrong way is to twist the horn. Now, suppose
you’ve been twisting the horn for a long time and somebody says, “Hey,
twisting the horn doesn’t get any results.” So you stop twisting the
horn and say, “Well, this is pretty …
… It’s useful, when you see your defilements, to be able to laugh at
them—not in a nasty way, but just in a good-humored, “This is the way
human nature is” kind of way. It’s always good to have that attitude
at the back of your mind. When you’re confident that this battle can
be won, then you can approach …
… The more
sensitive you are to the breath, the more you stay with the breath all
the way in, all the way out, trying to make it comfortable, all the
way in, all the way out, then the better the meditation will go. If
any part of the breath starts getting too long, just allow it then to
turn around. If it’s been …
… Many times we have habitual ways of relating to sensations, and they’re so habitual and so consistent that we think there’s no choice at all. “This is the way things have to be,” we think, but they don’t.
That’s the other implication of the principle of kamma: You can change your actions. If some parts of experience are dependent on …
… You don’t know when you’re going to get there, but you know that you
have to follow this path very carefully, because it is a middle way.
If it were a path of extremes, it would be easy. Just go for extreme
effort. Pull out all the stops. Those who are the strongest would win.
But it’s not that way.
As …
… after themselves with ease.” That way they can have the happiness of independence and self-reliance.
Another set of metta phrases is in the Karaṇīya Metta Sutta. They start out with a simple wish for happiness:
Happy, at rest,
may all beings be happy at heart.
Whatever beings there may be,
weak or strong, without exception,
long, large,
middling, short,
subtle, blatant,
seen & unseen …
… If a man were to open watercourses leading off from both sides, the current in the middle of the river would be interrupted, diverted, & dispersed. The river would not go far, its current would not be swift, and it would not carry everything with it. In the same way, if a monk has not rid himself of these five hindrances… there is no possibility …
… Unlike ordinary ways of thinking, which simply entangle you, these ways of thinking disentangle the tangle. Sometimes they cut right through. If you worked at minutely disentangling every single tangle in your mind, there’d never be an end to it. So you use these ways of thinking as knives to cut right through everything, to come right here to the breath, because this …
… They mean freedom—freedom from
the way the mind has allowed itself to be enslaved, freedom from the
way it’s constantly kept in the dark, freedom from all agitation,
freedom from its own clinging. When you taste the sense of well-being
that comes from that freedom and you look at whatever pleasure
happiness that came out of giving in to your defilements …
… Any issues
you may have had with people during the day, get them out of the way,
because you’re trying to give the mind a place it can settle down in,
right here, right now. And you don’t want those attitudes to be
getting in the way.
If you’re worried about issues in the future, remind yourself: The
best way to …
… Truth, Dhamma, restraint, the holy life,
attainment of Brahmā dependent on the middle:
Pay homage to those who’ve become
truly straightened:
That, I call a man
in the flow of the Dhamma.
After hearing these verses, Sundarika asks for Acceptance into the Saṅgha, and the sutta concludes in the same way as the account given here.
9. This is a play on words …
… It might be down in the chest, in the throat, in the middle of the
head. Once you’re found your spot, watch over it.
As you direct your thoughts to the breath, you can also evaluate it
to figure out what feels good, what feels best, what kinds of
perceptions are best, what ways of breathing are best, so that you can
settle …
… That way, you can
watch what’s going on and watch it in a way that gives rise to a sense
of well-being.
This part of the path is really important, because if you don’t have
that sense of pleasure, that sense of refreshment as you meditate,
it’s very easy to wander off. At the same time, you’re not getting …
… Whenever the Tathāgata merges his body with his mind and his mind with his body, and remains having alighted on the perception of ease and buoyancy with regard to the body, then his body becomes lighter, more pliant, more malleable, & more radiant.
“Just as when an iron ball heated all day becomes lighter, more pliant, more malleable, & more radiant; in the same way, whenever …
… down into your bones, down into the
middle of the brain, working through any tension that might be lurking
there inside.
If that feels good, keep it up. If it doesn’t, you have all kinds of
other ways of breathing you can test: in-long/out-short,
in-short/out-long, in-short/out-short, deep or shallow, heavy or
light, fast or …
… It’s
the pilings in the middle of the river, where the current is
strongest, that are really hard to get in place. In the same way, the
principles of the precepts or virtue are not that hard. The principles
of discernment are not that hard, either. It’s the concentration that
requires a lot of work. In other words, the factors of right …
… That’s the only way you’re going to come to any kind of certainty. And it’s the only way you’re going to lead a life that provides a good container for the practice. You see this so many times on retreats when people come in off the street to spend a whole week just being with their breath. If they have …
… Thus, when you find your thoughts heading in the direction of anger or dislike, you should sit down and think in two ways –
(1) Try to think of whatever ways that person has been good to you. When these things come to mind, they’ll give rise to feelings of affection, love, and goodwill. This is one way.
(2) Anger is something worthless, like …
… At the end of his period of austerities, he
had the wisdom to realize that there must be some other way. He was
willing to abandon the pride that develops around the practice of
austerities and was able to find the middle way. That was his wisdom.
His purity lay in the fact that once he had seen what had to be done,
he …
Metta Means Goodwill | Beyond All Directions
… after themselves with ease.” That way they can have the happiness of independence and self-reliance. Another set of metta phrases is in the Karaṇīya Metta Sutta. They start out with a simple wish for happiness: Happy, at rest, may all beings be happy at heart. Whatever beings there may be, weak or strong, without exception, long, large, middling, short, subtle, blatant, seen & unseen …
Thoughts About Thinking
… Any issues you may have had with people during the day, get them out of the way, because you’re trying to give the mind a place it can settle down in, right here, right now. And you don’t want those attitudes to be getting in the way. If you’re worried about issues in the future, remind yourself: The best way to …
Sn 3:4 Sundarika Bhāradvāja
… Truth, Dhamma, restraint, the holy life, attainment of Brahmā dependent on the middle: Pay homage to those who’ve become truly straightened: That, I call a man in the flow of the Dhamma. After hearing these verses, Sundarika asks for Acceptance into the Saṅgha, and the sutta concludes in the same way as the account given here. 9. This is a play on words …
