Search results for: middle way

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  2. Stepping Out of the Waves
    The forest tradition has its own way of interpreting two important concepts: indulgence in sensuality and indulgence in self-torment. You may remember that these are the two extremes that the right path avoids. In the forest interpretation, indulgence in sensuality is indulging in pleasant moods, indulging in self-torment is indulging in moods of anger and dislike. In other words, you go for … 
  3. Focal Points
     … So one way of maintaining breath awareness throughout the day is finding the first spot that tends to get seized up. Where do you habitually react first, say, when something negative happens, when there’s fear, anger or whatever? Again, it might be in the middle of the chest, the throat, wherever. When you’re engaged in an activity that doesn’t allow you … 
  4. Pulling Out of the Narratives
     … After a while, you forget that there were decisions made to make the movie this way. It could have come out in many different ways. It didn’t have to be the way it was. But you watch it many times and it acquires an inevitability. So remind yourself that these things are not inevitable. Take the pattern of the mind being still for … 
  5. The Goldsmith
     … When the Buddha calls the path a middle way, it’s not only middle, but it’s also just right. That requires a lot of discernment, along with a lot of commitment and reflection. So just as becoming a goldsmith is a skill that takes some time and strong powers of observation, becoming a good meditator requires the same qualities. We’re not just … 
  6. For Your Good the Good of Others
     … When the Buddha says the middle way avoids the two extremes of self-torment and sensual pleasure, he’s not saying it’s a middling feeling of neutral okay. It can actually be a very strong sense of well-being as you get the concentration going. It’s middle in the sense that it doesn’t lie on the continuum between torture and sensual … 
  7. It’s Good to Talk to Yourself
     … Ajaan Maha Boowa had a very useful analogy for different ways of getting the mind to settle down. In some cases, he said, your mind is like a tree standing out in the middle of a meadow. If you want to cut the tree down, you can cut it down in any direction, and you don’t have to think too much about which … 
  8. Hindrances to the Heightened Mind
    We sometimes think of the middle way as halfway between sensual pleasure and self-torture, but that’s not quite right. It’s halfway between two forms of devotion: devotion to sensual pleasure and devotion to self-torture. And the middle way is not devotion to a middling pleasure, a middling pain. It’s devotion to the heightened mind—in other words, to the … 
  9. Book search result icon Noble Strategy A Guided Meditation
     … A very concrete way of learning how to provide for your own happiness in the immediate present—and at the same time, strengthening your alertness—is to let yourself breathe in a way that’s comfortable. Experiment to see what kind of breathing feels best for the body right now. It might be long breathing, short breathing; in long, out short; or in short … 
  10. Skilled in Leaving Concentration
     … It might be the middle of the head. You intended it to be at the middle of the chest, but it moved to the middle of the head, or vice versa, or anywhere. Then, the next time you sit down, go right there. What was the quality of the breath? Well, try to recreate that quality of the breath. It’s in this way … 
  11. An Exercise in Sensitivity
     … So you’re learning about feeling, and you’re learning about feeling in terms of the middle way. Remember, the Buddha said the middle way avoids the extremes of sensual indulgence and of self-torture. That doesn’t mean it’s a middling feeling. It means looking for pleasure in another way, not on the continuum: one, pleasure that has nothing to do with … 
  12. Path & Goal
     … Remember, this is the middle way, and finding the just-right point in the middle is a lot harder than going to extremes. With extremes you just push, push, push. It doesn’t require much discernment. But finding and maintaining the just-right point in the middle: That requires a lot of discernment. You’re going to be going back and forth, back and … 
  13. Book search result icon Khuddakapāṭha Khp 9 Karaṇīya Mettā Sutta — Goodwill
     … Whatever beings there may be— weak or strong, without exception, long, large, middling, short, subtle, gross, seen & unseen, living near & far away, born or seeking birth: May all beings be happy at heart. Let no one deceive another or despise anyone anywhere, or through anger or resistance-perception wish for another to suffer. As a mother would risk her life to protect her child … 
  14. The Mind in Good Shape
     … Are you doing things in an awkward way? Are you do things in an efficient way? In this particular case, it means noticing how you breathe: Does it really feel good? Or could it be better? Which parts of the body are not feeling good? How could you make them feel better by the way you breathe? Which parts feel like they’re being … 
  15. Take Nothing for Granted
     … So, what way of breathing would lead to that sense of refreshment and ease? What way of thinking about the breath would lead to that sense of refreshment and ease? This is where it’s useful to perceive the breath as a full-body process, something that can saturate all the nerves. That way, when the sense of ease comes, say, in the middle … 
  16. Defeatism? - Anything But
     … The Buddha talks about the middle way, this unexcelled victory in battle, as being a middle way between two extremes. If we could find our way to true happiness simply by being extremely accepting or extremely effortful, again it would be very easy. It wouldn’t take much discernment. But to get results requires finding the middle way between those two extremes. What’s … 
  17. Tranquility, Insight, & Concentration
     … Then move up to the solar plexus, the middle of the chest, base of the throat, middle of the head; then down the shoulders, starting at the back of the neck; going down the back, through the hips, out through the legs. Focus, relax. You can make this survey a couple times, and then see if you can focus your attention in one spot … 
  18. Bigger than the World
     … In this way, you have a home wherever you go. And keep remembering that while you’re here, this is the middle way. And where does the middle way lead from here? It just leads deeper and deeper in here, more and more solidly in here. This is the place where everything you’re going to need to know, everything you’re going to … 
  19. Book search result icon The Autobiography of Phra Ajaan Lee The Autobiography of Phra Ajaan Lee
     … In the middle of the mountain the ground opened down into a deep chasm. Going down into the chasm, I came to a piece of teakwood placed as a bridge across a crevice. Edging my way across to the other side, I found myself on a wide rock shelf. As I walked on a ways, it became pitch dark, so I lit a lantern … 
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  20. May I Look After Myself with Ease
     … From the solar plexus you can go to the middle of the chest, the base of the throat, the middle of the head; then down the spine, out the legs; back to the back of the neck and then go down the shoulders and out the arms. This way, you gain a sense of how the breathing feels in the different parts of the … 
  21. Successful Desire
     … Of course, the problem with desire is that sometimes it gets in the way. You have to learn how to temper your desire. You realize that there are causes and there are effects, so you focus your desire on the causes. In the case of getting the mind to settle down, the causes are thinking about the breath, evaluating the breath, and being with … 
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