… There are different ways you can do that, as there are with savoring a sensual pleasure, such as fine food or beautiful music. Part of the skill of savoring is putting yourself in a receptive mood, part of it is how you talk to yourself, and part of it is opening yourself up physically, especially if it’s listening to music—opening yourself up …
Today is the middle of the Rains. We’re halfway through the three
months, and it’s a good time to reflect what determinations you made,
what vows you made at the beginning of the Rains. How are they going?
If you’re having trouble keeping up, well, you’ve got the rest of the
Rains to accelerate your efforts, to make sure you …
… One of the reasons why this is called the middle path, or the middle
way, is that you have to find the point of balance, and it’s in find
that balance that you really develop your discernment. There’s the
discernment that comes from reading books,
the discernment that comes from thinking things through, but the
discernment that comes from finding the point …
… He wants to see you.”
“In that case, my good gatekeeper, arrange seats in the middle gate hall.”
Responding, “As you say, venerable sir,” to Upāli the householder, the gatekeeper, after arranging seats in the middle gate hall, went to Upāli the householder and, on arrival, said to him, “Venerable sir, seats have been arranged in the middle gate hall. Do what you consider …
… Sometimes we have a
sense of obligation for certain ways of thinking. We feel, “If I
didn’t think in these ways, I wouldn’t be me.” As we mentioned just
now, we develop certain patterns of reacting to certain events,
reading certain situations in a certain way, and we keep reverting to
those ways. But you have to remember, there must have been …
… Maybe you can change the way
you breathe. Maybe you can change the way you talk to yourself. What
perceptions are you holding in mind? Could you change them?
Those are some of the parameters. But you’re going to have to learn
for yourself. When you’re alert to see something’s actually working,
then you remember it for the next time around …
… The discussion that begins with this paragraph provides an explanation for what is meant by the “middle way” in the Buddha’s first sermon. See also the discussion of pleasure and pain in MN 101.
9. Reading añāṇadassanaṁ with the Thai edition. The other editions have ñāṇadassanaṁ, “that is knowledge & vision,” which doesn’t fit into the general message of the text here.
This …
… There are better ways to think, better ways to manage the thought processes in the mind.
And a funny thing happens. As you master these processes, they bring you to a point where everything reaches equilibrium. That’s where you can really let go. You can even let go of your tools at that point because they’ve taken you where you want to …
… In fact, that was the image that gave the Buddha a sense of samvega—it could be translated as terror, dismay at being trapped in all this suffering and wanting to see a way out.
That’s one image.
The other image is the one that comes from a story concerning King Pasenadi. King Pasenadi comes to see the Buddha in the middle of …
… That chant we had just now about the four mountains comes from a
passage in the Canon where King Pasenadi, one of the major kings of
that time, came to see the Buddha in the middle of the day. The Buddha
asked him, “What are you coming from in the middle of the day like
this? What have you been doing?” And the king …
… Where do the ways of the world arise? In ourselves. The ways of the world have eight factors, and the path that cures them has eight as well. The eightfold path is the cure for the eight ways of the world. Thus the Buddha taught the middle way as the cure for the two extremes.
Once we have cured ourselves of the two extremes …
… Two middle-aged couples—they looked
to be in their fifties—sitting in a very nice living room, and the
husband of one couple was saying to the others, “Of course it’s had
its ups and downs, but by and large, Margaret and I have found a
consumer experience to be a rewarding one.”
The humor there, of course, is the fact that …
… The path that works is
the middle way.
By this, he didn’t mean a middling way, halfway between pleasure and
pain. It was a path that involved comprehending suffering, and for
using the pleasure of right concentration as an alternative to either
sensual pleasure or physical pain. Right view, which was part of the
path, was focused on the question of how to …
… If your preferences complain, figure out ways of dealing with them to put them aside. Discernment doesn’t mean just seeing the right course of action; it also involves mastering the right way to put your preferences aside. Remind yourself that your preferences have gotten in the way, have gummed up the works, for a long, long time. How much longer are you going …
… When this sense of mahābhūta-rūpa is nourished with breath and mindfulness in this way, it will grow and mature. The properties will grow quiet and mature, and become mahā-satipaṭṭhāna, the great frame of reference.
This is threshold concentration, or vicāra—spreading the breath.
In centering the mind, we have to put it on the middle path, cutting away all thoughts of past …
… He said you should work for your own happiness in a way that
actually increases the happiness of others, or at the very least
doesn’t harm them in any way. In that way, you’re being responsible in
your search for happiness. That builds a solid happiness right now and
goes on into the future.
When you’re generous, the Buddha recommends that …
… In the same way, find a spot in the body where you feel that you can
easily settle down and stay here. It might be in the middle of the
head, the middle of the chest, the abdomen, anywhere in the body where
you feel that your attention can settle in settle in, settle down, and
begin to fit together. All the scattered little …
… So try to picture them learning to see to the error of their ways and changing their ways. In other words, you wish for them to start creating the causes for happiness. You don’t feel that you have to settle old scores first before you let them be happy or wise. When you learn how to think in these ways, it helps to …
… This relates to the fact that
this path is a middle way. If it were an extreme path, pursuing an of
extreme sensual pleasure or an extreme of self-denial, it wouldn’t
require that much sensitivity. You’d just push, push, push in
whichever direction is extreme and that would get you there. The
middle way, though, requires a lot more precision, a …
… Imagine a line in the middle of the body running from the middle of
the head down to the base of the spine. The breath energy comes into
that line, goes out of that line. This way, you sweep out the space of
the body. Any patterns of tension you may feel in any part of the
body: Allow them to be dissolved by …
MN 56 Upālivāda Sutta | The Teaching to Upāli
… He wants to see you.” “In that case, my good gatekeeper, arrange seats in the middle gate hall.” Responding, “As you say, venerable sir,” to Upāli the householder, the gatekeeper, after arranging seats in the middle gate hall, went to Upāli the householder and, on arrival, said to him, “Venerable sir, seats have been arranged in the middle gate hall. Do what you consider …
A Heart Released | A Heart Released: The Teachings of Phra Ajaan Mun
… Where do the ways of the world arise? In ourselves. The ways of the world have eight factors, and the path that cures them has eight as well. The eightfold path is the cure for the eight ways of the world. Thus the Buddha taught the middle way as the cure for the two extremes. Once we have cured ourselves of the two extremes …
