… You realize that, to be
kind, you have to go out of your way. It isn’t the easiest thing in
the world to be kind. Your parents didn’t throw you away the first
time you started crying non-stop and making a terror of yourself. They
got up in the middle of the night. They looked after you. Night after
night after …
… We can’t say we’ll just do a
middling effort. The effort has to be appropriate for the occasion. We
also have to make our words appropriate for the occasion. We have to
be very careful about what we do, say, and think to make sure that
it’s just right.
He liked to make the comment that “The Buddha says a lot …
… The pilings on this bank and that bank aren’t hard to place, but the pilings in the middle are really hard. You’ve got to withstand the current of the river. You dig down and put a few stones on the bottom of the river and you come back with your next load of stones only to discover that the first load of …
… That was how he found the middle way.
Now it’s up to us to find the middle way, too. Most of us tend to
indulge either in pleasure or are afraid of the pleasure that comes
from a concentrated mind, that comes from allowing the breath to be
comfortable, and to develop that state. The Buddha said that once
there’s that sense …
No Mistakes Are Fatal
January, 2003
Our minds are pretty chaotic systems, which is why following the middle way is difficult. It’s so easy for a chaotic system to get knocked out of equilibrium, to veer off to the left, to veer off to the right. Staying in the middle is difficult; it requires a lot of balance.
It’s no wonder that …
… Developing strength of mind is in some ways very much like developing
strength of body. To develop strength of body, you have to remember to
exercise it and to nourish it with rest and good food. In the same
way, the mind needs to be exercised. You need to remember to keep it
exercised and to nourish it well.
The remembering there is mindfulness …
… Or
it might be right in the middle of the head in the area just above the
eyes. Whichever part of the body seems most sensitive to the energy
flow, focus there.
Try to maintain a rhythm of breathing that feels really good right
there so that it feels good all the way through the in-breath and all
the way through the out …
No Mistakes Are Fatal
January, 2003
Our minds are pretty chaotic systems, which is why following the middle way is so difficult. It’s so easy for a chaotic system to get knocked out of equilibrium, to veer off to the left, to veer off to the right. Staying in the middle is difficult; it requires a lot of balance.
So it’s no …
… And as they say in Thailand, many times when the
middle-level management sends something up, they’ve already mixed it
for you. In other words, they present it in terms that are pretty much
going to force your decision one way or another. So if you don’t get
the mind really clear, really still, really constant in its gaze,
you’re not …
… actions make a difference and you want to act in
ways that are skillful, the precepts are a good test for your
conviction—and also a good training in maintaining that conviction.
But the precepts on their own are not enough. You’ve got to train the
mind. That’s what the three middle strengths are about.
Persistence basically means right effort. Anything unskillful …
… If you try to get in the middle of
the road and stop the traffic, it runs over you. Here you’re stepping
out. You’re not in the road. You’re in the present moment.
This is one of the skills the Buddha taught. All of his teachings are
basically skills. Even right view is a skillful way of thinking that
leads you …
… When
you’re still in the middle of the river, don’t be too quick to let go
of the raft or you’ll drown. Wait until you’ve gotten to the shore.
Then you let go.
But all the way across the river, from this shore to the far shore,
it’s a matter of developing attention and intention. You let go of …
… This way, when the mind and body are in harmony like
this, both sides benefit. The mind has a good place to stay. The body
has someone looking after it.
One of Ajaan Lee’s images is of a parent looking after a child. The
parent has to make sure the child doesn’t get sick, doesn’t do
anything wrong. And as long …
… When you begin to see, though, that the way you put things together is
causing suffering, and you don’t have to put things together that
way—there’s another way—this is how insight cuts through. You see it’s
not necessary, that suffering. You have an alternative. Go for it.
When you develop the mind in this way, you’re getting the …
There are a lot of ways in which the Buddha compares the activities of
the mind to fire. Greed, aversion, are delusion are fires that burn
away in the mind, and as we chanted just now, they set fire to our
eyes, ears, nose, tongue, body, and mind, and to the things we know
through the senses. It’s almost as if our minds …
… When you’re still in the middle of the river, don’t be too quick to let go of the raft or you’ll drown. Wait until you’ve gotten to the far shore. Then you let go.
But all the way across the river, from this shore to the far shore, it’s a matter of developing attention and intention. You let go …
… By the time we come to the Dhamma, we’re already in the middle of all
this. What makes the Dhamma special is that it shows us a way out,
because a lot of those muddling mistakes we make create a lot of
suffering for ourselves or the people around us. An important part
about choosing a life of the Dhamma is that you …
… But the question is, do
you do it skillfully? There’s a skillful way to breathe in, a skillful
way to breathe out. There’s a skillful way to relate to the breath as
you breathe in, breathe out. If it’s nourishing for the body, if it
feels good inside, down to the more sensitive parts of your body, the
mind will respond …
… In the same way, when the breath energies in the body are very still,
you can sense the movements of the mind very clearly, and that’s what
we’re here for. The breath is like a thread that you follow through a
maze to get to the mind in the middle. When the breath gets still, the
mind becomes more and more clear …
… Look at the way you think, look at the way you breathe, look at the way you hold your body. See if there’s anything you can change. Any ways of thinking that are keeping you down, learn to question them. Any ways of breathing that are stifling your energy, just drop them. Ask yourself: Which parts of the body are getting starved of …
No Mistakes Are Fatal | Gather ’Round the Breath
No Mistakes Are Fatal January, 2003 Our minds are pretty chaotic systems, which is why following the middle way is difficult. It’s so easy for a chaotic system to get knocked out of equilibrium, to veer off to the left, to veer off to the right. Staying in the middle is difficult; it requires a lot of balance. It’s no wonder that …
Attention & Intention
… When you’re still in the middle of the river, don’t be too quick to let go of the raft or you’ll drown. Wait until you’ve gotten to the shore. Then you let go. But all the way across the river, from this shore to the far shore, it’s a matter of developing attention and intention. You let go of …
