… It’s like lying on your back out in the middle of a big field. If you
look up in the sky and there’s nothing on the ground that you can
compare things to, you look at the clouds you don’t know what they’re
doing. Which clouds are staying still, which clouds are moving, you
can’t really tell, because there …
… Or like the spider in the middle of a web: The spider is in one spot, but it’s sensitive to the whole web. Try to maintain this sense of centered but broad awareness all the way through the in-breath, all the way through the out. Maintain this quality of awareness as long and as steadily as you can. Try to master it …
… You dawdled through the
practice saying, “Well, I’ll put it off till tomorrow and I won’t push
myself too hard.”
As Ajaan Maha Boowa says, for many of us, the middle way is right in
the middle of the pillow.
So you don’t want that regret.
That’s one way of stirring up a sense of desire: realizing there are
dangers …
… But to what extent is that rhythm caused by things going on in the mind that you’re not fully aware of?
The best way to see that is to consciously change the way you think about the breath, to change the way you breathe, to go against what’s subconscious. That’s how you dig up some subconscious assumptions. There’s a resistance …
When the Buddha first described his path, he called it a middle way
between two extremes: indulgence in sensual pleasures on the one hand,
and self-affliction on the other. This has led a lot of people to
think that the path is kind of a neutral mind state, not all that
pleasant, but not all that painful. That’s not the case. An …
… In the same way, intelligent people who want the inner quality of dispassion have to take the discernment that comes from concentration and use it to evaluate sights, sounds, smells, tastes, etc., so that these things can serve a purpose and not do them any harm. Whoever eats an entire fish—bones, scales, fins, feces, and all—is sure to choke to death on …
… what’s causing us to act in ways in the
present moment that are causing suffering now and on into the future.
After all, it’s our intentions that shape our life. Where do
intentions happen? They happen right here, right now. All too often,
they’re relegated down to the middle-level bureaucracy in the mind.
It’s as if you were the …
… difficulty, in the same way, when the awareness-release through equanimity is thus developed, thus pursued, any deed done to a limited extent no longer remains there, no longer stays there.” — SN 42:8
§47. Think: 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 …
… In the same way, as we deal with our aggregates—form, feelings,
perceptions, thought fabrications, consciousness—there are unskillful
ways of trying to control them and there are skillful ways. You can
actually turn them into the path.
All five aggregates, for instance, are involved in concentration.
Form, of course, would be the breath. Think of the breath going
through the whole body. Feeling …
… The more consistently you can allow them just to be—all the way
through the in-breath, all the way through the out-—the more you find
a sense of rapture developing, a sense of ease, fullness, refreshment.
This is called developing your inner resources for the sake of
alertness, for the sake of mindfulness, concentration, and
discernment.
That’s one of our duties …
… The Buddha noted that neither extreme was effective in putting an end to suffering, so he found a pragmatic Middle Way between them: Right and wrong were determined by what actually did and didn’t work in putting an end to suffering. The public proof of this Middle Way was the Sangha that the Buddha built around it, in which people agreed to follow …
… Why don’t we each assume the form of a hundred women who have borne one child … a hundred women who have borne two children … a hundred middle-aged women … a hundred older women?” So Māra’s daughters—Craving, Discontent, & Passion—having each assumed the form of a hundred older women, went to the Blessed One and, on arrival, said to him, “We serve …
… Then Anāthapiṇḍika the householder left Sāvatthī in the middle of the day to see the Blessed One, but the thought then occurred to him, “Now is not the right time to see the Blessed One, for he is in seclusion. And it is not the right time to see the mind-developing monks, for they are in seclusion. What if I were to visit …
… You hope that they’ll act in a skillful way, again for
their sake as well as for yours. But you realize that your primary
responsibility is your actions, so you have to protect your goodwill.
There’s an image in the Canon of a mother protecting her child.
Sometimes it’s misinterpreted as saying you should protect all beings
in the same way …
… So one way that you can show goodwill to all beings and really help
them to be happy is to sit here and practice, to work on your mind.
Another way of expanding your awareness is to keep expanding it
through the body as you work with the breath energy in the body. You
get a sense of comfort from the way you breathe …
… Where are you focused in the body? Is your focus the right place to be focused right now? There are lots of places where you could be focused in the body—the tip of the nose, the middle of the forehead, in your palate, in the middle of the head, in your throat, your chest, your abdomen. If you find that focusing up in …
… But holding that perception allows
you to work with the energy in the body in ways you might not have
been able to do if you had other perceptions.
You can think of the breath energy coming in. Ajaan Fuang would often
talk about there being kind of a line running down through the body,
from the middle of the head, down through the …
… is why, as the Buddha said, if you were to make a
comparison with the way beings are born, it’s like throwing a stick up
in the air: Sometimes it lands on this end, sometimes it lands on that
end, sometimes it comes down smack in the middle. In other words,
there’s no progress, there’s no purpose. It’s just wherever …
… You hop on a train of thought and find yourself in Burma, England, in the middle of Russia, up to the North Pole, down to the South Pole, out to Mars and Saturn, with brief stops along the way when you’re feeling hungry, tired, or hot.
It’s back-and-forth all over the place. And when our thoughts are totally out of …
… How
does it feel as you breathe in? How does it feel as you breathe out?
What kind of breathing feels good in that part of the body?
You can move up to the solar plexus, the middle of the chest, the base
of the throat, the middle of the head. And then, focusing on the back
of the neck: Think of the breath …
Introduction | The Five Faculties : Putting Wisdom in Charge of the Mind
… Or like the spider in the middle of a web: The spider is in one spot, but it’s sensitive to the whole web. Try to maintain this sense of centered but broad awareness all the way through the in-breath, all the way through the out. Maintain this quality of awareness as long and as steadily as you can. Try to master it …
SN 4:25 Māradhītu Sutta | Māra’s Daughters
… Why don’t we each assume the form of a hundred women who have borne one child … a hundred women who have borne two children … a hundred middle-aged women … a hundred older women?” So Māra’s daughters—Craving, Discontent, & Passion—having each assumed the form of a hundred older women, went to the Blessed One and, on arrival, said to him, “We serve …
