… Allow the flow to be easy all the way through the
in-breath, all the way through the out-, and all the way through the
spaces in between, so that you’re floating on a comfortable breath
energy.
When you can maintain that, the sense of well-being inside begins to
grow. Allow it to become continuous, so that it develops momentum.
And then …
… When the Buddha talks about the Middle Way, it’s not necessarily what our preconceived notions of the Middle Way are. You have to test them. And the effort required is not blind effort. Right effort involves using your eyes: knowing what’s skillful in the mind, what’s unskillful, being determined to let go of anything unskillful that arises in the mind, and …
… He makes known—having realized it through direct knowledge—this world with its devas, Māras, & Brahmās, this generation with its contemplatives & brahmans, its rulers & commonfolk; he explains the Dhamma admirable in the beginning, admirable in the middle, admirable in the end; he expounds the holy life both in its particulars & in its essence, entirely perfect, surpassingly pure. It is good to see such a …
… We’re out in the middle of nature. It’s a comfortable day to
meditate. And the problem is that on the comfortable days to meditate,
we tend to just fall for the comfort and get lazy. We need to remind
ourselves that good days like this don’t often come. We don’t know
when the next one’s going to be, or …
… So you can stay with these breath sensations all the way through the in-breath, all the way through the out-, and all the way in between. In this way, your focus doesn’t have pauses.
Often when we meditate, our attention is present in phrases, like phrases of music. A few notes are connected, and there’s a pause. The next few notes …
… For instance, say you focus on the middle of the chest. It feels good
breathing in, it feels good breathing out, right there at the middle
of the chest. You breathe in a way that feels like it’s massaging the
muscles around the heart so that the blood flows all around, nice and
evenly. And there’s a sense of fullness there—not …
… There’s no way it can not become sharp. So we should keep at the practice in the same way that we sharpen a knife. If any part of the body or mind isn’t in good shape, we keep adjusting it until we get good results. When good results arise, we’ll be in a state of Right Concentration. The mind will be …
… This circles around annihilationism.2 Avoiding these two extremes, the Tathāgata teaches the Dhamma via the middle:
From ignorance as a requisite condition come fabrications.
From fabrications as a requisite condition comes consciousness.
From consciousness as a requisite condition comes name-&-form.
From name-&-form as a requisite condition come the six sense media.
From the six sense media as a requisite condition comes …
… Remember that phrase in the expression of
goodwill, “May we all look after ourselves with ease”—in a way that
we’re not harming ourselves, we’re not harming other people. Is there
some way you can teach other people to act that way? That’s one of the
best gifts there is.
As for people you can’t teach in that way: To …
… He makes known—having realized it through direct knowledge—this world with its devas, Māras, & Brahmās, this generation with its contemplatives & brahmans, its royalty & commonfolk; he explains the Dhamma admirable in the beginning, admirable in the middle, admirable in the end; he expounds the holy life both in its particulars & in its essence, entirely perfect, surpassingly pure. It is good to see such a …
… Let the breath spread throughout every part of the body, from the head to the tips of the fingers and toes, in front, in back, in the middle of the stomach, all the way through the intestines, along the blood vessels, and out through every pore. Breathe long and deep until the body feels full. The body will feel light, open and spacious, just …
… For bodhisattvas to succeed in this way, they have to give themselves over to perfecting ten qualities –
1. Dāna-pāramī: generosity.
2. Sīla-pāramī: virtue.
3. Nekkhamma-pāramī: renunciation of sensuality (and of the household life).
4. Paññā-pāramī: the search for discernment.
5. Viriya-pāramī: persistence.
6. Khanti-pāramī: endurance, patience.
7. Sacca-pāramī: truthfulness.
8. Adhiṭṭhāna-pāramī: determination.
9. Mettā-pāramī: goodwill …
… This is the middle path. If you make your awareness of the breath too narrow, you’ll end up sitting stock stiff, with no alertness at all. If you make your awareness too broad—all the way to heaven and hell—you can end up falling for aberrant perceptions. So neither extreme is good. You have to keep things moderate and just right if …
Psychologists who have studied the way people look for happiness
report that most people will pursue a particular type of happiness
until they see that the cost is too great and then they’ll stop. In
other words, there are too many difficulties, too many drawbacks, too
many side effects. The problem is that most people are very
insensitive to the costs of the …
… According to Buddhaghosa, the ancient Sinhalese commentaries mention several ways for making a storage space of this sort, but he himself recommends this: When starting construction of the storage place, after the foundation has been laid, a group of bhikkhus should gather around and, as the first post is being put in place, say (not in unison),
“Kappiya-kuṭiṁ karoma (We make this allowable …
… Breath Meditation
12 Taking a Stance
13 The Joy of Effort
14 Experimental Intelligence
15 The Path of Mistakes
16 A Post by the Ocean
17 The Active Truth
18 The Middleness of the Path
19 The Grass at the Gate
20 A Magic Set of Tools
21 Perception
22 Little Things
23 Stepping Back
24 Generosity First
25 Self Esteem
26 Goodwill All …
… If there’s a dog barking in the middle of the road, kick it off to one side.
§ Barking dogs don’t bite. Silent dogs might, so watch out.
§ Ears that listen to gossip are the ears of a pitcher, not the ears of a person.
§ Don’t believe everything you hear. If they say you’re a dog, check to see for yourself …
… The Buddha discovered that the way you attend to sensory contact is determined by your views about what’s important: the questions you bring to each experience, the problems you want to solve. If there were no problems in life, you could open yourself up choicelessly to whatever came along. But the fact is there is a big problem smack dab in the middle …
… This is why the Buddha said his path is admirable in the beginning,
admirable in the middle, and admirable in the end, because it requires
us to be responsible all the way through.
… The first one doesn’t see, the middle one doesn’t see, and the last one doesn’t see. In the same way, the statement of the brahmans turns out to be comparable to a row of blind men, as it were: The first one doesn’t see, the middle one doesn’t see, and the last one doesn’t see. So what do …
A Good Dose of Medicine | Meditations1
… When the Buddha talks about the Middle Way, it’s not necessarily what our preconceived notions of the Middle Way are. You have to test them. And the effort required is not blind effort. Right effort involves using your eyes: knowing what’s skillful in the mind, what’s unskillful, being determined to let go of anything unskillful that arises in the mind, and …
Sn 3:7 Sela
… He makes known—having realized it through direct knowledge—this world with its devas, Māras, & Brahmās, this generation with its contemplatives & brahmans, its rulers & commonfolk; he explains the Dhamma admirable in the beginning, admirable in the middle, admirable in the end; he expounds the holy life both in its particulars & in its essence, entirely perfect, surpassingly pure. It is good to see such a …
Talk collections | dhammatalks.org
… Breath Meditation 12 Taking a Stance 13 The Joy of Effort 14 Experimental Intelligence 15 The Path of Mistakes 16 A Post by the Ocean 17 The Active Truth 18 The Middleness of the Path 19 The Grass at the Gate 20 A Magic Set of Tools 21 Perception 22 Little Things 23 Stepping Back 24 Generosity First 25 Self Esteem 26 Goodwill All …
