… 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 …
… 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 …
… 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 …
… 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 …
… 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.
… This is another example in how the Buddha’s teaching is the middle way
that steps outside of the either/or that so many people in society
present us with. It steps out by framing the issue in a totally new
way. The Buddha’s question is: Do you want to be free? That’s in line
with the example he gives. He left …
… 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 …
… good family has gone forth in this way, he is covetous, with strong passion for sensual desires, with a mind of ill will, of corrupt resolves, his mindfulness muddled, unalert, unconcentrated, his mind distracted, loose in his sense faculties. Just as a log from a funeral pyre, burning at both ends, smeared with excrement in the middle, fills no use as timber either in …
… 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 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 …
… In other
words, you tell yourself to focus on the breath in a certain way, to
work with the breath a certain way, then you do it, and then you have
to evaluate the results—one, to make sure you’re doing things the way
you tell yourself to do, and when the results don’t come out, you have
to figure out why …
… As
we say in the chant, it’s admirable in the beginning, admirable in the
middle, admirable in the end. Sometimes it’s hard, sometimes it’s
easy, but it’s admirable all the way.
… It doesn’t involve doing anything demeaning, and it doesn’t involve
anything less than honorable, which is why the Buddha said that it’s
admirable in the beginning, admirable in the middle, admirable in the
end. It’s good all the way through.
… 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 …
… You want sights, sounds, smells, tastes,
tactile sensations to be this way, and they’re not that way.
Sometimes the pleasures and pains come from your desire to gain
awakening. Those, the Buddha said, are actually useful. There’s the
pain that comes when you realize, “Okay, there’s awakening out there
and I haven’t gotten there yet.” He says not to try …
… We think in these ways as a way of getting the mind to finally settle
down.
Ajaan Maha Boowa’s image is of two different kinds of trees.
Undirected meditation, he says, is like a tree out in the middle of a
meadow. If you want to cut it down, it doesn’t involve much
calculation as to which direction you should cut it …
… to find some way around it. In Ajaan Lee’s image, the three main divisions of the path—virtue, concentration, and discernment—are like the posts for a bridge over a river. Virtue is the post on this side of the river, discernment is on the other side of the river, while the concentration post is right in the middle of the river, where …
… There is another passage where the Buddha talks about the way beings wander on in this world. It’s like throwing a stick up into the air. Sometimes it lands on this end, sometimes it lands on that end, sometimes it lands splat in the middle. No real pattern. No real direction. This doesn’t mean that life is hopeless. But it means simply …
… If they are in good shape, try to maintain them that way. This
way, you give yourself strength. Again, it’s the strength of having
friends.
In Thailand, one of the old ways of teaching the strength of harmony
or of concord in a group would be to show a little kid a stick, and
say, “Can you snap the stick in two?” The …
Beyond Right & Wrong | Inner Strength & Parting Gifts: Talks by Ajaan Lee Dhammadharo
… 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 …
SN 12:17 Acela Sutta | To the Clothless Ascetic
… 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 …
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 …
