… What you need is what the Buddha calls, “penetrative” knowledge, in
which you understand some activity of the mind, good or bad; notice
what’s causing it; notice its diversity—as the Buddha calls it—which
means seeing what ways it’s good, what ways it’s bad; what’s the range
of suffering or happiness that this particular phenomenon—like
feelings or perceptions …
… In the beginning we’re born, then in the middle we change, and in the end we fall apart and die. Death is something no one aspires to, and yet no one can escape it. We all have death at the end of our path.
Thinking about death gives rise both to benefits and to harm. For shortsighted people it’s harmful, because it …
… Yet you
can look at the rest of the world and try to straighten out the rest
of the world as much as you like, but, one, the world refuses to be
straightened out in a lot of ways; and two, you can develop a lot of
unskillful qualities that way. So you’ve got to turn around and look
at yourself.
Some people …
… We really want to be
happy, and there is a way to find true happiness that doesn’t cause
any harm at all.
So he’s not the sort of person who says to forget about your desire
for happiness, just accept things as they are, or try to submerge your
desire for happiness in working for the happiness of others. After
all, if …
… Instead, he found the middle way that led to true happiness inside, a deathless happiness, a happiness that doesn’t depend on any conditions at all. And he was able to do it not because he was some special divine being, but because he took the issue of happiness really seriously and he developed whatever qualities of mind were needed. So you want to …
… The air can’t force its way in on its own.
Where does that energy originate? Ajaan Lee lists a couple of what he calls “resting spots” of the breath: above the navel, at the tip of the sternum, the base of the throat, the palate, the middle of the head, the top of the head. Experiment to see which of these centers is …
… And you, monks, are very helpful to householders, as you teach them the Dhamma admirable in the beginning, admirable in the middle, and admirable in the end, as you expound the holy life both in its particulars and in its essence, entirely complete, surpassingly pure. In this way the holy life is lived in mutual dependence, for the purpose of crossing over the flood …
… If something’s not working, can you think up another
way of applying the principles that would work?
In other words, you don’t throw out the principles, but you explore
them, you probe them, think them through. As Ajaan Lee once said, “The
ways of the mind are so many there’s no way any book could ever
contain them all”—and that …
… It’s because we’re stupid in so many ways that we suffer so much. When craving arises, it damages people all around us. This is why we should develop the causes for happiness and ease, so as to prevent these kinds of dangers—for when difficulties arise, the mind will start spinning in all sorts ways that will cause us to suffer.
For …
… Years back there was a movie called The Devils, about a priest and a nun in the Middle Ages. In the first scene, the nun’s walking around with her head off to one side at a 90-degree angle because she’s so warped from not having given herself over to natural desires. You could tell where the movie was going, so I …
… Fine results are of high quality and are useful in all sorts of ways—like atomic radiation, which is so fine that it can penetrate even mountains. Crude things are of low quality and hard to use. Sometimes you can soak them in water all day long and they still don’t soften up. But as for fine things, all they need is a …
As you practice, there’s a way in which you have to think that the
path is the goal, and there’s a way in which you have to think the
path is not the goal. The path leads to the goal, so they’re two
separate things. The way in which the path is the goal is that you
have to pay full …
… It may take a while for the energy to start coming back down,
but you’ve got to be strategic in this way. Otherwise, it’s like
getting out in the middle of freeway and telling all the cars to turn
back. What happens? You get run over. But if you figure out a way to
route them through a neighborhood, turning here, turning …
… There’s a certain way of
breathing that goes with the anger: Do you enjoy that? A certain way
of thinking that goes with the anger: Do you enjoy that? Do you enjoy
the perceptions? What kick do you get out of the perceptions or the
feelings that go with the anger? These are the things about which
you’ve got to be very …
… This is the right effort that really constitutes the middle way: in other words, appropriate effort, appropriate for whatever the occasion, whatever the defilement coming up in the present, and whatever your state of mind. Sometimes this requires very delicate work, very refined, very easy. Sometimes it’s hard and takes a lot of effort. You have to sit through a good amount of …
… You have to be
willing to look at ways in which you’ve been dishonest with
yourself—ways in which you’ve been lying to yourself, ways in which
you’ve been careless, heedless—and not get knocked over by them. You
need to have the strength inside to admit the truth of these things so
that you can actually deal with them. Because …
… In this way, Sāvatthī provides the stage for a multi-faceted
glimpse into the middle period of the Buddha’s life, in his
role as teacher to devas and human beings at large and,
simultaneously, founder of and rule-giver for the Saṅgha.
At that time, Anāthapiṇḍika the householder was the
brother-in-law of the Rājagaha moneylender. Then he traveled to
Rājagaha on …
… So it’s pretty amazing that the body works, because each little cell in there is programmed to behave sometimes in a social way and sometimes in an antisocial way. It’s good to think about the body like this so that we don’t get heedless.
That’s a lot of what the body contemplation is for: to counteract our heedlessness. To begin …
… But even then, we have to part ways.
When we part ways, there’s a lot of sorrow. The tears you’ve shed over
the loss of a mother, the Buddha said, are more than the water in the
oceans. The tears you’ve shed over the loss of a father are more than
the water of the oceans, and so on down with …
… This is why it’s called the middle way: the Dhamma always appropriate for curing every sort of defilement to the point where defilement no longer remains.
This is how you should understand the power of the middle way. Hold to this path in your practice, because release from suffering and stress is something with a value transcending all three levels of becoming. And …
Beyond Death | The Heightened Mind
… In the beginning we’re born, then in the middle we change, and in the end we fall apart and die. Death is something no one aspires to, and yet no one can escape it. We all have death at the end of our path. Thinking about death gives rise both to benefits and to harm. For shortsighted people it’s harmful, because it …
