… Even good qualities of the mind are inconstant, but the more you invest in them, the longer their impact, the longer their ability to support you, all the way through the process of aging, all the way through the process of illness, all the way through the process of death. These things stay there. And they can help you. The body is something you …
… The good news of the Buddha’s teaching is that it doesn’t have to be
that way.
All too often the Buddha is accused of being pessimistic, but the
whole import of the four noble truths is that you don’t have to
suffer. You don’t have to get blown away. At the very least, suffering
is manageable. As someone once said …
… When Ajaan Lee is
talking about the different ways of meditating in his book, Frames of
Reference, he starts out with different ways of thinking. Think about
the 32 parts of the body, think about the body in terms of the
elements, think about how inconstant things are, to develop a sense of
*samvega. *It’s the samvega that helps pull you away from …
… Then bring your attention to the middle of the chest. Try to be especially sensitive to how the breath energy feels around the heart, and breathe in a way that feels soothing there.
Now bring your attention to the right, to the place where the chest and the shoulder meet.
And then to the same spot on the left.
Now bring your attention to …
… The way in which this sutta raises a number of questions about the cessation of perception and feeling and its relationship to awakening but then leaves them unanswered has a parallel in AN 9:36. That sutta details how the various concentration attainments up through the dimension of nothingness can be used as a basis for the ending of the effluents. Beyond that point …
… One of the ways of taking pleasure in doing this, even before you can
find a sense of well-being with the breath, is to talk to yourself
about what a good thing it is that you’re on this path. The Buddha
lists six different ways of taking delight that he says can lead to
the end of the effluents. It’s interesting …
… Beyond All Directions, Lost in Quotation, An All-around Eye, Metta Means Goodwill, On Denying Defilement, Virtue Without Attachment, The Limits of the Unlimited Attitudes, The Essence of the Dhamma, The Middles of the Middle Way, and The Arrows of Thinking.
read
epub
azw3
mobi
pdf
share
Noble & True
Noble & True, by Ṭhānissaro Bhikkhu. (revised Feb. 13, 2021) This sixth collection of essays includes …
… You might
notice that sensation someplace in your hands or in your chest, at the
point of the sternum, which is a little breastbone that sticks out
between your ribs right in the middle of the chest. Anywhere you have
that sense of fullness, allow it to stay there. Make sure that the way
you breathe doesn’t disturb it.
Then allow it to …
… You talk to yourself about which ways of breathing are
skillful, which ways of breathing are not, and how you might change
things. Once the breath is comfortable, how do you maintain that sense
of comfort? And when you can maintain it, how do you let it spread?
All that talking to yourself is fabrication. Then there’s
consciousness, which is aware of all …
… You might want to check, to make a survey of the body, to make sure that all those channels are open, down the back, out the legs, in the front of the body, right down the middle, past the shoulders, down the arms, all around the head, down the legs, all the way to the feet. Any patterns of tension or tightness, allow them …
… You’ve strayed from the Middle Way, which is a mistake. Or you may see yourself as something you wouldn’t care to be: a pig or a dog, a bird or a rat, crippled or deformed. If you let yourself get upset or depressed, that’s indulgence in self-affliction—and again, you’ve strayed from the path and have fallen out of …
… It could be the tip of the
nose, the middle of the chest, the abdomen, anywhere in the body. Then
try to keep that spot open and relaxed, all the way through the
in-breath, all the way through the out-. Don’t squeeze it out. Allow
it to remain open all the way through the breath process. A sense of
fullness will develop …
… way of approaching the step of gladdening the mind is to think
of the six kinds of delight that the Buddha talks about as being
conducive to the practice. The first is delight in the Dhamma. It’s
similar to recollection of the Dhamma. You think about what a great
Dhamma this is; how it’s admirable in the beginning, admirable in the
middle …
… It might be down in the middle of the brain, in the area of the heart,
the area of the stomach, or some of the more outer parts of the body
that need to be refreshed. We look for these areas and refresh them
because the qualities of right concentration are pleasure and
refreshment. And you can create those qualities by the way you …
… The Dhamma is admirable in the beginning, admirable in the
middle, admirable in the end. It’s a good path all along the way.
Whatever’s required to make you want to follow it, talk to yourself in
that way. As long as the mind has energy to think, think in ways that
are positive. Try to find food in the path itself. Let …
… May the jhana factors be balanced.” But
it doesn’t happen that way. You can’t just wish your way into these
things. You have to learn your skills. And saying Yes to the breath is
one skill. Learning how to say No to everything else is another skill.
All too often, when we say No to a thought, we clamp down on the …
… That way, if the mind wants to jump into a
particular situation and say, “We’ve got to help it this way or change
it that way,” you can step back and ask, “Okay, is that really the
wisest thing to do? Or are you just being reactive or operating out of
fear?” In other words, the best expression of compassion or of
equanimity …
… If you can’t get your food in good ways, you’re going to
start getting it in bad ways. You can’t really trust yourself.”
But the Buddha isn’t telling you to just run away. If you’re going to
leave the world, he says, you’ve first got to develop all the good
qualities of the mind: your generosity, your virtue …
… It can be the tip of the nose, the middle of the head, the
base of the throat, the chest, the abdomen.
When you find a spot that you like, then allow the breath at that spot
to feel comfortable: comfortable coming in, comfortable going out,
with no tension building up with the in-breath and no holding on to
tension or pushing out …
… All the qualities you develop are good qualities of mind, noble qualities of mind, which is why they say that the Dhamma is good in the beginning, good in the middle, good in the end.
The quality of ardency is especially important. It’s what helps the other good qualities of the mind grow. It’s part of right effort. Right effort involves three …
Introduction | Good Heart, Good Mind
… Then bring your attention to the middle of the chest. Try to be especially sensitive to how the breath energy feels around the heart, and breathe in a way that feels soothing there. Now bring your attention to the right, to the place where the chest and the shoulder meet. And then to the same spot on the left. Now bring your attention to …
AN 5:166 Nirodha Sutta | Cessation
… The way in which this sutta raises a number of questions about the cessation of perception and feeling and its relationship to awakening but then leaves them unanswered has a parallel in AN 9:36. That sutta details how the various concentration attainments up through the dimension of nothingness can be used as a basis for the ending of the effluents. Beyond that point …
eBooks | dhammatalks.org
… Beyond All Directions, Lost in Quotation, An All-around Eye, Metta Means Goodwill, On Denying Defilement, Virtue Without Attachment, The Limits of the Unlimited Attitudes, The Essence of the Dhamma, The Middles of the Middle Way, and The Arrows of Thinking. read epub azw3 mobi pdf share Noble & True Noble & True, by Ṭhānissaro Bhikkhu. (revised Feb. 13, 2021) This sixth collection of essays includes …
