… You can interpret that statement in lots of ways. What it comes down
to is that we have a lot of similarities in terms of the big issues.
But in terms of how the particulars of those big issues get worked
out, we have our individual issues, which is why the Buddha had to
have so many different ways of teaching the path.
There …
… And there’s a way
in which you could say that there are things you have to be attached
to, things you have to desire.
Desire does play a role in the path. It’s a part of right effort. You
have to want to let go of unskillful qualities and you have to
want to develop skillful ones. It’s written in the …
… Step back a bit, learn to laugh at yourself in a good-humored way—not in a sarcastic way, but a good-humored way, a sympathetic way—and then get on with the practice. You’ll find then that things go a lot better.
So all of this comes under the issue of right attitude. It’s not listed as one of the factors …
… Some people arrive at the attitude of “Eat, drink, and be merry, for tomorrow we may die,” as if that were the best way to spend your time in the light of death. Wisdom requires more than just thinking about death. It also requires thinking about your potential as a human being, your potential for happiness, where that potential truly lies, and what you …
… You show
some responsibility when you do, when you’ve acted in a way that
doesn’t harm anyone. That’s really significant. That’s something we
should learn how to appreciate more and more. There is room for
individual expression. You look at the different perfections, and
generosity in particular: There are lots of different ways you can be
generous. The Buddha placed …
… Unlike ordinary ways of thinking, which simply entangle you, these ways of thinking disentangle the tangle. Sometimes they cut right through. If you worked at minutely disentangling every single tangle in your mind, there’d never be an end to it. So you use these ways of thinking as knives to cut right through everything, to come right here to the breath, because this …
… Think about and
evaluate the breath so that there’s a sense of ease and well-being in
the way you breathe. This is how you get the mind into concentration.
Concentration is part of the path. When you practice the path, that’s
called paying homage through the practice—patipatti-puja—the kind of
homage the Buddha preferred.
Tonight’s Asalha Puja. We …
… Don’t try to boil
things down to one idea and then just run with that all the
way—because you may run off the side of the road. Remember, this is a
middle way; it’s balanced. And finding balance is one of the most
difficult things to do. It requires the most discernment. If this were
simply a practice of running off …
… If a man were to open watercourses leading off from both sides, the current in the middle of the river would be interrupted, diverted, & dispersed. The river would not go far, its current would not be swift, and it would not carry everything with it. In the same way, if a monk has not rid himself of these five hindrances… there is no possibility …
… As the Buddha says, it’s good in the
beginning, good in the middle, good in the end.
As with any path, there are going to be difficulties along the way. He
never promised that it would be easy. But it’s always good. That’s why
it’s worth sticking with it. As he said, even if tears are running
down your cheeks …
… It’s useful, when you see your defilements, to be able to laugh at
them—not in a nasty way, but just in a good-humored, “This is the way
human nature is” kind of way. It’s always good to have that attitude
at the back of your mind. When you’re confident that this battle can
be won, then you can approach …
… The ability to question and test one’s beliefs in an appropriate way is called appropriate attention. The ability to recognize and chose wise people as mentors is called having admirable friends. According to Iti 16–17, these are, respectively, the most important internal and external factors for attaining the goal of the practice. For further thoughts on how to test a belief in …
… after themselves with ease.” That way they can have the happiness of independence and self-reliance.
Another set of metta phrases is in the Karaṇīya Metta Sutta. They start out with a simple wish for happiness:
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 …
… It’s the same way with the meditation. We start out trying to focus on the breath and we put a lot of pressure on it, for fear that if we don’t, the mind’s going to slip away. Of course, a lot of the pressure on the breath has an effect on the circulation of fluids and energies in the body. You …
… There’s a right way and there’s a wrong way. The right way is to
pull on the udder. The wrong way is to twist the horn. Now, suppose
you’ve been twisting the horn for a long time and somebody says, “Hey,
twisting the horn doesn’t get any results.” So you stop twisting the
horn and say, “Well, this is pretty …
… It’s the same way with the meditation. We start out trying to focus on the breath and we put a lot of pressure on it, for fear that if we don’t, the mind’s going to slip away. Of course, a lot of the pressure on the breath has an effect on the circulation of fluids and energies in the body. You …
… It might be down in the chest, in the throat, in the middle of the
head. Once you’re found your spot, watch over it.
As you direct your thoughts to the breath, you can also evaluate it
to figure out what feels good, what feels best, what kinds of
perceptions are best, what ways of breathing are best, so that you can
settle …
… They mean freedom—freedom from
the way the mind has allowed itself to be enslaved, freedom from the
way it’s constantly kept in the dark, freedom from all agitation,
freedom from its own clinging. When you taste the sense of well-being
that comes from that freedom and you look at whatever pleasure
happiness that came out of giving in to your defilements …
… Many times we have habitual ways of relating to sensations, and they’re so habitual and so consistent that we think there’s no choice at all. “This is the way things have to be,” we think, but they don’t.
That’s the other implication of the principle of kamma: You can change your actions. If some parts of experience are dependent on …
… And it seems that in every case, they were having trouble simply adjusting to the fact that they were in Thailand, accepting things the way they were. So a lot of his teaching had to do with equanimity and patience. He probably saw that Westerners lacked these qualities and that they needed them to be reinforced before they could really get started on anything …
B. Persistence | The Wings to Awakening
… If a man were to open watercourses leading off from both sides, the current in the middle of the river would be interrupted, diverted, & dispersed. The river would not go far, its current would not be swift, and it would not carry everything with it. In the same way, if a monk has not rid himself of these five hindrances… there is no possibility …
AN 3:66 Kālāma Sutta | To the Kālāmas
… The ability to question and test one’s beliefs in an appropriate way is called appropriate attention. The ability to recognize and chose wise people as mentors is called having admirable friends. According to Iti 16–17, these are, respectively, the most important internal and external factors for attaining the goal of the practice. For further thoughts on how to test a belief in …
