… Truth, Dhamma, restraint, the holy life,
attainment of Brahmā dependent on the middle:
Pay homage to those who’ve become
truly straightened:
That, I call a man
in the flow of the Dhamma.
After hearing these verses, Sundarika asks for Acceptance into the Saṅgha, and the sutta concludes in the same way as the account given here.
9. This is a play on words …
… That way, you can
watch what’s going on and watch it in a way that gives rise to a sense
of well-being.
This part of the path is really important, because if you don’t have
that sense of pleasure, that sense of refreshment as you meditate,
it’s very easy to wander off. At the same time, you’re not getting …
… down into your bones, down into the
middle of the brain, working through any tension that might be lurking
there inside.
If that feels good, keep it up. If it doesn’t, you have all kinds of
other ways of breathing you can test: in-long/out-short,
in-short/out-long, in-short/out-short, deep or shallow, heavy or
light, fast or …
… Whenever the Tathāgata merges his body with his mind and his mind with his body, and remains having alighted on the perception of ease and buoyancy with regard to the body, then his body becomes lighter, more pliant, more malleable, & more radiant.
“Just as when an iron ball heated all day becomes lighter, more pliant, more malleable, & more radiant; in the same way, whenever …
… That’s the only way you’re going to come to any kind of certainty. And it’s the only way you’re going to lead a life that provides a good container for the practice. You see this so many times on retreats when people come in off the street to spend a whole week just being with their breath. If they have …
… It’s
the pilings in the middle of the river, where the current is
strongest, that are really hard to get in place. In the same way, the
principles of the precepts or virtue are not that hard. The principles
of discernment are not that hard, either. It’s the concentration that
requires a lot of work. In other words, the factors of right …
… Thus, when you find your thoughts heading in the direction of anger or dislike, you should sit down and think in two ways –
(1) Try to think of whatever ways that person has been good to you. When these things come to mind, they’ll give rise to feelings of affection, love, and goodwill. This is one way.
(2) Anger is something worthless, like …
… At the end of his period of austerities, he
had the wisdom to realize that there must be some other way. He was
willing to abandon the pride that develops around the practice of
austerities and was able to find the middle way. That was his wisdom.
His purity lay in the fact that once he had seen what had to be done,
he …
… wake up in the middle of one of your created worlds, and say, “Oh, this is suffering. It doesn’t have to be here.” And you look in the right place instead of placing the blame on other people in the past or in the present. The suffering doesn’t come from them. The suffering comes from the way the mind thinks about things …
… I want to survive.’ This can also be a good reminder in the way of the Dhamma: To free yourself from death, you have to play dead. This is a good lesson in maranassati, keeping death in mind.
Another time, early one morning when I was staying in the middle of a large forest, I took my followers out for alms. As we were …
… Then you can turn back to look at the movies again., until you can see
through the way the mind deceives itself, the way it deludes itself.
In that way, you’re in control. Once you’re in control, it’s a lot
easier to live life the way you want it to be lived, to do with your
life what you really want …
… Any issues you may have had with people during the day, get them out of the way, because you’re trying to give the mind a place it can settle down in, right here, right now, and you don’t want those attitudes to be getting in the way.
If you’re worried about issues in the future, remind yourself: The best way to …
… But it’s not the case that
you go straight to those things without having to muck around with
your defilements, because the defilements are going to get in the way
one way or another. Because our habit is to deal unskillfully with
whatever comes up, then when the results of skillful actions come and
are nice, we tend to get complacent—an unskillful …
… What kind of feeling are you fostering in the way that you’re being attentive? In this way, the fact that you’re paying careful attention to the breath moves you into the area of feelings as a frame of reference, which is the territory of the second tetrad.
The Buddha’s second tetrad has four steps. The first is to determine that you …
… Then move up to the middle of the chest, and the same way around the body in the chest area, then the base of the throat, and the head. You can go down the shoulders to the arms, and then start at the hips, going down the legs to the toes. Work through the body, section by section, making sure that whatever section you …
… Death can come in that
way. And you want to be ready to go in a way where there are no
regrets, nothing you hang on to.
So these are all ways of generating desire to focus on the practice so
that you can take delight in seeing an unskillful quality slough away,
and seeing skillful qualities growing. No matter how slowly they may …
… Where does that start? How does
it spread through the body? What are the energy channels? What are the
energy centers? When the in-breath starts coming in, where does it
feel like it starts? Around the navel? The middle of the chest? Ask
yourself. Look. And when the energy starts to spread, is there
anything to get in the way? If there is …
… What’s interesting about the breath? Well, you can breathe in all
kinds of ways. You have all kinds of ways of visualizing the breath to
yourself, experiencing the flow of energy through the body. It can
actually deal with physical pains and help with some illnesses.
As I mentioned the other night, Ajaan Lee’s method of dealing with the
breath—thinking of …
The Second Noble Truth
November 13, 2015
When we meditate, we’re creating an island for ourselves in the middle of a large, fast-flowing river. This island is our refuge. The Buddha says when you develop the establishings for mindfulness, you’re making yourself your island. You’re making the Dhamma your island. It’s your way station to get across the river …
… I discerned, as it had come to be, that ‘This is stress… This is the origination of stress… This is the cessation of stress… This is the way leading to the cessation of stress… These are effluents… This is the origination of effluents… This is the cessation of effluents… This is the way leading to the cessation of effluents.’ My heart, thus knowing, thus …
Sn 3:4 Sundarika Bhāradvāja
… Truth, Dhamma, restraint, the holy life, attainment of Brahmā dependent on the middle: Pay homage to those who’ve become truly straightened: That, I call a man in the flow of the Dhamma. After hearing these verses, Sundarika asks for Acceptance into the Saṅgha, and the sutta concludes in the same way as the account given here. 9. This is a play on words …
III. The Advantages of Mindfulness Immersed in the Body | Mindful of the Body: A Study Guide
… Whenever the Tathāgata merges his body with his mind and his mind with his body, and remains having alighted on the perception of ease and buoyancy with regard to the body, then his body becomes lighter, more pliant, more malleable, & more radiant. “Just as when an iron ball heated all day becomes lighter, more pliant, more malleable, & more radiant; in the same way, whenever …
