… in the middle of a web.
Usually the spider is off to one side of the web, but it’s sensitive
to what’s going on in the entire web. Wherever a fly or other insect
comes and gets caught in the web, the spider immediately goes there,
deals with it, then returns to its original spot.
In the same way, you have your …
… You have to act in ways that will create treasures that you would like to keep with you. You have to treat your actions as your most important possessions.
There’s a passage in the Canon where King Pasenadi comes to see the Buddha in the middle of the day and the Buddha asks him, “Where have you come from in the middle of …
… What would be the most effective way of stopping that kind of behavior? The most effective way is rarely the route of anger. There are more subtle ways, more indirect ways, that are much more effective, much more lasting. But they’re not going to occur to you if you’re boiling over with indignation.
You may come to realize that you actually use …
… Now at that time—it being the uposatha day—Visākhā, Migāra’s mother, went to the Blessed One in the middle of the day and, on arrival, having bowed down to him, sat to one side. As she was sitting there the Blessed One said to her, “Well now, Visākhā, why are you coming in the middle of the day?”
“Today I’m observing …
… bodily
fabrication—the way you breathe; verbal fabrication—technically, it’s
directed thought and evaluation, but in plain terms, it’s the way you
talk to yourself; and then mental fabrication—perception and feelings.
As you look at the Buddha’s teachings, you can see that a lot of them
have to do with instructions on how to fabricate all these things more
skillfully …
… But if you take your stance in a comfortable way—a way that you can maintain because you’ve relaxed around it, and it doesn’t rely on tensing anything up—then you watch as things come into your range of awareness, and you see how they come, you see how they go, you see what interactions there are that cause suffering, and you …
… Right livelihood means that we make our living in ways that are not
harmful to anyone, that don’t exploit anyone unfairly; in ways that
are honest. We choose honest ways of making a living because the way
we make a living permeates through our whole life. So that’s another
topic we can reflect on. Are there any areas in our livelihood that …
… In the same way, when a disciple of the noble ones is consummate in virtue in this way, guards the doors to his sense faculties in this way, knows moderation in eating in this way, is devoted to wakefulness in this way, is endowed with seven qualities in this way, and obtains at will—without trouble or difficulty—the four jhānas that constitute heightened …
… This way you can observe your state of concentration.
The Buddha recommends lots of ways you can observe it. Look for whatever you can recognize as form, feeling, perception, thought construct, or consciousness within the concentration, and then contemplate its behavior. One simple way is contemplating the activity of perception. To what extent does the perception you’re using as a marker for your …
… On the role of moderation and discernment in the practice: “The Middles of the Middle Way” in Beyond All Directions
On the meaning of mindfulness: “Mindfulness Defined” in Head & Heart Together; “The Agendas of Mindfulness” in The Karma of Questions
On the element of play in the practice: “The Joy of Effort” in Head & Heart Together; “Joy in Effort” in Meditations5
It’s often …
… end; sometimes it landed splat
in the middle. It all seemed pretty random. It wasn’t until he had
enlarged his view and was able to see the process happening to all
beings that he could see a pattern.
So to understand your mind, you have to be willing to sit with it in
the same way that you have a child and you …
… So breathe in a refreshing way,
breathe in a comfortable way, in a nourishing way. After a while, the
mind will settle in, and both body and mind will begin to feel
refreshed. When you’re refreshed and nourished like this, it’s a lot
easier for the mind to look at things in an unbiased way.
The concentration is necessary, but sometimes it …
… In the same way, once you accept the fact that the processes leading to suffering are complex, you appreciate the usefulness of the maps provided by dependent co-arising: They point out precisely where in the processes you can make a difference, so that causal patterns can be directed away from suffering and toward its end.
We can see this clearly in the way …
… He said that it’s like
seeing someone out in the middle of the desert by the side of the
road, sick, unable to care for himself. Regardless of who he is,
you’ve got to feel compassion for him. In other words, the person
who’s horrible in every way is creating a lot of bad karma for him or
herself. You’ve …
… The only way to see them is to stick with your original intention and keep yourself warned: “Okay, the mind is going to leave, so keep watch for how it does it.”
At the same time, work on ways to make the original intention a good one to stay with. Otherwise the mind is going to resist. Staying with the breath, if it’s …
… In the same way, when does the mind need to be gladdened? When
does it need to be chastened? You’ve got to work on this teacher
inside. Otherwise, the mind just goes with its moods.
We were talking this afternoon about how the middle of the afternoon
is like a big valley full of marshes and swamps. If you just wallow in
your …
… The Buddha taught it rightly in every way, in every facet, for remedying defilement of every sort. Nothing excels this Dhamma—in particular, the Dhamma of the middle way, which is summarized as virtue, concentration, and discernment. This is the Dhamma of causes, the methods with which we should train ourselves and which the Buddha taught us in full. As for the Dhamma of …
… But you look at the world of the path and you realize,
as they say, “It’s admirable in the beginning, admirable in the
middle, admirable in the end.” Good all the way through.
Acceptance
October 31, 2008
As with so many other issues, the Buddha took a middle road when it came to the issue of other-power and self-power on the path. On the one hand, there’s the famous passage where Ven. Ananda comes to see the Buddha and exclaims that having admirable friends is half of the practice, half of the holy life …
… Actually, there’s no reason that meditation should get in the way of our work, because it’s strictly an activity of the heart. There’s no need to dismantle our homes or abandon our belongings before practicing it; and if we did throw away our belongings in this way, it would probably end up causing harm.
Even though it’s true that we …
Meditation on Kamma | The Karma of Mindfulness : The Buddha’s Teachings on Sati and Kamma
… You have to act in ways that will create treasures that you would like to keep with you. You have to treat your actions as your most important possessions. There’s a passage in the Canon where King Pasenadi comes to see the Buddha in the middle of the day and the Buddha asks him, “Where have you come from in the middle of …
MN 53 Sekha-paṭipadā Sutta | The Practice for One in Training
… In the same way, when a disciple of the noble ones is consummate in virtue in this way, guards the doors to his sense faculties in this way, knows moderation in eating in this way, is devoted to wakefulness in this way, is endowed with seven qualities in this way, and obtains at will—without trouble or difficulty—the four jhānas that constitute heightened …
