For people in the modern world facing the issue of how to practice the Dhamma in daily life, the ten perfections provide a useful framework for how to do it. When you view life as an opportunity to develop these ten qualities–generosity, virtue, renunciation, discernment, persistence, endurance, truth, determination, good will, and equanimity–you develop a fruitful attitude toward your daily activ…
If at any time one can’t cultivate goodness through introspective sitting, this doesn’t mean that there’s no hope; it means that you should practise other skilful kamma. So there’s always some possibility. There is always some act of generosity that you can do, some act of calming, some act of service; and the result of that will be that it will increase the sense of confidence and trust in onesel…
In one of the scriptures (AN 1.11) the Buddha is quoted as saying that he does not see anything which causes the arising and increase of sensual desire so directly as ‘inappropriate attention’ to the ‘sign of the beautiful’. Basically this is giving excessive and unwise attention to attractive perceptions, which then dominate the mind, leading to the desire to enjoy them and hold on to them for fu…
M.G. (Dr Matei Georgescu): We are living a losing game of impermanence. So, what to do? A.A.: The Buddha maintained that it is possible to realize a kind of well-being which is self-sustaining, which is independent of the quality or content of our experience, which doesn’t depend on anything that we can experience through our senses. M.G.: So, no causal conditioning; it’s beyond causation, this is…
The lack of conviction in our own ability to do the practice is a common obstacle, so one of the responsibilities of a teacher is to encourage and uplift people. This was one of the things that Ajahn Chah often did. I remember one time having a few difficulties and going to him. He was chatting, and he turned to me and said, “Tan Ñāṇadhammo, you’ve got very few defilements.” That was at a time…
I have heard that at on one occasion the Blessed One was staying near Vesāli at the Gabled Hall in the Great Forest. Then Mahāpajāpati Gotamī went to the Blessed One and, on arrival, having bowed down to him, stood to one side. As she was standing there she said to him: “It would be good, lord, if the Blessed One would teach me the Dhamma in brief such that, having heard the Dhamma from the Blesse…
Have you noticed, as you scan your mind, that there are a lot of things that nag you? Unfulfilled projects and wishes, grudges that you know you shouldn’t have, topics of current concern that keep coming back…and around all that, the sense of being stuck in, or with, all of this. It’s more apparent when you sit still for a while…memories and fancies gnaw at the heart. We don’t always acknowledge t…
§ On the beginning level of the practice you have to learn how to control yourself in the area of your words and deeds–in other words, on the level of virtue–so that you can keep your words and deeds at normalcy, calm and restrained. In this way, the mind won’t follow the power of the crude defilements. When violent urges arise, you stop them first with your powers of endurance. After you’ve been…
There’s no need to read tons of books or remember all the teachings we have learned over the years. Just one mindful moment in the body, breathing in and breathing out, is enough to bring us back to the Dhamma, back to the Buddha, back to reality. I’m not saying it’s easy. Much of our practice consists of not getting it right. The path of awakening is like that – being able to know that our mistak…
When you come to sit in concentration, then even if your mind isn’t yet quiet, simply sitting in the meditation posture is something good. It’s better than people who don’t even do that much. It’s like being hungry, but today there’s only rice with nothing to go with it. We feel disgruntled, but I’d say that it’s better than having no rice at all. Eating plain rice is better than not eating anythi…
