Is God willing to prevent evil, but not able? Then he is not omnipotent. Is he able, but not willing? Then he is malevolent. Is he both able and willing? Then whence cometh evil? Is he neither able nor willing? Then why call him God?
- Epicurus
Sunday, January 17, 2010
Tuesday, December 29, 2009
Buddho
The word 'Buddho' is a word that you can develop in your life as something to fill the mind with rather than with worries and all kinds of unskilful habits. Take the word, look at it, listen to it: 'Buddho'! It means the one who knows, the Buddha, the awakened, that which is awake.
You can visualise it in your mind. Listen to what your mind says - blah, blah, blah, etc. It goes on like this, an endless kind of excrement of repressed fears and aversions. So, now, we are recognising that.
We're not using 'Buddho' as a club to annihilate or repress things, but as a skilful means. We can use the finest tools for killing and for harming others, can't we? You can take the most beautiful Buddha rupa and bash somebody over the head with it if you want! That's not what we call 'Buddhanussati', Reflection on the Buddha, is it? But we might do that with the word 'Buddho' as a way of suppressing those thoughts or feelings. That's an unskilful use of it. Remember we're not here to annihilate but to allow things to fade out. This is a gentle practice of patiently imposing 'Buddho' over the thinking, not out of exasperation, but in a firm and deliberate way.
- Ajahn Sumedho 'Mindfulness: The Path to the Deathless'
You can visualise it in your mind. Listen to what your mind says - blah, blah, blah, etc. It goes on like this, an endless kind of excrement of repressed fears and aversions. So, now, we are recognising that.
We're not using 'Buddho' as a club to annihilate or repress things, but as a skilful means. We can use the finest tools for killing and for harming others, can't we? You can take the most beautiful Buddha rupa and bash somebody over the head with it if you want! That's not what we call 'Buddhanussati', Reflection on the Buddha, is it? But we might do that with the word 'Buddho' as a way of suppressing those thoughts or feelings. That's an unskilful use of it. Remember we're not here to annihilate but to allow things to fade out. This is a gentle practice of patiently imposing 'Buddho' over the thinking, not out of exasperation, but in a firm and deliberate way.
- Ajahn Sumedho 'Mindfulness: The Path to the Deathless'
Tuesday, December 8, 2009
Porosity
Can you make your stillness so porous that disturbances can go through without running into anything, without knocking your center off balance?
- Thanissaro Bhikku
- Thanissaro Bhikku
Tuesday, November 3, 2009
Ego Renunciation
...attachment to being right, measuring the success of your life by how many of your wants are met, being the star of your own movie.
- Phillip Moffit "Dancing with Life"
- Phillip Moffit "Dancing with Life"
Sunday, September 13, 2009
Unsatisfactoriness
On another occasion the Buddha explained his earlier statement that "whatever is felt is included within dukkha" to refer to the impermanent nature of all conditioned phenomena.
The changing nature of feelings, however, need not necessarily be experienced as "suffering", since in the case of a painful experience, for example, change may be experienced as pleasant. Thus all feelings are not "suffering", nor is their impermanence "suffering", but all feelings are "unsatisfactory", since none of them can provide lasting satisfaction.
That is, dukkha as a qualification of all conditioned phenomena is not necessarily experienced as "suffering", since suffering requires someone sufficiently attached in order to suffer.
- Ven. Analayo "Satipatthana: The Direct Path to Realization"
The changing nature of feelings, however, need not necessarily be experienced as "suffering", since in the case of a painful experience, for example, change may be experienced as pleasant. Thus all feelings are not "suffering", nor is their impermanence "suffering", but all feelings are "unsatisfactory", since none of them can provide lasting satisfaction.
That is, dukkha as a qualification of all conditioned phenomena is not necessarily experienced as "suffering", since suffering requires someone sufficiently attached in order to suffer.
- Ven. Analayo "Satipatthana: The Direct Path to Realization"
Sunday, August 23, 2009
Insight does not depend only on effort or on strong concentration
If we concentrate on the pain to suppress the pain, this kind of mindfulness is the object of craving, rather than just observing the object.
This means that the proper mental factor for the middle path of mental balance is missing because our consciousness is turned toward our feelings of like and dislike. When we want pain to disappear, it is attachment, and when we dislike it if pain has not yet disappeared, it is aversion.
Should the pain disappear as we desired, there follows further attachment. Such practice is not the correct application of mindfulness, and the awareness is not seeing clearly the 'present' object because we wish it to be different in the future.
If it is not the 'present' object which we are aware of, then the practice is off the middle path. We can see that establishing the balance of the middle path is not easy.
For this reason, it is of extreme importance to have right understanding first. We must see that insight does not depend only on effort or on strong concentration.
Nor does it depend upon our wish to know or realize, but rather, it depends upon right awareness. If we do not achieve keen awareness, although we try to use much effort and concentration, wisdom still will not result.
- Ajahn Naeb "The Development of Insight"
This means that the proper mental factor for the middle path of mental balance is missing because our consciousness is turned toward our feelings of like and dislike. When we want pain to disappear, it is attachment, and when we dislike it if pain has not yet disappeared, it is aversion.
Should the pain disappear as we desired, there follows further attachment. Such practice is not the correct application of mindfulness, and the awareness is not seeing clearly the 'present' object because we wish it to be different in the future.
If it is not the 'present' object which we are aware of, then the practice is off the middle path. We can see that establishing the balance of the middle path is not easy.
For this reason, it is of extreme importance to have right understanding first. We must see that insight does not depend only on effort or on strong concentration.
Nor does it depend upon our wish to know or realize, but rather, it depends upon right awareness. If we do not achieve keen awareness, although we try to use much effort and concentration, wisdom still will not result.
- Ajahn Naeb "The Development of Insight"
Tuesday, July 21, 2009
Your next sense contact can only happen at 1 of 6 doors
One should dwell like the snake, which sees the mouse hide in an ant-hill with six openings! By lying rolled up on the anthill - constantly watching - the snake remains on the thought: Out of which hole may this mouse appear ?!
Even so one thinks: Through which sense door may the next contact appear ?!
- Unknown
Even so one thinks: Through which sense door may the next contact appear ?!
- Unknown
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