Simply This Moment - Buddhist Meditation and Theravada ...

More documents

Recommendations

Info

one.” “Come on, the next one will be a good one.” “Come on, meditate longer.”“Don’t sleep so much.” “Do it this way”.” You are arguing with nature, with yournon-self. Forget all of that. Abandon! Let go! Sit there and do nothing and you’llfind that the mind does start to become still.Abandoning the HindrancesThe five hindrances are the cause for the lack of samādhi. The lack of samādhi is notcaused by lack of effort. For most people in the West, we make too much effort. Wejust don’t know how to let go, how to relax. Lack of samādhi is caused by thehindrances being too active. So, put your focus on what those hindrances are, howthey are caused, where they come from and why. The hindrances are the fuel foravijjā, delusion. The Buddha said that delusion does not have a cause, but is fuelledby the hindrances. The more the hindrances are present, the more delusion issolidified, strengthened, and sustained. So abandon those hindrances by abandoningthe underlying cause of the hindrances, which is ‘doing’ and controlling coming fromthe sense of a self, and you will find that delusion vanishes. Like the mist in themorning, it just dissipates and clears. That happens when you start abandoninghindrances through the reflections of anicca, anattā, and even dukkha (impermanence,non-self, and unsatisfactoriness). Keep those clearly in your mind and the hindranceswon’t have much of a chance.When the hindrances aren’t present, there is nothing between the mind and the jhānas.You know that! That’s what the suttas and the Kruba Ajahns say; you have heard thatfrom me many times. Many of you know from your own experience that when thehindrances go, you get into deep meditation, even jhānas. So the hindrances are theproblem. It’s not you, your ability or lack of ability. It’s not that you aren’t tryinghard enough, or meditating hard enough. Look at which hindrances are present; focuson them, understand them, get to know them. They are the enemy. They are the onesthat need to be overcome, so understand how to overcome them. Craving and ill-willarise from doing things all the time. Present moment awareness and silence willundermine craving and ill-will. When we get into present moment awareness andsilence, craving and ill will are almost dead. Our restlessness is almost gone as well.The sleepiness that many of you complain about, don’t worry about it. Don’t worry259
about anything because worrying is just more controlling. That’s old kamma: you’vedone too much and the mind is not bright. Mindfulness is weak simply because wehave not been putting energy into the right place. So just allow it to be. Be with slothand torpor. If we really leave it alone, it just vanishes. It’s a marvellous experience tohave that happening. Just be patient, don’t do anything. Be kind and becompassionate. Don’t control, let go.The Buddha said in the Anattalakkhana Sutta, “If the mind with sloth and torpor weremine, then I could tell it not to be this way. But because the mind isn’t my ‘self’, Ican’t control this mind”. So leave it alone; allow it to be and don’t get involved.Don’t go making more delusion. After a short while, it’s fascinating to see sloth andtorpor dissipate like the mist in the early morning or like darkness when the suncomes out. You don’t have to wish the darkness away in the morning. You know ifyou just wait, soon due to cause and effect and the laws of nature, the sun will comeup. The sun comes up and you start to see clearly without your flashlight. This isactually what happens with the vanishing of sloth and torpor. When this happens youget this beautiful, peaceful strength of mindfulness – mindfulness which doesn’tmove; it’s just there, just watching. It doesn’t move because there’s no illusory selfpushing it backwards and forwards. This house-builder – the controller, the doer, theillusion of a self which thinks, “I am in control, I am in charge of this whole processof meditation” – is completely taken away.Just be still, and wait in that stillness. You are not asking for anything, you are notexpecting anything. You don’t want anything, because all expecting and wanting isthe movement of the mind that takes you away from stillness. You are into peace,into stillness. If you get peace and stillness, that’s good enough. You just sit therewatching, and the peace will consolidate. The stillness becomes even more frozen.Just watch as all these stages of meditation happen. The stages of meditation are notsomething that we make happen. They are just sign posts on a journey. It’s just likewhen I’m sitting in the van going into town. I don’t do the driving; I just watch. Nowwe go through Serpentine, now through Byford, now through Armadale, now throughPerth and into Nollamara. They’re just stages on the journey. We watch, literallydoing nothing, being still one hundred per cent, being peaceful. We see presentmoment awareness. Now there’s silence. We didn’t do that; the silence came by260
Page 2 and 3:
Simply ThisMoment!A COLLECTION OF T
Page 4 and 5:
CONTENTSPage1 Ways and Means into J
Page 6 and 7:
This gives one great insights into
Page 8 and 9:
ūpaloka, even though we are only a
Page 10 and 11:
too much body-awareness. With body-
Page 12 and 13:
and thoughts - apart from the exper
Page 14 and 15:
faculty of the mind to sustain and
Page 16 and 17:
- and this is a natural phenomena -
Page 18 and 19:
involved I stress the word ‘fully
Page 20 and 21:
though he was a Noble disciple pass
Page 22 and 23:
Anyone who claims the experience of
Page 24 and 25:
Sometimes people have so little con
Page 26 and 27:
the shelf and we know how this whol
Page 28 and 29:
The Delusion of Freedom‘That whic
Page 30 and 31:
monk telling me once that his fathe
Page 32 and 33:
say that in the Anupada Sutta (MN 1
Page 34 and 35:
it’s been still for a long time,
Page 36 and 37:
3 DETOXIFYING THE MIND2 nd of Febru
Page 38 and 39:
consciousness - or as I would prefe
Page 40 and 41:
is letting go of the pleasures of t
Page 42 and 43:
never overcome thirst in that way.
Page 44 and 45:
Use the triple practice of sãla, s
Page 46 and 47:
after another, hundreds, thousands
Page 48 and 49:
much fire in their minds. This is w
Page 50 and 51:
4 LOOKING FOR THE SWEET CHILLISeeki
Page 52 and 53:
Listening to fine music. Is this it
Page 54 and 55:
freedom is not freedom at all becau
Page 56 and 57:
We have a story in Buddhism of the
Page 58 and 59:
This is real contentment! This is r
Page 60 and 61:
Watch this inner conversation going
Page 62 and 63:
monastic life does respect the sile
Page 64 and 65:
delusion because it has kept us goi
Page 66 and 67:
This is the opposite of suffering.
Page 68 and 69:
ight view. It’s very hard for a h
Page 70 and 71:
always be on the wrong path, and on
Page 72 and 73:
“Look, if this is causing sufferi
Page 74 and 75:
out of control. The monastery goes
Page 76 and 77:
the past and the future, and we’r
Page 78 and 79:
at all. Who can trust memory? In me
Page 80 and 81:
can. Give it full attention every m
Page 82 and 83:
in the morning, afternoon or evenin
Page 84 and 85:
yourself from all that’s happened
Page 86 and 87:
mutti is releasing and anālaya is
Page 88 and 89:
instructions without question.It’
Page 90:
comes into the mind, then we start
Page 93 and 94:
hold in the mind’s eye and I was
Page 95 and 96:
of letting go, not stages of attach
Page 97 and 98:
Sayutta there is something that imp
Page 99 and 100:
pushes you out of sasāra whether y
Page 101 and 102:
7 DHAMMA PRACTICE10 th May 2000I’
Page 103 and 104:
Adult people look after their own k
Page 105 and 106:
many people in the world who write
Page 107 and 108:
What if you make that your goal, an
Page 109 and 110:
things really complicated. It’s s
Page 111 and 112:
‘The monks here, or the teacher,
Page 113 and 114:
and surrender to the path. Surrende
Page 115 and 116:
8 HUMAN RIGHTS IN BUDDHISMDhammalok
Page 117 and 118:
doesn’t really have any meaning o
Page 119 and 120:
These things are not freedoms, they
Page 121 and 122:
told me in Malaysia and Singapore t
Page 123 and 124:
When Jerusalem fell in 70AD, becaus
Page 125 and 126:
To question is a right for people.
Page 127 and 128:
embarrassed by my fellow Buddhists.
Page 129 and 130:
many countries between laws which a
Page 131 and 132:
It’s a very narrow truth. The tru
Page 133 and 134:
guilty you have to be punished! You
Page 135 and 136:
the Zendo - but the more you smile
Page 137 and 138:
Having planed off the rough parts,
Page 139 and 140:
got the flu and cancelled your appo
Page 141 and 142:
I was taught to choose to watch the
Page 143 and 144:
From Diversity to UnityMeditation i
Page 145 and 146:
usually if someone is dead they wou
Page 147 and 148:
There are other cases like that. On
Page 149 and 150:
10 CONDITIONED REALITYDhammaloka Bu
Page 151 and 152:
The Buddha very clearly outlined th
Page 153 and 154:
even your bare perception is alread
Page 155 and 156:
way, there has to be some other exp
Page 157 and 158:
Seeing Truth and RealityI want part
Page 159 and 160:
talked with one of the people - who
Page 161 and 162:
was able to follow to get into deep
Page 163 and 164:
ideas are not actually the true Nib
Page 165 and 166:
that the air around it is not movin
Page 167 and 168:
and find out what that pain really
Page 169 and 170:
mantras, all words of instructions,
Page 171 and 172:
just observing. Surely the thinking
Page 173 and 174:
without valuing, without weighing o
Page 175 and 176:
so difficult to attain. It is becau
Page 177 and 178:
12 REFLECTIONS THAT ARE CONDUCIVETO
Page 179 and 180:
the mind, and that’s the jhānas.
Page 181 and 182:
need the calm which is developed by
Page 183 and 184:
can try it with virāga.VirāgaPeop
Page 185 and 186:
with all of its difficulties and al
Page 187 and 188:
clinging stops us from experiencing
Page 189 and 190:
the thirteenth giving up the critic
Page 191 and 192:
13 THE OUTFLOWINGS OF THE MIND12 th
Page 193 and 194:
from peace. The will ‘to be’ is
Page 195 and 196:
the future, to fantasies, to the pa
Page 197 and 198:
taught here. Going into the present
Page 199 and 200:
that the core of all this is ‘emp
Page 201 and 202:
14 STARVING THE TIGER TO DEATHOverc
Page 203 and 204:
inappropriate for a monk to be doin
Page 205 and 206:
When a person really understands wh
Page 207 and 208:
getting angry and upset. This way y
Page 209 and 210: You will find simplicity means that
Page 211 and 212: use them to make progress in your m
Page 213 and 214: By developing seclusion from all th
Page 215 and 216: People in the world say everything
Page 217 and 218: 15 THE LAW OF CONDITIONALITY3 rd Ja
Page 219 and 220: elate that sort of smell to a very
Page 221 and 222: When you start to see the will ceas
Page 223 and 224: up. You see that anger is not the c
Page 225 and 226: Wouldn’t it be wonderful to be a
Page 227 and 228: Once you can see this whole cause a
Page 229 and 230: whether you like it or not. So you
Page 231 and 232: anymore than you can break the laws
Page 233 and 234: is the barrier of the five hindranc
Page 235 and 236: experiences, resting on them, based
Page 237 and 238: attention to the sensory world, we
Page 239 and 240: Instead of having kāmacchanda we h
Page 241 and 242: distraction of ill-will? Outside, w
Page 243 and 244: Sloth and TorporSloth and torpor ar
Page 245 and 246: wherever you want mind, I’m compl
Page 247 and 248: Wherever there’s thinking, it goe
Page 249 and 250: 17 I KNOW YOU MĀRA25 th August 200
Page 251 and 252: “Come on, who do you think you ar
Page 253 and 254: you don’t have a clue, that so ma
Page 255 and 256: unfolding. In fact, the more you le
Page 257 and 258: they’ve got into that habit. What
Page 259: As the Buddha said in the Indriya S
Page 263 and 264: seeing clearly. Sometimes people ge
Page 265 and 266: There is just so much happiness. Th
Page 267 and 268: see so much detail. It was always t
Page 269 and 270: after us, yet there is this loud mu
Page 271 and 272: When you start to see that, it’s
Page 273 and 274: this. So if we see where that disco
Page 275 and 276: mindfulness, you get pīti, more jo
Page 277 and 278: you can meditate, you can teach, be
Page 279 and 280: and restlessness cannot survive. Th
Page 281 and 282: 19 PERFECT STILLNESS29 th June 2005
Page 283 and 284: Have You Come Here to Die?At one re
Page 285 and 286: At the last retreat I taught in Ipo
Page 287 and 288: process is about. You also understa
Page 289 and 290: go of everything. Letting go is wha
Page 291 and 292: the moment. It doesn’t matter wha
Page 293 and 294: moving up and down, the nimmitta is
Page 295 and 296: So, look upon your life as a journe
Page 297 and 298: Nirodha. Nirodha means cessation, t
Page 299 and 300: 20 THE ENDING OF EVERYTHING7 th Dec
Page 301 and 302: delusion, to think of things as bei
Page 303 and 304: samatha and also the word upasama b
Page 305 and 306: quoting the suttas here; they are t
Page 307 and 308: I was talking earlier this evening
Page 309 and 310: opposite is true. The less ‘self
Page 311 and 312:
senses are. Before that it’s just
Page 313 and 314:
The mind creates; this is what it d
Page 315 and 316:
Get into the jhānas, the real jhā
Page 317 and 318:
whatever things come into existence
Page 319 and 320:
2. Dukkha - suffering.3. Anattā -
Page 321 and 322:
Painissagga: “Letting go”, aban
show all

Simply This Moment - Buddhist Meditation and Theravada ...

Create successful ePaper yourself

Delete template?

Save as template?