Search found 2592 matches

by dhammapal
Thu Mar 28, 2024 10:01 am
Forum: General Theravāda discussion
Topic: The Quotable Thanissaro
Replies: 2272
Views: 426013

Re: The Quotable Thanissaro

So remember, your actions are important, and you can make skillful choices now. Now, as you live in this human life, we can’t guarantee that once you’ve started on the path everything will be a path of roses. We all have our past kamma, the things that come at us in life from our past actions. But ...
by dhammapal
Wed Mar 27, 2024 8:52 am
Forum: General Theravāda discussion
Topic: The Quotable Thanissaro
Replies: 2272
Views: 426013

Re: The Quotable Thanissaro

Thanissaro Bhikkhu wrote:
When things don't go well [in the meditation], just drop whatever it is that's not going well. Move back to a level where you're pretty sure you can do things properly.

From: Good Humor by Thanissaro Bhikkhu
by dhammapal
Mon Mar 25, 2024 3:49 pm
Forum: General Theravāda discussion
Topic: The Quotable Thanissaro
Replies: 2272
Views: 426013

Re: The Quotable Thanissaro

The question came up: Isn’t the purpose of all this practice to find the ultimate truth about things? And the answer is No. We’re trying to find a particular truth that’s useful for a higher purpose, the purpose of true happiness. It’s truth with a purpose. After all, there are many truths of the w...
by dhammapal
Mon Mar 25, 2024 3:45 pm
Forum: General Theravāda discussion
Topic: The Quotable Thanissaro
Replies: 2272
Views: 426013

Re: The Quotable Thanissaro

Here it’s useful to remember the Buddha’s own analogy for his project as a teacher. From the first day of his teaching to the last, he stated that he was teaching a path . He started not with a first principle, but with a self-evident problem — stress — and then showed a path to its solution. Inste...
by dhammapal
Sun Mar 24, 2024 6:54 pm
Forum: General Theravāda discussion
Topic: The Quotable Thanissaro
Replies: 2272
Views: 426013

Re: The Quotable Thanissaro

Even though there may be limitations on what you can do, you always have the opportunity to do the skillful thing, say the skillful thing, think something skillful. And that will be your food down the line. Even though the refreshment and the nourishment and the rapture may not be coming immediatel...
by dhammapal
Sun Mar 24, 2024 9:14 am
Forum: General Theravāda discussion
Topic: The Quotable Thanissaro
Replies: 2272
Views: 426013

Re: The Quotable Thanissaro

[The Buddha] was the sort of person who had already found true happiness. He didn't need to gain anything from anyone else, but he went out and he taught for 45 years, walking around Northern India. Wherever there was someone who was ready to be taught, ready to benefit from his teachings, he would...
by dhammapal
Fri Mar 22, 2024 11:42 pm
Forum: General Theravāda discussion
Topic: The Quotable Thanissaro
Replies: 2272
Views: 426013

Re: The Quotable Thanissaro

Question: If any unskillful thought arises and you acknowledge it as unskillful, does it still have negative kammic effects? Thanissaro Bhikkhu: No. Question: In other words, does the arising of unskillful thoughts cause bad kamma or is it just our reaction to them? Thanissaro Bhikkhu: It’s our rea...
by dhammapal
Fri Mar 22, 2024 12:41 am
Forum: General Theravāda discussion
Topic: The Quotable Thanissaro
Replies: 2272
Views: 426013

Re: The Quotable Thanissaro

If you want to gain awakening, you have to learn not to take anything for granted. Don’t take the breath for granted, don’t take the body for granted, don’t take your concentration or your perceptions or your insights for granted. They’re all choices. Some of them skillful; some of them not. And yo...
by dhammapal
Thu Mar 21, 2024 9:09 am
Forum: General Theravāda discussion
Topic: The Quotable Thanissaro
Replies: 2272
Views: 426013

Re: The Quotable Thanissaro

Ajaan Chah is usually characterized as having one teaching: Let go . Well, there’s a lot more to Ajaan Chah than you might suspect. There’s a monk who’s come to see him and talks about how much he wants to get his mind to calm down. Ajaan Chah doesn’t say, “Well, just learn to accept the fact the m...
by dhammapal
Tue Mar 19, 2024 11:39 pm
Forum: General Theravāda discussion
Topic: The Quotable Thanissaro
Replies: 2272
Views: 426013

Re: The Quotable Thanissaro

No scores are fully settled. Things don’t come to closure. This is the nature of saṁsāra: It just keeps wandering on and on and on. No story comes to an end. We watch plays, read books, where events come to a satisfying closure, and part of us would like to see that in our own lives as well. But on...
by dhammapal
Tue Mar 19, 2024 12:23 am
Forum: General Theravāda discussion
Topic: The Quotable Thanissaro
Replies: 2272
Views: 426013

Re: The Quotable Thanissaro

Mundane right view, of course, is about karma and rebirth: teachings that the West has hated for so long. This hatred goes back to the eighteenth century, when people began to learn about Buddhism and right away began denouncing karma and rebirth as morally abhorrent. That was because they didn’t u...
by dhammapal
Mon Mar 18, 2024 7:46 am
Forum: General Theravāda discussion
Topic: The Quotable Thanissaro
Replies: 2272
Views: 426013

Re: The Quotable Thanissaro

The people who do some of the most damage in the world are those who don’t see the error of their own ways or who think that admitting a mistake is a sign of weakness. They think that the people who oppose them are the ones who are stupid or ill-intentioned. They’re not willing to turn around and l...
by dhammapal
Sun Mar 17, 2024 12:17 am
Forum: General Theravāda discussion
Topic: The Quotable Thanissaro
Replies: 2272
Views: 426013

Re: The Quotable Thanissaro

Without goodwill [mettā], society breaks down, even without pandemics. We can see this in the divisiveness that’s been sown in our society for decades, where people have found it in their interest to keep people from talking to one another, to get people polarized. There are people who feel that th...
by dhammapal
Fri Mar 15, 2024 8:56 am
Forum: General Theravāda discussion
Topic: The Quotable Thanissaro
Replies: 2272
Views: 426013

Re: The Quotable Thanissaro

We can learn to see the mind as a committee: the fact that unworthy impulses are proposed by members of the committee doesn’t mean that *we* are unworthy. We don’t have to assume responsibility for everything that gets brought to the committee floor. Our responsibility lies instead in our power to ...
by dhammapal
Wed Mar 13, 2024 7:06 am
Forum: General Theravāda discussion
Topic: The Quotable Thanissaro
Replies: 2272
Views: 426013

Re: The Quotable Thanissaro

I was just listening yesterday to a French Dhamma teacher saying that mindfulness is all about just being totally present to everything that’s coming into your senses all at once. Well, what’s coming into your senses all at once is not causing you to suffer. What’s causing you to suffer is your own...