Search found 2582 matches

by dhammapal
Tue Mar 19, 2024 12:23 am
Forum: General Theravāda discussion
Topic: The Quotable Thanissaro
Replies: 2262
Views: 424562

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: 2262
Views: 424562

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: 2262
Views: 424562

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: 2262
Views: 424562

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: 2262
Views: 424562

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...
by dhammapal
Tue Mar 12, 2024 3:37 am
Forum: General Theravāda discussion
Topic: The Quotable Thanissaro
Replies: 2262
Views: 424562

Re: The Quotable Thanissaro

The development of goodwill [mettā], which the Buddha equates with restraint, teaches you that restraint is not a type of confinement. Instead, it’s an act of kindness to yourself and others. In fact, you best show your goodwill for others when you refrain from doing them harm. This realization mak...
by dhammapal
Mon Mar 11, 2024 12:12 am
Forum: General Theravāda discussion
Topic: The Quotable Thanissaro
Replies: 2262
Views: 424562

Re: The Quotable Thanissaro

The pleasures that come from taking into account mistakes you’ve made in the past and then you learn to do something right: Those pleasures are really satisfying. As the Buddha says, people who were heedless in the past but then change to become heedful, brighten the world like a moon at night when...
by dhammapal
Sun Mar 10, 2024 3:44 am
Forum: General Theravāda discussion
Topic: The Quotable Thanissaro
Replies: 2262
Views: 424562

Re: The Quotable Thanissaro

Then there’s compassion: the realization that if your happiness is built on somebody else’s suffering, it’s not going to last. They’re going to do what they can to put an end to it. And if they can’t do it, their friends will, their relatives will, or their descendants will. If you want a solid hap...
by dhammapal
Sat Mar 09, 2024 2:29 am
Forum: General Theravāda discussion
Topic: The Quotable Thanissaro
Replies: 2262
Views: 424562

Re: The Quotable Thanissaro

Wishing goodwill [mettā] for people doesn’t mean that you have to like them. Remember: You’re wishing true happiness. If all the nasty and brutish people in the world could find a true happiness, the world would be a much better place. So don’t let there be any limitations on your goodwill. From: G...
by dhammapal
Fri Mar 08, 2024 12:46 am
Forum: General Theravāda discussion
Topic: The Quotable Thanissaro
Replies: 2262
Views: 424562

Re: The Quotable Thanissaro

Most of the cruelty in the world comes from people who are suffering and fearful. It would be better to wish that they willingly see the error of their ways and willingly change how they act. You can then rejoice in that. In the Buddha’s image, such a person brightens the world in the same way that...
by dhammapal
Thu Mar 07, 2024 6:06 am
Forum: General Theravāda discussion
Topic: The Quotable Thanissaro
Replies: 2262
Views: 424562

Re: The Quotable Thanissaro

You can use the mental pain of realizing that you have a goal that you haven’t attained yet: to spur yourself on, to want to practice even more. When you say that your mind is not in the state that you’d like it to be, you don’t just sit there and wallow in self-pity or cast around and start castin...
by dhammapal
Wed Mar 06, 2024 12:18 am
Forum: General Theravāda discussion
Topic: The Quotable Thanissaro
Replies: 2262
Views: 424562

Re: The Quotable Thanissaro

However bad your upbringing or however bad you’ve been behaving in the past or however poorly you’ve been treated in the past, you overcame the difficulties; you took charge of your life. You realized that whatever happiness was going to be true and lasting was going to have to come from training t...
by dhammapal
Tue Mar 05, 2024 12:55 am
Forum: General Theravāda discussion
Topic: The Quotable Thanissaro
Replies: 2262
Views: 424562

Re: The Quotable Thanissaro

There may be a little bit of pleasure that comes from feeling victimized, but that’s a pretty bad pleasure. There’s a lot greater pleasure that can come with getting the mind to be trained so that it can rise above things and be able to forgive people for what they’ve done, forgive yourself for wha...
by dhammapal
Mon Mar 04, 2024 12:46 am
Forum: General Theravāda discussion
Topic: The Quotable Thanissaro
Replies: 2262
Views: 424562

Re: The Quotable Thanissaro

Perhaps one of the reasons we’re so messed up in the West is because our culture is designed so that goodness of heart doesn’t really count for much. Our society is designed to take advantage of good-hearted people. They’re not the ones who rise to the top. And because we believe that rising to the...
by dhammapal
Sun Mar 03, 2024 12:18 am
Forum: General Theravāda discussion
Topic: The Quotable Thanissaro
Replies: 2262
Views: 424562

Re: The Quotable Thanissaro

The breath is always here. It’s not going to go anywhere. It’s the mind that’s going places. Actually, the mind doesn’t really go any place, it stays right here as well, but it creates little worlds for itself here inside and then it gets into the worlds and loses its bearings. So as soon as you fi...