Right way to cultivate Right Thoughts (samma sankappa)?

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Understood today the difference between ill will (persistent hostility/hatred and will for others' suffering) and anger (could be temporary and non-persistent without hostility and ill will). The second path factor to perfect is non-ill will, not non-anger or non-aversion. The non-returners don't have self-identity view (five aggregates are non-self, plus non-eternal "self"), wrong grasp of sila and other rules/observances, doubts/uncertainties, sensual desires of five senses, and ill will (not anger/aversion).

Metta to all!

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Just to add the suttas on the drawbacks of sensuality:

http://www.accesstoinsight.org/ptf/dham ... index.html

Metta to all!

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Just to add the application of 4NT in cultivating samma sankappa summarizing the teachings in MN 117, SĀ 785 and SĀ 789:

"And what is the right resolve that is without asava's, transcendent, a factor of the path? The thinking, directed thinking, resolve, (mental) fixity, transfixion, focused awareness, & verbal fabrications of one developing the noble path whose mind is noble, whose mind is without asava's, who is fully possessed of the noble path. This is the right resolve that is without asava's, transcendent, a factor of the path." (MN 117)

A noble disciple attends to suffering and contemplates suffering; attends to the cause of suffering and contemplates the cause; attends to the cessation of suffering and contemplates the cessation; attends to the path and contemplates the path; [directing/inclination of the mind + fixation of the mind + absorption of the mind (on an intention/thought -- non-sensuality, or non-ill will, or non-cruelty)], discriminate (each intention/thought), resolve, understand, repeatedly incline/direct the mind and make resolution for right intention/thoughts. [何等為正志是聖、出世間、無漏、不取、正盡苦、轉向苦邊？謂：聖弟子苦、苦思惟，集……滅……道、道思惟，無漏思惟相應心法，分別、自決、意解、計數、立意，是名正志，是聖、出世間、無漏、不取、正盡苦、轉向苦邊。SĀ 785]

Metta to all!

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Dear Friends,

Happy new year!

Today I read Ajahn Chah's touching Dhamma talk "The Last Gift", which is very helpful for letting-go of our worldly attachments. I'd like to share with you the following quotes:

"Everything has to change in line with its condition. The truth of these conditions—if you try to fix them in a way that’s not right— won’t respond at all."

"The Buddha looked at things in line with their conditions, that they simply have to be that way. So we let them go, we leave them be."

"There’s nothing that’s really you or yours." "If any preoccupation comes in to bother the mind, just say in your heart, “Leave me alone. Don’t bother me. You’re no affair of mine.”

"What’s the world? The world is any preoccupation that gets you stirred up, that disturbs you right now."

"If it arises in the mind, make yourself understand: The world is nothing but a preoccupation."

"The heart has seen the truth of the way things are: There’s no way you can fix them. They’re just the way they are. You let them go. You let go without gladness. You let go without sadness. You just let things go as fabrications, seeing with your own discernment that that’s the way fabrications are." [nibbida]

"Build a home so you can let go, so that you can leave things be. Let the mind reach peace. Peace is something that doesn’t move forward, doesn’t move back, doesn’t stay in place."

"Today I’ve brought you some dhamma as a gift in your time of illness. I don’t have any other gift to give. There’s no need to bring you any material gift, for you have plenty of material things in your house, and over time they just cause you difficulties. So I’ve brought you some dhamma, something of substance that will never run out. Now that you’ve heard this dhamma, you can pass it on to any number of other people, and it’ll never run out. It’ll never stop. It’s the truth of the dhamma, a truth that always stays as it is."

With metta,

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