The Quotable Thanissaro

[dhammapal]

In particular, the sense of self that’s confident that it can do the practice: The Buddha strongly encourages you to foster that sense of self. The sense of self that wants true happiness: He says to honor that sense of self. Don’t be a traitor to it. Heedfulness, restraint: These are all activities of wise selfing. They’re things you want to develop. As for the senses of self that say, “I just want my quick fix; I want my quick bite right now,” those are selves you have to look askance at. Those are the ones you don’t feed.
From: Kindfulness by Thanissaro Bhikkhu

[dhammapal]

So as we practice, it's not an issue of being obedient or not. It's a question of looking into our own minds, using the tools the Buddha gave us to explore the possibilities that are here. That way we'll be able to prove for ourselves if it's really possible. Can you live without suffering? Can the mind function without causing suffering? Can you be more skillful in how you fashion your experience in the present moment? Can you get to the point where you don't fashion anything? Is that a possibility? The only way you can answer that question is to keep exploring on your own. It requires work and dedication, but the payoff is great even if you don't get all the way to full Awakening. You find that you do learn ways of causing less and less and less suffering for yourself all the time. That, in and of itself, is worth it. The insights you gain, if they're genuine, carry their own reward.
From: Exploring Possibilities by Thanissaro Bhikkhu

[dhammapal]

The Pali word for the worlds we create in the mind is bhava, which literally means becoming.... When we’re meditating we’re trying to create a good bhava, a good place for the mind to stay in the present moment. If you create a world for yourself that maintains its reference to the present, then it’s a lot easier to see what that world depends on in the present as well. In other words, you can see the process of thirsting and feeding as it’s happening. That enables you to see through the process, so that you don’t get misled by the worlds you create. When you create worlds of the past and future, though, you have to block out large parts of your present awareness in order to stay focused on those little worlds. That’s why they’re not helpful in the meditation.
From: Feeding Frenzy: Dependent Co-arising by Thanissaro Bhikkhu

[dhammapal]

The two lists of the factors of stream-entry are similar in that they both cover all three aspects of conviction:
social (whom to trust),
intellectual (what to believe),
and practical (how to act as a result).
Because conviction is focused not on a descriptive proposition but on a course of action - the skillful mastery of the processes of kamma in a social context - these aspects are inextricably intertwined.

The social aspect comes from the need to associate with people who have already mastered these processes, learning from their words and emulating their actions.

The intellectual aspect - belief in the principle of kamma - is necessary because the development of skillfulness within the mind requires that one understand the nature of kamma, take responsibility for one's actions, and have conviction in one's ability to benefit from developing one's skills.

The practical aspect is necessary, for if one does not follow through in developing skill, it shows that one's conviction in the development of skillfulness is not genuine, and that one is not fully benefiting from one's beliefs.
From: Wings to Awakening Part III by Thanissaro Bhikkhu

[dhammapal]

So when they talk about Beginner's Mind, it doesn't mean that you're totally ignorant, totally forgetful of lessons you've already learned. It's just that you look at things in a fresh light, both what you experience right now and what you remember from the past. You're willing to try on a take that's new. The phrase "try on" is important. Often we feel that we've been committed to a particular way of acting and it seems like a major overhaul to change it. Don't think in those terms. Think in terms of trying something on, experimenting. When Ajaan Fuang used to say to play with the breath, this is what he was talking about: Experiment. Get some enjoyment out it.
From: Beginner's Mind by Thanissaro Bhikkhu

[dhammapal]

Chapter Four explains why the common modern view of mindfulness has to be rejected because it doesn’t do justice to the dual role of fabrication: both as a precondition for attention and sensory contact, and as a part of the path to the end of suffering and stress. This defect in the common view has practical consequences, in that it can provide only a limited range of strategies for putting an end to stress when compared to the strategies provided in the discourses.
From: Right Mindfulness: Memory & Ardency on the Buddhist Path by Thanissaro Bhikkhu (178 page pdf)

[dhammapal]

Some people have the conception that meditation is about getting the mind into a really extreme state where things "break through." Bring it to the total edge of instability and then suddenly you break through to something deeper. That's what they say. But I've yet to find the Buddha describe it that way. For him it's more a question of bringing the mind to a state of balance so that when the time comes to stop fabricating, the mind doesn't tip over in any direction at all. It's right there.
From: Maintenance Work by Thanissaro Bhikkhu

[dhammapal]

We think of the heart and mind as two separate things, but in almost all the languages where Buddhism has been practiced, the words for heart and mind tend to blur into each other. Citta in Pali is used in some cases where it means mind, and in some where it means heart.

So you're not just training your mind here, you're training your heart as well. Which means that meditation is not just a matter of techniques, but also a matter of strengthening the inner qualities that allow you to give yourself to the practice in a whole-hearted way, in the hopes that the whole heart and whole mind will benefit. From: Perfections as Priorities by Thanissaro Bhikkhu

[dhammapal]

What in your daily life tends to provoke anger? Watching TV? Listening to the radio? Well, maybe you should watch less TV. Turn off the radio. There is that principle called restraint of the senses, you know. When you look at things that provoke anger, it's often not the case that the things actually provoke your anger. You're out looking for anger.... If you find that you can't look at the news without getting angry, it means you can't look at the news yet. You're not ready for it. If you want to get involved in social action, learn how to look at the news in a way that gives you ideas for what could be done, but without the anger.
From: Always Willing to Learn by Thanissaro Bhikkhu

[dhammapal]

A third principle applies to the question of whether the person who’s suffering “deserves” your compassion. Because no human being has a totally pure karmic past, if you make a person’s purity the basis for extending your compassion, there will be no one to whom you can extend it.

Some people resist the idea that, for example, children born into a warzone, suffering from brutality and starvation, are there for a karmic reason. It seems heartless, they say, to attribute these sufferings to kamma from past lives. The only heartlessness here, though, is the insistence that people are worthy of compassion only if they are innocent of any wrongdoing. Actually, people who are doing wrong are just as deserving of our compassion as those who are being wronged. There’s no need to like or admire the people for whom you feel compassion. All you have to do is wish for them to be happy. Then you do what you can to alleviate the suffering that comes from past mistakes and to stop the mistaken behavior that causes suffering now and into the future. The more you can develop this attitude toward people you know have misbehaved or are misbehaving, the more you’ll be able to trust your intentions in any situation.
From: The Sublime Attitudes: A Study Guide by Thanissaro Bhikkhu

[dhammapal]

Simply to accept things as they are is basically to deny something else, which is that you have power, the power to change the present. One of the skills you have to learn is exactly how much power you can exercise skillfully at any particular moment. When things are going well, how do you maintain them? What do you do in order to keep them going well — because sometimes all you have to do is just keep watching, watching, watching, and that’s enough. Other times you have to interfere, to help things along, in order to keep them going well.
From: The Equanimity of a Cow by Thanissaro Bhikkhu

[dhammapal]

Ajaan Suwat used to recommend that when you start meditating, try to develop an attitude of confidence and clarity. Those are the meanings of the word, pasada. Then he’d say to combine that attitude with conviction, or saddha — conviction that you’re doing something really worthwhile. We’re not here just going through the motions. We’re working on something that’s really good: training the mind. Whether the results come quickly or slowly is not the issue. We’re working on something that’s noble. There’s dignity to what we’re doing. We’re stepping back from our usual concerns, our usual appetites, and looking carefully at the implications of our actions, realizing that if we’re going to act in a way that’s responsible, we really have to take responsibility for our minds. And that’s what meditation is: taking responsibility for your mind.
From: Conviction & Confidence by Thanissaro Bhikkhu

[dhammapal]

So the Buddha’s advising a combination of seeing for yourself in your own actions and also developing a good sense of who’s wise and who isn’t — in other words, learning to look for the right people to listen to.
From: Willing to Learn by Thanissaro Bhikkhu

[dhammapal]

You create the world in which you live through your actions. By being generous — not only with material things but also with your time, your energy, your forgiveness, your willingness to be fair and just with other people — you create a good world in which to live.
From: Generosity First by Thanissaro Bhikkhu

[dhammapal]

Last week I was teaching up in Canada, and 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 world. We can talk about how lasting things are, and in some ways it’s true. We can talk about how ephemeral they are, and in some ways that’s true as well. We can talk about the happiness in relationships, and there really is happiness in relationships. But we can also talk about the suffering in relationships, and there’s a lot of that, too. The question is, what use comes from focusing on which truths? Where do they lead you?
From: Less is More by Thanissaro Bhikkhu