The Quotable Thanissaro

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rhinoceroshorn
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Re: The Quotable Thanissaro

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dhammapal wrote: Wed Sep 02, 2020 12:06 pm
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 reaction to them that can cause bad kamma. The fact that the thought arises is the result of old kamma. What you do with it is your new kamma. If you simply acknowledge it and it goes away, or if you think skillful thoughts that counteract it and make it go away, then the new kamma is good new kamma.

From: Persistence by Thanissaro Bhikkhu
Good quote. It remainds me of MN5.
"Herein, the person with a blemish who does not understand it as it actually is thus, ‘I have a blemish in myself’ is called the inferior of the two persons with a blemish. Herein, the person with a blemish who understands it as it actually is thus, ‘I have a blemish in myself’ is called the superior of these two persons with a blemish.
http://www.buddhasutra.com/files/anangana_sutta.htm
Eyes downcast, not footloose,
senses guarded, with protected mind,
not oozing — not burning — with lust,
wander alone
like a rhinoceros.
Sutta Nipāta 1.3 - Khaggavisana Sutta
Image
See, Ānanda! All those conditioned phenomena have passed, ceased, and perished. So impermanent are conditions, so unstable are conditions, so unreliable are conditions. This is quite enough for you to become disillusioned, dispassionate, and freed regarding all conditions.
Dīgha Nikāya 17
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Re: The Quotable Thanissaro

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Thanissaro Bhikkhu wrote:When the ajaans talk about conventional truths, they don’t contrast them with ultimate truths. In other words, they don’t maintain, for example, that to say that there’s such a person as Lionel or Isabella or Than Isaac, or whoever, is just a conventional truth; whereas saying that they’re aggregates is an ultimate truth. Instead, the ajaans contrast conventional truths with release, which means that even talking about everybody here in terms of aggregates would still be a convention. So these are conventions. They’re to be used. When properly used, they lead to something that’s not words, but we need to use the words to get there. We need to use the truths.
From: Right View about Right View by Thanissaro Bhikkhu
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Re: The Quotable Thanissaro

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Thanissaro Bhikkhu wrote:So we start by developing mettā for ourselves. It’s good to reflect on ways in which we’re behaving unskillfully so that we can change them. If you really seriously want to be happy, do you want to continue acting the way you are? Or is there anything you want to change?

This means that mettā is not an idle thought. It’s a motivator, but also a reality check. Are your actions in line with the statement, “May I be happy”? What kind of thoughts do you indulge in? What kind of words do you indulge in? What kinds of actions do you indulge in that are actually going to prevent happiness? How about changing them?

This means that mettā is not a thought of cotton-candy spread around the world. It’s a measuring stick: Are you really serious about happiness? If so, look at your actions, look at your words, look at your thoughts. What needs changing?

Now when you spread goodwill to others, you think about what other people are doing around you: To what extent could you actually have a good influence on them? Of course, the best way to be a good influence is to set a good example. But sometimes there are other ways that you can actually be of help.

This takes mettā out of the realm of the airy-fairy and puts it in a very real and practical context. It’s the motivation for the practice. It’s reminding ourselves that there are ways in which our practice has an impact, not only on ourselves but also on other people. You want that impact to be good.
From: Goodwill in Action by Thanissaro Bhikkhu
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Re: The Quotable Thanissaro

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Thanissaro Bhikkhu wrote:Relationships, like things, end. And just as with things, our culture has a lot of pressure to go for relationships. We’re not doing our duty as members of our culture if we’re not looking for a relationship, and we don’t look good in the eyes of other people. If we can enjoy not having to look good in their eyes or to meet with their approval, then we’re that much closer to freedom.
From: Contentment by Thanissaro Bhikkhu
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Re: The Quotable Thanissaro

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Thanissaro Bhikkhu wrote:Looking at the situation in the world, it just seems to be like a slow-motion train wreck — it’s very easy to feel powerless, to feel there’s nothing you can do. This is why this is an especially good time to think about the Buddha’s teachings, to take them to heart, because they’re all about the amount of power you *do* have. Now, sometimes we hear the opposite. They teach you about how everything is inconstant, stressful, and not-self, beyond your power to make permanent. And although it’s true that you can’t make a fabrication permanent, you *can* make fabrications that lead to well-being in this life, in future lifetimes, and the ultimate well-being, which is nibbana. In fact, the teachings are all about the powers we can develop.
From: You Are Not Powerless by Thanissaro Bhikkhu, April 29th 2020
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Re: The Quotable Thanissaro

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Thanissaro Bhikkhu wrote:One of the things that we want to try to do as we meditate is to get [the mind] to stay in one place, to save some energy. As long as you’re going to have a sense of self, keep it solid — rock solid — immersed in the body.

Breath meditation is one way of staying immersed in the body. The term in Pali is kayagatasati, mindfulness immersed in the body. And the quality of immersion is important. You want to fill the whole body, occupy the body, inhabit the whole body, as much as you can.

Where is your observer right now? For many of us, it’s like a weird bird perched on our shoulders and peering through our eyes. It watches the body as if the body were something separate. But as we meditate, we’re trying to get away from identifying with that particular observer; we want to be an observer filling the whole body. Your feet fill your feet, your hands fill your hands. Your entire sense of who you are fills the entire body.

This puts you in a position of strength, because if you’re leaving big gaps of unoccupied territory in your body, other things will occupy it — different thoughts, different defilements. But if your awareness occupies your whole body, other things can’t get in so easily. The image in the Canon is of a solid wooden door: a ball of string thrown at the door won’t leave a dent at all. Even if things do come in and make a dent on the mind, you’re going to know it, you’re going to see it because you’re right there. You’re not off in some other corner of the body looking at something else.

So as you focus on the breath, try to get past the idea that you’re in one part of the head watching the breath in other parts of the body. You want to occupy the whole body, bathed in the whole breath. The breath and the body should be surrounding your sense of where you are. And then you want to maintain that sense of being centered in the body like this, filling the whole body with your awareness as you breathe in, as you breathe out.

Why? For one thing, this sense of filling the body helps you stay in the present moment. When the mind goes off thinking thoughts about past and future, it has to shrink its sense of awareness, shrink its sense of itself, down to a small enough dot so that it can slip into the past or slip into the future. In other words, you latch onto the part of the body that you use as a basis for thinking about the past or the future, while other parts of the body get blotted out. But if you’re filling the body with your awareness and can maintain that full awareness, you can’t slip off into the past and future unless you want to. So this is one way of nailing yourself down to the present moment. Your inner hands are nailed to your physical hands, your feet to your feet. You can’t move.

Think of the breath coming into the *whole* body. Every cell of the body is participating in the breathing process, and you’re sitting here in the midst of it. This gives your sense of observing self a greater solidity, so that when thoughts come into the mind you’re not knocked off balance by them. You’ve got a solid foundation. The word they use for the object of meditation in Pali, arammana, literally means “support,” the idea being that your mind is standing firm on something. You’re standing here in the body. This is your location. This is where you take your stance. And when your stance is solid, nobody can kick you over or knock you down.
From: Immersed in the Body by Thanissaro Bhikkhu
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Re: The Quotable Thanissaro

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Thanissaro Bhikkhu wrote:When the Buddha talks about killing anger, he doesn’t say you should feel guilty about having anger. The Buddha doesn’t lay guilt trips on anybody. He simply reminds you that it’s not in your best interest to let the anger take over. In his words, if you can gain victory over your anger, it’s worth a lot more than victory over other people. One of the problems that can come up when we hold our anger in check is that we feel we’ve lost out to the other side. If we hold the anger in check unskillfully, it can lead to depression. So we’ve got to learn to think more strategically around the anger.

The wise strategy goes in two directions. One is looking at your assumptions. Which of your assumptions have been violated? When you can identify it, then you have to ask yourself, in all fairness, is it a good assumption? Sometimes it is; sometimes it isn’t. If you can begin to see that the assumption was unrealistic, you’ve got to turn around and deal with it. Ask yourself where it came from, why you’re holding onto it when it obviously causes a lot of problems. But if the assumption seems clear and aboveboard, then the next question is how do you skillfully apply that assumption, given that the situation you’re presented with doesn’t meet the standards set by your assumption? Is right now the time to speak, or do you want to wait a little while later? Is right now the time to act, or do you want to wait until later? And what would be the most skillful thing to say or do?

This is where it’s good to live around people who’ve learned to bring their anger under some control, who can deal with difficult situations, can deal with injustices, can deal with all the problems that really need to be dealt with in the world, in an effective way, without letting the anger take over. You can see from their example how it’s done. If you can’t live around people like that, try to read up on how the Buddha dealt with difficult people. Read up on other cases of how to deal with difficult people. Just because you’re getting some control over your anger doesn’t mean that you have to be a doormat, but it is important that you’re very clear that winning a victory over yourself is more important than winning a victory over others.

In this case, you’re winning a victory over your anger. You’re not losing out when you’re not showing or expressing your anger. You can think of it as a strategic move. The less you show your anger, the fewer people will know where your buttons are. They won’t be able to press them so easily. There are a lot of ways in which life is like a poker game. You don’t want to show your hand. You keep it close to your chest, and you want to keep a poker face so that no one else can read you.

So it’s not just out of general niceness that you want to control your anger. There are times when you’ve got to think strategically, and you can’t let your anger show — because it is a kind of weakness.
From: Reclaim Your Breath by Thanissaro Bhikkhu
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Re: The Quotable Thanissaro

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Thanissaro Bhikkhu wrote:I once had a student from San Francisco who was having problems with her landlord. The landlord was going to sell the property and wanted all of the renters to lie about the rent that they were paying, and my student didn’t know what to do. She told me, “Well, I’ve been spreading goodwill to him and imagining him with a beautiful house and a swimming pool and many girlfriends.” I said, “No, no, no, no. You don’t understand goodwill [mettā]. First get together with the other renters and then go as a group to talk to the landlord. Spread thoughts of goodwill to him by figuring out what you can do so that he won’t make you lie. After all, not getting you to lie would be for his long-term welfare and happiness.” In other words, goodwill is not a magic wand to make people happy and prosperous. You’re thinking, “What can I do to help these people act more skillfully?” If they’re really set on doing unskillful things, you think, “What can I do to help these people have a change of heart?” That’s the first lesson that kamma gives to goodwill.
From: Goodwill by Thanissaro Bhikkhu
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Re: The Quotable Thanissaro

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Thanissaro Bhikkhu wrote:Vipassanā is not a meditation technique. It’s a quality of mind — the ability to see events clearly in the present moment. Although mindfulness is helpful in fostering vipassanā, it’s not enough for developing vipassanā to the point of total release. Other techniques and approaches are needed as well. In particular, vipassanā needs to be teamed with samatha — the ability to settle the mind comfortably in the present — so as to master the attainment of strong states of absorption, or jhāna. Based on this mastery, you then apply samatha and vipassanā to a skillful program of questioning, called appropriate attention, directed at all experience: exploring events not in terms of me/not me, or being/not being, but in terms of the four noble truths. You pursue this program until it leads to a fivefold understanding of all events: in terms of their arising, their passing away, their drawbacks, their allure, and the escape from them. Only then can the mind taste release.
From: One Tool Among Many: The Place of Vipassanā in Buddhist Practice by Thanissaro Bhikkhu
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Re: The Quotable Thanissaro

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Thanissaro Bhikkhu wrote:We see so many people talking about how little children need to develop a sense of self-esteem, and they try to encourage their self-esteem by giving them rewards and over-praising them for every little thing they do. But that’s not what self-esteem comes from. It comes, on the one hand, from knowing that you can be helpful and, on the other, that you can say No to certain things that you know are beneath you. There’s a sense of happiness that comes from this, a sense of wellbeing.
From: Relating to Karma by Thanissaro Bhikkhu
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Re: The Quotable Thanissaro

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Thanissaro Bhikkhu wrote:Your actions are what are real, that have the most reality. The world out there is not the issue. The world that you experience comes from your actions. Your [intentional] actions [karma] are more solid, more powerful than your experience of earth, wind, water, fire, and all the other elements. That’s a pretty radical statement. This is why the Buddha keeps focusing back on what you’re doing right now because what you’re doing right now is the big shaping force in your experience.
From: So Little Time by Thanissaro Bhikkhu
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Re: The Quotable Thanissaro

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Thanissaro Bhikkhu wrote:How do you keep patience going? How do you keep persistence going? By having a good sense of humor about what’s happening to you in the path and having an infinite good humor that can keep you going. This is the attitude that allows you to say, “Whoops, another mistake! – Well, try again! Another mistake? Try again!” It’s that ability to step back from yourself a bit to see what you’re doing and not to be so into a particular state of mind or into a particular identity that you can’t let it go. Humor means basically learning how to step back and see things from a larger perspective.
From: Infinite Good Humor by Thanissaro Bhikkhu
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Re: The Quotable Thanissaro

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Thanissaro Bhikkhu wrote:There are some cases where illness comes from purely mental causes, in which case meditation can cure it, but there are also cases where it comes from physical causes, and no amount of meditation can make it go away. If you believe in karma, there are some diseases that come from present karma — your state of mind right now — and others that come from past karma. If it's a present-karma disease, meditation might be able to make it go away. If it's a past-karma disease, the most you can hope from meditation is that it can help you live with the illness and pain without suffering from it.

At the same time, if you tell ill people that they are suffering because their minds are in bad shape, and that it's entirely up to them to straighten out their minds if they want to get well, you're laying an awfully heavy burden on them, right at the time when they're feeling weak, miserable, helpless and abandoned to begin with. When I came to this point, the woman smiled and said that she agreed with me. As soon as she had been diagnosed with cancer, her friends had given her a whole slew of books on how to will illness away, and she said that if she had believed in book-burning she would have burned them all by now. I personally know a lot of people who believe that the state of their health is an indication of their state of mind, which is fine and good when they're feeling well. As soon as they get sick, though, they feel that it's a sign that they're failures in meditation, and this sets them into a tailspin.

You should be very clear on one point: The purpose of meditation is to find happiness and well-being within the mind, independent of the body or other things going on outside. Your aim is to find something solid within that you can depend on no matter what happens to the body. If it so happens that through your meditation you are able to effect a physical cure, that's all fine and good, and there have been many cases where meditation can have a remarkable effect on the body. My teacher had a student — a woman in her fifties — who was diagnosed with cancer more than 15 years ago. The doctors at the time gave her only a few months to live, and yet through her practice of meditation she is still alive today. She focused her practice on the theme that, 'although her body may be sick, her mind doesn't have to be.' A few years ago I visited her in the hospital the day after she had had a kidney removed. She was sitting up in bed, bright and aware, as if nothing happened at all. I asked her if there was any pain, and she said yes, 24 hours a day, but that she didn't let it make inroads on her mind. In fact, she was taking her illness much better than her husband, who didn't meditate, and who was so concerned about the possibility of losing her that he became ill, and she had to take care of him.

Cases like this are by no means guaranteed, though, and you shouldn't really content yourself just with physical survival — for as I said earlier, if this disease doesn't get you, something else will, and you're not really safe until you've found the treasure in the mind that is unaffected even by death. Remember that your most precious possession is your mind. If you can keep it in good shape no matter what else happens around you, then you have lost nothing, for your body goes only as far as death, but your mind goes beyond it."
From: Using Meditation to Deal with Pain, Illness & Death by Thanissaro Bhikkhu
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Re: The Quotable Thanissaro

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Thanissaro Bhikkhu wrote:The general message we keep getting from a lot of Dhamma teachers – you’ve got to learn how to trust other people, learn how to be open and vulnerable – is a recipe for disaster.

One of the things I noticed most about Ajaan Fuang that struck me very early on was how wary he was. He didn’t open himself up easily to other people. I lived with him for a couple of years before he even allowed me into his room. I eventually became his attendant, but it didn’t happen right away. He had to get a sense of me before he could decide that he could trust me. And this was someone who actually could read minds.

So what about the rest of us, who can’t read minds? We need to have a sense of being able to protect ourselves as we go into relationships, and this includes the family, people at work, people at home, people in our extended families. There are some people you know are going to be harmful; you have to keep your protection up.

So part of the protection is this energy protection you develop through the body, working with the breath in the body, because a lot of other people’s invasiveness is not just their attitudes. It’s not just their words that they say to you or the things they do to you. It’s just that the energy they carry around is often very toxic; you need protection against that.

Be particularly wary of people who tell you right up front that they can be trusted.
From: Heedfulness for the Holidays by Thanissaro Bhikkhu
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Re: The Quotable Thanissaro

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Thanissaro Bhikkhu wrote:The nothing-but-letting-go model is based on the idea that your mind is basically pure. If anything comes up to disturb it, all you have to do is let it go, and then the natural purity of the mind will appear. But the Buddha never taught like that. As he said, the mind is capable of anything. It’s capable of good things; it’s capable of bad things. And it’s not the case that the good things are part of its innate nature and the bad things are only added from outside. The Buddha never talks about innate nature in terms of the mind at all, aside from the fact that it knows, it’s aware.

But as Ajaan Lee said, it’s aware of good, aware of evil, but it itself is neither good nor evil. It has lots of potentials. So if you simply let go, let go, there’s nothing. No natural goodness is going to come rushing in to take the place of the things you let go. You’ve got to develop good things in their place. Otherwise, you’re in the position that Ajaan Lee calls letting go like a pauper. Anatha is the Thai term, which literally means someone with no one to protect them. You don’t have wealth to protect you, you don’t have anything or anybody to protect you. You’re exposed to whatever can come.

I’ve seen this in cases where people are told, “Don’t do anything in the meditation. Just note what arises and let it go,” and then when some really bad things arise, they’re defenseless. So you do need protection. And you can protect yourself by developing good qualities inside.
From: Right Exertion at Play by Thanissaro Bhikkhu
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