The Quotable Thanissaro

A discussion on all aspects of Theravāda Buddhism
dhammapal
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Re: The Quotable Thanissaro

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Thanissaro Bhikkhu wrote:
The Buddha, the Dhamma, and the Sangha are a refuge. We find that refuge by developing their qualities, so that the mind becomes a refuge — directly for itself, and indirectly for others.

Now, the nature of this refuge is not that it’s simply a place where you run away and hide. It’s like the fortress. You’re there on the frontier, ready to deal with enemies, your own defilements: defilements you’ve picked up from other people, the ones that you’ve grown in your own basement.

In giving you the path, the Buddha’s giving you the strength you need in order to face these things.

From: Fear of the Truth by Thanissaro Bhikkhu
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Re: The Quotable Thanissaro

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Thanissaro Bhikkhu wrote:
You see groups of people sitting around, and they’re all staring at their little screens. They’re not learning the lessons that come from looking at the people around you — looking at their expressions, listening to the tone of voice, seeing what they’re doing and casting around in your mind to ask yourself, “What do they need? What are they lacking? Is there something I’ve got that they could use?”

From: Sensitivity Through Generosity by Thanissaro Bhikkhu
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Re: The Quotable Thanissaro

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Thanissaro Bhikkhu wrote:
You don’t want to have just a sense of equanimity as you go through life. You want to have a sense of positive enjoyment in how it feels to have a body. One of the reasons you work with the breath is so that you feel comfortable inside your body. No matter what the world outside may say about your body, you’re perfectly fine with it inside. That way, you’ve got a friend inside.

From: Will Meditation Make You Grim & Dull? by Thanissaro Bhikkhu
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Re: The Quotable Thanissaro

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Thanissaro Bhikkhu wrote:
As the Buddha said, “You don’t go to heaven or hell because of other people’s actions. You go because of your own actions.” Those can take you to heaven; they can take you to hell. So why are you taking yourself to hell? And why are you upset with what other people are doing, which really has nothing to do, really, with you? It’s your actions that make all the difference.

From: Look at Yourself by Thanissaro Bhikkhu
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Re: The Quotable Thanissaro

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Thanissaro Bhikkhu wrote:
We try to develop this sense of well-being in the body as our refuge. As the Buddha points out, if we didn’t have any other alternative to pain, we’d just go for nothing but sensuality, because that would be the only other option out there offering some pleasure. So, it’s important that you find a strong sense of pleasure simply sitting here in the body as it’s felt from inside.

From: See Your Thoughts as Strange by Thanissaro Bhikkhu
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Re: The Quotable Thanissaro

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Question: Why is it that Theravāda is considered, with a certain amount of irony, as the small vehicle, whereas Mahāyānists call themselves the great vehicle, which carries its name because they’re more generous? — their goal being, always, the love of others, whereas for Theravāda it’s said to be first the love of yourself?

Thanissaro Bhikkhu: It’s not that Theravādins don’t have any concern about other people. It’s more that we have a different sense of what we’re able to do for other people. We can teach other people how to gain awakening and we can set them a good example, but we can’t actually awaken other people. And it’s also not true that in Theravāda practice you don’t do good for other people. Generosity and virtue are large parts of the path. Even your mindfulness practice is good for others: The Buddha says it’s like being part of an acrobatic team. If you can maintain your balance at all times, it makes it easier for other people on the team to maintain theirs.

And even though arahants leave saṁsāra entirely, they leave a lot of good things behind. Think of the case of Ajaan Mun. Without him, I don’t know where I would be. The forest tradition would not have existed, and Thailand probably would have become Communist — because many of the Communists in Thailand said the reason that they still wanted to hold to Buddhism, instead of rejecting religion, was because they saw the example of the forest monks. So the good that Ajaan Mun did is still living with us.

From: The Five Faculties: Putting Wisdom in Charge of the Mind by Thanissaro Bhikkhu
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Re: The Quotable Thanissaro

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Thanissaro Bhikkhu wrote:
Say, about your speech, areas where you might lie casually because you thought you could gain an advantage or avoid problems: Can you still gain an advantage, can you still avoid problems without lying? What would that require of you? The Buddha doesn’t define lying as not telling the whole truth. This is an important distinction. There are situations where you can say to yourself, “If I actually told the whole truth in this situation, it would cause a lot of harm. How can I get around that without misrepresenting the truth?” As the Buddha said, if telling the whole truth would lead to the arising of greed, aversion, and delusion, either in yourself or in the person listening, you don’t say it. Now that doesn’t mean you lie. In other words, what you do say is not a misrepresentation of the facts. You find something else to talk about, you find a way to express yourself that is technically true. But you don’t misrepresent the truth of the things you *do* mention.

Now some people say this is just splitting hairs, but that’s not necessarily the case. Take the case that people are constantly using to argue that there are times when you have to lie: the case of Nazis at the door and Jews in the attic. What are you going to do? First you have to realize there are Nazis and there are Nazis. With some of them, all they need is an excuse not to have to go through your house. They don’t want to bother, so you say something that indicates to them that it’s not worth their bother to go in. There are other Nazis, though, who, regardless of what you say, are going to check the house. All too often it’s assumed that when you lie to Nazis they’ll believe you and then go away. But that covers only some of the cases. There are other cases where, if the Nazis sense that you’re lying, they’ll be even more interested in searching your house.

So first you’ve got to realize that you’re dealing with different kinds of situations here: one, in which no matter what you say there’s going to be trouble, and the other, in which you can deflect harm but without lying. So if they ask if you’re hiding Jews in the attic, you say, “I’m hiding nothing shameful in this house.”

This has two advantages. One, you can say it looking them straight in the eye. Some Nazis, like some policemen, can read your face. If they’re convinced you’re telling the truth — and you are telling the truth — they’ll leave you alone. The second advantage is this: Suppose you say, “I’ve got no Jews in the attic,” but they say, “We’re going to check anyhow,” and they find the Jews. When they come back out, they can give you a lecture on ethics: “Not only do you hide Jews but you also lie.” Imagine what it’d be like to be lectured by a Nazi. And, of course, they won’t stop with a lecture. They’ll take you away and torture you — and with your lie you’ve given them ammunition to torture you psychologically.

But if you tell them you’re hiding nothing shameful and yet they find the Jews, they’ll take the Jews out and say, “We thought you said you weren’t hiding anything,” and you say, “I said I was hiding nothing shameful; there’s nothing shameful about what I did.” Now, they may decide to arrest you then, too, but at least you have your honor and that’s something important. Our culture deprecates honor. But being able to maintain your honor is important. It’s part of your self-worth. If they decide to torture you, they won’t be able to use a lie against you.

This means that you’re not holding the precept just for the sake of following the letter. There are actually practical advantages to following the letter.

From: Respect for the Precepts by Thanissaro Bhikkhu
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Re: The Quotable Thanissaro

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Thanissaro Bhikkhu wrote:
The path doesn’t save all of its pleasure for the end. There’s the pleasure of a mind that’s settled in. There’s the pleasure of a mind that can see itself, catch itself before it makes some large mistake. You catch the small mistakes and you can erase them quickly. There’s well-being on the path, so make sure you can engender this sense of well-being.

This is why we practice generosity, this is why we observe the precepts: because there is a sense of well-being that comes with these actions. It’s not that they save their good results for the next lifetime. When you’re generous it feels good *now*. When you catch yourself — you could have said something or done something that was going to be harmful and you say No to yourself — there’s a sense of self-esteem that comes with that immediately.

So look for the pleasure on the path, because seeing the pleasure on the path is what enables us to keep on going.

From: A Clean Mind by Thanissaro Bhikkhu
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Re: The Quotable Thanissaro

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Thanissaro Bhikkhu wrote:
Here we live in a world where people teach generosity, where they teach virtue, where they teach getting some control over your mind through meditation. And they not only teach about these things, they also practice these things to show how it’s done. When we think about that fact, then even though there are a lot of undesirable things and people in the world, the fact that there are some people who recognize goodness and teach the way to goodness, can give rise to a sense that this is a good world to live in despite all the ups and downs.

From: Food for Endurance by Thanissaro Bhikkhu
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Re: The Quotable Thanissaro

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Thanissaro Bhikkhu wrote:
Recollection of death is not depressing. It’s encouraging. There’s work to be done with each breath; work to be done with each heartbeat. So if you find yourself thinking thoughts you shouldn’t be thinking while you’re meditating or as you go through the day, just tell yourself, “You just wasted that breath. You just wasted that heartbeat. Don’t waste the next one.”

From: Mindful of Death by Thanissaro Bhikkhu
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Re: The Quotable Thanissaro

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Thanissaro Bhikkhu wrote:
There was a minor prince who liked to go around Thailand asking different ajaans really high-level Dhamma questions to figure out what level of attainment they had. He came to see Ajaan Fuang one time and asked a very high-level question. Ajaan Fuang’s first question in response was, “Is your mind anywhere near that point in the practice?” The prince said, “No.” So Ajaan Fuang said, “In that case, I don’t want to talk about it, because at the moment, it’s going to be nothing but concepts.” He wanted to wait until you needed that particular Dhamma medicine for what your condition was, and then he would talk about it. After all, he realized that Dhamma is medicine. It's not just a topic to discuss idly in your spare time.

From: Dhamma Medicine by Thanissaro Bhikkhu
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Re: The Quotable Thanissaro

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Thanissaro Bhikkhu wrote:
So for the sake of your own freedom, you’ve got to let go of any ill will based on the horrible things that people have done. You remind yourself that it’s for your own true well-being that you’re developing these thoughts [of mettā]. You want to be able to trust yourself so that you don’t do or say or think unskillful things around people who are difficult. After all, you live in a world where almost everybody is difficult one way or another. If you were to wait for the world to be happy and peaceful, with everybody behaving nicely, and only *then* you would meditate, or *then* you would be able to get your mind to settle down, you would die first.

From: A Heart Set on Goodwill by Thanissaro Bhikkhu
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Re: The Quotable Thanissaro

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Thanissaro Bhikkhu wrote:
So instead of sitting here plotting and planning about how you’re going to deal with this eventuality or that problem or that disaster that could happen, just remind yourself, “You don’t know if any of these things are going to happen, but you *do* know when they do happen you’re going to need these skills.”

So drop the particulars about what you’re worried about and just focus on right here, right now, developing the mind so that it is strong.

It’s like knowing that you’re going to have to lift a big weight, so you go practice lifting the weights beforehand. That way, when the time comes, whatever comes your way, you’re prepared. In the same way, you keep your mind prepared by developing your mindfulness, developing your alertness, and developing the confidence that you can do these things.

This is probably *the* most important part of the practice. It’s so easy for the mind to tear itself down and say, “I don’t know if I’ll be able to do that, and this might get in the way and that might be a problem.” The mind’s eating itself up when it does that, destroying its own strength. So you have to realize that you *can* make a difference simply by changing your attitude.

From: Bouncing Back by Thanissaro Bhikkhu
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Re: The Quotable Thanissaro

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Thanissaro Bhikkhu wrote:
There’s a theme in several of Ajaan Lee’s Dhamma talks where he says we have a choice: We can be slaves to our defilements or we can be slaves to the Buddha. When we’re slaves to our defilements, there’s no chance for freedom. We may think we’re doing what we want, but it’s usually what our defilements want, and they don’t have our well-being in mind at all. They tend to go for the quick fix, the easy pleasures, with no thought for the long term.

As for being a slave to the Buddha, that’s one of those situations where you can buy yourself out of slavery. In fact, everything he has you do is for the purpose of giving you your freedom. You practice generosity, you practice virtue, and especially you practice meditation, developing qualities of the mind where you take charge of your own mind for the sake of your long-term welfare and happiness.

It’s one of those rare cases where you really do get to practice self determination. Or in the Buddha’s terms, you direct yourself rightly. You choose your direction. Whatever the hardships entailed in the path, you’re willing to take them on because you see the goal as something really worthy. And the path is a worthy path, too. The Buddha doesn’t ask you to do anything shameful or dishonorable — unlike your defilements, which have no sense of shame at all. They get you to do all kinds of things, and then the rewards they give you are meager and paltry. So it’s your choice, and it really is your choice. This is one of those areas where you define yourself in making the choice.

From: Self Determination by Thanissaro Bhikkhu
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Re: The Quotable Thanissaro

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Thanissaro Bhikkhu wrote:
You have to learn how to accept, on the one hand, the way things are, things that you can’t change. The way other people behave, the way the body’s aging, when illnesses come up: There’s only so much you can do.

But on the other hand, you have to accept that you can choose how to focus on things, you can choose where to focus, how to perceive it, what to do so that the mind doesn’t have to suffer.

From: The Range of Our Responsibility by Thanissaro Bhikkhu
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