The Quotable Thanissaro

A discussion on all aspects of Theravāda Buddhism
dhammapal
Posts: 2645
Joined: Sun Nov 01, 2009 9:23 am
Location: Sydney, Australia

Re: The Quotable Thanissaro

Post by dhammapal »

Thanissaro Bhikkhu wrote:
[An awakened person] feels sympathy for others and seeks their well-being, experiencing a sense of satisfaction when they respond to [his/her] teachings, but otherwise [he/she] stays equanimous, untroubled, mindful, and alert. This passage shows that the even-mindedness of a fully awakened person is an attitude not of cold indifference, but rather of mental imperturbability. Such a person has found true happiness and would like others to share that happiness as well, but that happiness is not dependent on how others respond. This is the ideal state of mind for a person who truly works for the benefit of the world.

From: The Wings to Awakening by Thanissaro Bhikkhu
dhammapal
Posts: 2645
Joined: Sun Nov 01, 2009 9:23 am
Location: Sydney, Australia

Re: The Quotable Thanissaro

Post by dhammapal »

Thanissaro Bhikkhu wrote:
[The Buddha] told the monks, “Don’t get involved in debates.” They had formal debates in India in which a king would set the question, and then he would invite people from different religions to come and give their answers. Based on their answers, he would then choose which religion he wanted to support. The problem with that kind of debate, of course, is that once the king sets the question, you can’t say, “The Buddha said to put that question aside.” You’d be telling the king it’s a stupid question. So the Buddha told his monks to stay away from those debates entirely, but over the centuries, the monks decided not to heed his advice. Perhaps they wanted the support of the kings.

From: The Five Faculties: Putting Wisdom in Charge of the Mind by Thanissaro Bhikkhu
SteRo
Posts: 5950
Joined: Fri Oct 11, 2019 10:27 am
Location: Εὐρώπη Eurṓpē

Re: The Quotable Thanissaro

Post by SteRo »

dhammapal wrote: Sun Oct 23, 2022 1:47 am
Thanissaro Bhikkhu wrote:
[The Buddha] told the monks, “Don’t get involved in debates.”
Don't know whether there ever has been the historical person Gautama. And I don't know what "Buddha" means. But what I do know is that “Don’t get involved in debates.” is a good advice. Why? Because there is no belief whatsoever that can be justified by logical rationality.
Cleared. αδόξαστος.
dhammapal
Posts: 2645
Joined: Sun Nov 01, 2009 9:23 am
Location: Sydney, Australia

Re: The Quotable Thanissaro

Post by dhammapal »

Thanissaro Bhikkhu wrote:
Even though the Buddha was generally open to cross-questioning from his listeners, the fact that he was offering his teaching as a gift meant that he held the right to maintain firm control over what he would and wouldn’t give. This meant exercising control over two things: the questions he would and wouldn’t answer, and the questioners he would and wouldn’t respond to. As we will see in Chapters Seven and Eight, he would put aside any questions whose answer would harm himself or others, or would distract attention from the issue at hand: how to understand and put an end to suffering and stress. As we will see later in this chapter, he refused to submit to cross-questioning from listeners whose motives in cross-questioning were less than sincere. Thus, even though the Buddha taught by example that it was, in general, a good principle to be open to cross-questioning, he also taught by example that cross-questioning, in order to stay beneficial, had to stay focused within appropriate limits.

From: Skill in Questions: How the Buddha Taught by Thanissaro Bhikkhu
dhammapal
Posts: 2645
Joined: Sun Nov 01, 2009 9:23 am
Location: Sydney, Australia

Re: The Quotable Thanissaro

Post by dhammapal »

Thanissaro Bhikkhu wrote:
If your happiness depends on other people’s suffering, they’re not going to stand for it. You can’t say, “Excuse me, this is my happiness, and so you’ll just have to let me continue enjoying it because it’s so special.” They’ll say, “This is my suffering. It’s special, too. I don’t want it.” This is an equalizer in that it makes you realize that your happiness forces you to take other people’s happiness into account.

From: Bodies & Minds Outside by Thanissaro Bhikkhu
dhammapal
Posts: 2645
Joined: Sun Nov 01, 2009 9:23 am
Location: Sydney, Australia

Re: The Quotable Thanissaro

Post by dhammapal »

Thanissaro Bhikkhu wrote:
And what are the thoughts you think about the other people? Well, you remind yourself that they’re going to be happy based on their actions. So you’re extending thoughts of goodwill [mettā] to them when you think, “May they act skillfully.” Now, you look at some people and say, “There’s no way this person is ever going to act skillfully.” Well, you never know. It may take a long time. But maybe there is a potential in there. Maybe someday that person will see the error of his or her ways. That’s what you’re hoping for: a change of heart. You can ask yourself, how do changes of heart happen? If there’s anything you can do to help the other person have a change of heart, you’re happy to do it. If there’s nothing you can do right away, this is where the Buddha recommends patience. Many of his discourses on goodwill include images of patience, of endurance, waiting for the opening, waiting for the opportunity where maybe you can do something positive.

From: A Heart Set on Goodwill by Thanissaro Bhikkhu
dhammapal
Posts: 2645
Joined: Sun Nov 01, 2009 9:23 am
Location: Sydney, Australia

Re: The Quotable Thanissaro

Post by dhammapal »

Thanissaro Bhikkhu wrote:
Now the Buddha doesn’t say to ignore other people and just be very selfish. He says there’s a different way to approach the whole issue of happiness. In other words, you find a source for happiness that doesn’t take anything away from anyone else, so you don’t have to be afraid of other people. When you’re not afraid of them, you find that you can actually be more compassionate to them. So developing and maintaining this center inside is not a selfish thing. The Buddha’s not teaching you to be insensitive. He’s just saying to put yourself in a stronger position and to trust that you’re stronger by not trying to go outside and fix up people’s moods and all the other things that we think we can do with other people when we’re dealing with them. Just stay inside and have a sense of confidence that you’re strong inside. After all, your source of happiness lies inside. Because it’s not taking anything away from anybody else, you don’t have to be afraid of them.

Especially when you can get your awareness to fill the whole body, when you get the breath flowing smoothly throughout the whole body: This smooth flow of energy builds up a kind of force field. An image in the Canon is that the meditator who’s able to fill the body with awareness is like a door made out of solid wood. If you were to take a ball of string and throw it at the door, it wouldn’t make any dent in the door at all. The mind filled with awareness, with the breath energy flowing smoothly, is the same sort of thing. It’s solid. It resists outside influences.

But when your awareness doesn’t fill the body like this, the Buddha says it’s like a ball of wet clay into which somebody throws a stone. The stone makes a big dent in the clay. In other words, you’re in a weak position, and you intuitively know you’re in a weak position. Other people can invade your inner space. So you scramble around and try to build up all sorts of defenses. Because so much energy gets spent in the defenses, and the energy is outside the body, it knocks you off balance. You use up the water of your meditation, the refreshment of your meditation, very quickly this way.

The trick, as Ajaan Lee says, is to have a little distillery in the boat so that you can take the salt water and put it into the distillery, to turn it into fresh water. Then everywhere you go you’ve got fresh water. In other words, no matter where you go, you’re right here: centered in the body, with your awareness filling the body. You’re not leaving the body unprotected and you’re not using up all your energy in those false outside defenses. You’re creating a sense of energy here in the body, a sense of refreshment, and it’s protecting you as well. This way you can travel around the world because there’s salt water everywhere. If you’ve got the skill, you can turn it into fresh water — as much fresh water as you want.

From: Social Anxiety by Thanissaro Bhikkhu
dhammapal
Posts: 2645
Joined: Sun Nov 01, 2009 9:23 am
Location: Sydney, Australia

Re: The Quotable Thanissaro

Post by dhammapal »

Thanissaro Bhikkhu wrote:
Goodwill [mettā] is a form of concentration, and that requires restraint. You don’t let your mind wander off into other areas. If you do find some ill will creeping in, or the desire to do harm or to see somebody being harmed, or resentment or aversion, you’ve got to look into it for the purpose of training yourself out of it. You don’t just spread thoughts of “May all beings be happy, happy, happy, happy!” to smother it. That may work for a few minutes but it doesn’t really get to the problem, which is that you’re holding onto some sort of attitude that’s related to wrong view.

And thinking that someone deserves to suffer is not a right view of any kind at all. The whole purpose of the teaching is that although people are suffering, they don’t have to suffer. In other words, the Buddha’s saying they don’t deserve to suffer. Even though they’ve done bad in the past, that doesn’t mean that they deserve to suffer. Even if you’ve done bad things in the past, you don’t deserve to suffer. We can all change our ways.

This is one of the basic assumptions that the Buddha worked on. If people couldn’t change their ways, he said there would be no purpose in teaching them. But people can. They can learn to be more skillful and to drop unskillful things.

So that’s the attitude you should have toward everybody. If they’re doing something really unskillful, make the wish, “May they learn how to stop that.” And if you’re in a position to have any influence over that person, try to use it skillfully. If not, you just hold that thought in the mind to influence your own actions toward that person.

From: Goodwill as Restraint by Thanissaro Bhikkhu
dhammapal
Posts: 2645
Joined: Sun Nov 01, 2009 9:23 am
Location: Sydney, Australia

Re: The Quotable Thanissaro

Post by dhammapal »

Thanissaro Bhikkhu wrote:
The reason we’re suffering is, as the Buddha’s says, clinging to things that are going to change, hoping to find happiness in things that can’t really provide happiness. Or, in the Buddha’s image, twisting a cow’s horn in order to get milk out of the cow. When we find that it doesn’t get any milk, we just keep twisting it harder and harder and harder. Of course, not only do we not get any milk, but it harasses the cow — and we get worn out.

Some people tend to think, “Well, maybe you can’t do anything at all. Just sit back and just accept everything, because there’s really nothing you can do to change things. Stop twisting the horn, and you’ll feel much better. You won’t get any milk, but you’ll feel much better.” That’s actually a mild depression. Depression comes from when you try your hardest to find happiness, and it just doesn’t work, and something inside gives up: can’t think of any strategies, can’t think of any ways to change things, to bring about the happiness you want. So you just give up.

In severe depression, people have a very ill-formed sense of self. This is one of the real misunderstandings of the Buddha’s teaching: When he talks about not-self, he’s not telling you, “Don’t have any sense of self; try not to identify with your desire for happiness.” That’s not what he’s teaching at all. Because, if you think in those ways, it leads to depression. He’s actually saying that there *are* ways you can develop the powers of your mind. There are *skills* you can develop.

And so — instead of just being frustrated with the fact that your old skills are not working, and are coming to a dead end — he says, “Try these new skills. They work. Pull on the udder of the cow and you’ll get the milk you want.” The skills are very simple. They require persistence. This is where it’s hard: in the sticking-to-it. He says, simply, “Be mindful: Keep in mind the fact that you want to act in a skillful way.” Keep remembering that the power of the mind lies in its intentions, and that you want to learn how to focus those intentions properly. When the power of the mind is focused, it has a lot of strength.

From: Things Don't Have to Be this Way by Thanissaro Bhikkhu
dhammapal
Posts: 2645
Joined: Sun Nov 01, 2009 9:23 am
Location: Sydney, Australia

Re: The Quotable Thanissaro

Post by dhammapal »

Thanissaro Bhikkhu wrote:
If there’s pressure in any part of the body, remind yourself that it’s blood pressure. Breath doesn’t have to exert pressure on anything. It goes right through atoms. So if there seems to be a wall of pressure that you can’t push the breath through, remind yourself that you’ve made the mistake of pushing something else beside the breath. You’re trying to push the blood there. Just hold the thought in mind, “Breath can flow there, it doesn’t push anything.” The simple thought of allowing can relieve a lot of the pressure.

So do your best to get acquainted with the breath energy issues in the body, what it means for the breath to flow well, and be ingenious at finding new ways of solving new problems as they come up. That way, this area of the body, this area of the mind that tends to get closed off, you can start to reclaim and you can use that dimension of your awareness to your own advantage — your own skillful advantage. This is one of those meditative skills that’s meant to be used throughout the day, so don’t leave it on your meditation cushion. Take it with you. It’ll be your support in times of need.

From: Reclaim Your Breath by Thanissaro Bhikkhu
dhammapal
Posts: 2645
Joined: Sun Nov 01, 2009 9:23 am
Location: Sydney, Australia

Re: The Quotable Thanissaro

Post by dhammapal »

Thanissaro Bhikkhu wrote:
Bodily fabrication is the way you breathe. Simply by learning how to breathe calmly around the emotional problem, you can begin to take it apart. Just two weeks ago, I was reading that some scientists had done a study showing that calm breathing calms the mind. How do you say “Duh!” in French? Mais bien sûr. Of course it calms the mind. We’ve been doing that for 2,500 years.

From: The Five Faculties: Putting Wisdom in Charge of the Mind by Thanissaro Bhikkhu
dhammapal
Posts: 2645
Joined: Sun Nov 01, 2009 9:23 am
Location: Sydney, Australia

Re: The Quotable Thanissaro

Post by dhammapal »


Question: Is it valid to send mettā to a person no longer in this world, one to whom I felt resentment and who had resentment toward me?

Thanissaro Bhikkhu: This is a very good practice to do. It’s one way of bringing your own mind to some peace. You have to remember that when people die, they don’t go out of existence. They get born again. So, they’re always there someplace for you to spread mettā to. Now, whether that person rejoices in your mettā or not, that’s that person’s business. But if you can spread goodwill to someone you used to resent, that takes a huge burden off of your mind.

~ Good Heart, Good Mind: The Practice of the Ten Perfections
Bundokji
Posts: 6494
Joined: Mon Nov 24, 2014 11:57 pm

Re: The Quotable Thanissaro

Post by Bundokji »


The Buddha expressed this/that conditionality in a simple-looking formula:

(1) When this is, that is.
(2) From the arising of this comes the arising of that.
(3) When this isn't, that isn't.
(4) From the stopping of this comes the stopping of that.

— AN 10.92

There are many possible ways of interpreting this formula, but only one does justice both to the way the formula is worded and to the complex, fluid manner in which specific examples of causal relationships are described in the Canon. That way is to view the formula as the interplay of two causal principles, one linear and the other synchronic, that combine to form a non-linear pattern. The linear principle — taking (2) and (4) as a pair — connects events, rather than objects, over time; the synchronic principle — (1) and (3) — connects objects and events in the present moment. The two principles intersect, so that any given event is influenced by two sets of conditions: input acting from the past and input acting from the present. Although each principle seems simple, the fact that they interact makes their consequences very complex.
And the Blessed One addressed the bhikkhus, saying: "Behold now, bhikkhus, I exhort you: All compounded things are subject to vanish. Strive with earnestness!"

This was the last word of the Tathagata.
dhammapal
Posts: 2645
Joined: Sun Nov 01, 2009 9:23 am
Location: Sydney, Australia

Re: The Quotable Thanissaro

Post by dhammapal »

Thanissaro Bhikkhu wrote:
You might find it helpful to remind yourself that if you’re really busy, you’re not too busy to meditate. You’re too busy *not* to meditate. You owe it to yourself and to those around you to keep your batteries well-charged.

From: With Each & Every Breath: A Guide to Meditation by Thanissaro Bhikkhu
dhammapal
Posts: 2645
Joined: Sun Nov 01, 2009 9:23 am
Location: Sydney, Australia

Re: The Quotable Thanissaro

Post by dhammapal »

Thanissaro Bhikkhu wrote:
Just because a thought comes into your head doesn’t mean that you should continue to think it. Look at it: One, is it true? Two, is it beneficial? Does it really help to think about this? And three, is right now the right time and place to do that, whether it’s pleasing or unpleasing?

This helps explain the seeming contradiction you see in a lot of the Buddha’s teachings: on the one hand, talking about right views, and then on the other hand talking about not clinging to views. Not clinging means looking at your views in precisely this way: Are they true? Are they beneficial? Is right now the right time and place to think those things?

Clinging means you hold on to a particular view no matter what. It may seem true — and in fact, a lot of the forest ajaans always say that true views are the really dangerous ones. When you’re right, you can get yourself in a real mess. There’s pride that comes with having the right idea, and then you start using it in the wrong ways at the wrong time. That’s what they mean when they talk about clinging to views.

Not clinging to views doesn’t mean that you’re wishy-washy or that you don’t care about what’s true or false. You’re very clear about what’s true or false. You try to be very clear about what’s beneficial or not. But also have a sense of when’s the right time to think about certain things.

From: Right Inner Speech by Thanissaro Bhikkhu
Post Reply