Yellow Page Teachings - Ajahn Jayasāro

A discussion on all aspects of Theravāda Buddhism
sunnat
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Re: Yellow Page Teachings - Ajahn Jayasāro

Post by sunnat »

saadhu saadhu saadhu
:anjali: :anjali: :anjali:
Alino
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Re: Yellow Page Teachings - Ajahn Jayasāro

Post by Alino »

=Māgha Pūjā=

"In Thailand, there are still many Buddhists alive today who had the good fortune to attend gatherings of the disciples of Luang Boo Man. To be able to pay respect to a Sangha including perhaps five or six or even more arahants is a wonderful experiance, one that those people will always cherish. Coming into the presence of those who have fully realized the true profundity of the teachings adds a further uplifting dimension to our faith in the Dhamma.

Wednesday 16th February is Māgha Pūjā day. This is the day when Thai Buddhists celebrate what they consider to be the most incredible gathering of humain beings to have ever taken place. On this day, over 2500 years ago, in a bamboo grove in northeast India, not just five or six, but 1200 arahants came together to receive instruction from the Lord Buddha. I invite you to stop reading for a moment and try to imagine the scene.

On this occasion the Buddha gave a discourse called the Ovāda Pātimokkha, a short summary of the main principles of his teaching. It was like a handbook or a checklist that these arahants would be able to refer to as they wandered through the countryside, and established their own monastic communities in the future.

In Thailand, Māgha Pūjā is a day to practice generosity and to take eight precepts. It is a day to chant the Ovāda Pātimokkha and to reflect on its meaning. It is a day to re-commit to its most basic injunction:
Abandon all defiled actions of body, speech and mind.
Cultivate all wholesome actions of body, speech and mind.
Purify the heart."

Ajahn Jayasāro
15.02.22
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YPT - 2022.02.15.jpg
We don't live Samsara, Samsara is living us...

"Form, feelings, perceptions, formations, consciousness - don't care about us, we don't exist for them"
Alino
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Re: Yellow Page Teachings - Ajahn Jayasāro

Post by Alino »

We don't live Samsara, Samsara is living us...

"Form, feelings, perceptions, formations, consciousness - don't care about us, we don't exist for them"
Alino
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Joined: Thu Oct 01, 2020 3:15 pm
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Re: Yellow Page Teachings - Ajahn Jayasāro

Post by Alino »

=Feeling tone of the mind=

"One of the most fundamental aspects of our physical experience is the presence or absence of warmth. Subjectivity, we can classify this experiance as feeling hot, cold, neither hot nor cold. We often pay little attention to this phenomenon, especially when we feel neither hot nor cold. Nevertheless, if at any moment we ask ourselves whether we feel hot, cold or neither, we can answer immediately.

Just as the relative warmth of our body is a physical constant, so is 'vedanā' a mental constant. Vedanā is usually translated as 'feeling' but it is best understood as the moment-to-moment feeling tone of the mind. It may also be subjected to a three-fold classification : pleasant, unpleasant and neutral.

Lack of awareness of vedanā has serious repercussions. Without mindfulness, pleasant feeling conditions greed, unpleasant feeling conditions avertion and neutral feeling conditions heedlessness and all its attendant defilements.

Just as we can ask ourselves whether we are hot, cold or neither, meditators must constantly turn to the mind's feeling tone : right now is it pleasant, unpleasant or neutral? Only in this way can we protect the mind from craving, attachment and suffering."

Ajahn Jayasāro
19.02.22
Attachments
YPT - 2022.02.19.jpg
We don't live Samsara, Samsara is living us...

"Form, feelings, perceptions, formations, consciousness - don't care about us, we don't exist for them"
sunnat
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Joined: Tue Apr 02, 2019 5:08 am

Re: Yellow Page Teachings - Ajahn Jayasāro

Post by sunnat »

saadhu saadhu saadhu

This post and the one earlier about the breath are together so important. Add one about keeping the precepts, and why, there is the Buddha's teachings in a nutshell. One can go far if only knowing this.
Alino
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Re: Yellow Page Teachings - Ajahn Jayasāro

Post by Alino »

=The Morning Star=

"In a discourse in the Itivuttaka the Buddha teaches that by far the most powerful and beautiful means of making merit is by liberating the mind through mettā (loving-kindness) meditation. He says that released by mettā the heart 'shines forth, bright and radiant'.
The Buddha illustrates his point with three similes : releasing the heart with mettā exceeds other merit making practices as the light of the full moon outshines the combined light of all the stars in the sky.
The heart released by mettā dispels inner darkness as does the sun rising in the clear cloudless skies that follow the end of the rainy season, dispel the darkness of space.
The heart released by mettā is as beautiful and luminous as the Morning Star at the moment of dawn.

In our efforts to apply the teachings of the Buddha in the midst of pressures and responsibilities of modern life, a heart filled with mettā which refuses to accept boundaries or exceptions, can be the light which illuminates our path."

Ajahn Jayasāro
22.02.22
Attachments
YPT - 2022.02.22.jpg
We don't live Samsara, Samsara is living us...

"Form, feelings, perceptions, formations, consciousness - don't care about us, we don't exist for them"
Alino
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Joined: Thu Oct 01, 2020 3:15 pm
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Re: Yellow Page Teachings - Ajahn Jayasāro

Post by Alino »

We don't live Samsara, Samsara is living us...

"Form, feelings, perceptions, formations, consciousness - don't care about us, we don't exist for them"
Alino
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Joined: Thu Oct 01, 2020 3:15 pm
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Re: Yellow Page Teachings - Ajahn Jayasāro

Post by Alino »

=I should be better=

"If someone were to say to us that they think that they should not be who they are, that they should be someone else, someone better, it would sound sad and we might even worry about their mental health.

But it is common to hear people say that they know that they should be better than they are - better parents, better Buddhists, better people. Speaking like this is often taken to be a sign of humility or sincerity. In fact, they are merely making a claim - clearly absurd - that they should not be who they are.

The best response to statements beginning with, 'I should be...' is, 'Why should you?!'

If we have certain standards and ideals that we are not living up to, it may be that those standards and ideals are unrealistic and need to be modified. This is the first thing to examine. If not, there are certain causes and conditions preventing us from living up to our ideals. Our task is to identify them and work on eliminating them. It's as simple as that. There's no need to compound the difficulty by investing in the idea of a 'bad, inadequate me' who 'should be better'."

Ajahn Jayasāro
26.02.22
Attachments
YPT - 2022.02.26.jpg
We don't live Samsara, Samsara is living us...

"Form, feelings, perceptions, formations, consciousness - don't care about us, we don't exist for them"
Alino
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Re: Yellow Page Teachings - Ajahn Jayasāro

Post by Alino »

=If beings knew as I know=

"Some of the Buddha's teachings we can verify without much difficulty. We can apply his analysis of the causes of humain happiness and pain to our own lives, and see whether it holds up to scrutiny. For example, the Buddha says that unselfish act of kindness and generosity bring joy to the mind. When we discover such observations to be true, our faith in his wisdom steadily grows.

There are also many of the Buddha's teachings that are only verifiable to a well-trained mind. Indeed, some can only be verified by the mind of an arahant. In such cases, we do not adopt these teachings out of blind faith. We do so with the confidence that time and time again the Buddha has proved worthy of our trust. In those areas in which we have been able to put his teaching on the test, they have never let us down.

This willingness to trust the Buddha come to the fore in the teachings on kamma and rebirth. Without it, our inability to create mental images of such profound matters may seem an important obstacle to acceptance of their truth.

On one occasion the Buddha revealed why taking his teachings on trust may have major implications for how we live our lives.

'Bhikkhus, if beings knew as I know, the result of giving and sharing, they would not eat without having given, nor would they allow the stain of meanness to obsess them and take root in their minds. Even if it were their last morsel, their last mouthful, they would not eat without having shared it, if there were someone to share it with. But, bhikkhus, as beings do not know, as I know, the result of giving and sharing, they eat without having given, and the stain of meanness obsessed them and take root in their minds.'"

Ajahn Jayasāro
01.03.22
Attachments
YPT - 2022.03.01.jpg
We don't live Samsara, Samsara is living us...

"Form, feelings, perceptions, formations, consciousness - don't care about us, we don't exist for them"
Alino
Posts: 650
Joined: Thu Oct 01, 2020 3:15 pm
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Re: Yellow Page Teachings - Ajahn Jayasāro

Post by Alino »

We don't live Samsara, Samsara is living us...

"Form, feelings, perceptions, formations, consciousness - don't care about us, we don't exist for them"
Alino
Posts: 650
Joined: Thu Oct 01, 2020 3:15 pm
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Re: Yellow Page Teachings - Ajahn Jayasāro

Post by Alino »

=Classroom of the present moment=

"Practice is not just a matter of establishing ourselves in the present moment. It is the values and qualities of mind that we bring to it which are crucial.

Present moment awareness is not purifying in itself. Safe crackers know how to be in the present. Narcissists preening in front of an audience are very much in the present moment, but their narcissism is fed by it rather than undermined. Artists and sport stars can often be very intensely focused on the present moment, but on emerging from it, the experiance has no discernable effect on their moral or spiritual maturity.

The present moment is the only classroom in which we can learn the meaning of the Four Noble Truths as a direct experiance. Taking our seat in that classroom we must be equipped with Right View, humility, a sharp eye and a sincere love of truth. Now we are ready to seek the most profound liberation - freedom from the tyranny of 'me' and 'mine'.

Ajahn Jayasāro
05.03 22
Attachments
YPT - 2022.03.05.jpg
We don't live Samsara, Samsara is living us...

"Form, feelings, perceptions, formations, consciousness - don't care about us, we don't exist for them"
sunnat
Posts: 1431
Joined: Tue Apr 02, 2019 5:08 am

Re: Yellow Page Teachings - Ajahn Jayasāro

Post by sunnat »

An occasional difficulty I've had with `view' is its synonym 'opinion' which implies an intellectual activity. For me 'attitude' or 'mindset' or sometimes 'inclination' works better. It's like friendliness or metta is not an opinion but a way of being. Metta as an intellectual activity is empty of the essence that liberates, for example.

all that aside, thank you once again, dear Ajahn, for yet another edifying instruction. And thank you dear Alino for posting these.
Alino
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Re: Yellow Page Teachings - Ajahn Jayasāro

Post by Alino »

=Particles and waves=

"I was never an enthusiastic student of the hard sciences. One topic in physics did, however, capture my attention. I discovered that light could be understood as being composed of either particles or waves. I was fascinated that a single entity could be seen in two apparently mutually exclusive ways. The best explanation I found was this : if you ask light particle questions it will give particle answers. If you ask it wave questions it will give wave answers.

Later, I considered that the mind is somewhat similar to light in this regard. If you ask the mind content questions it gives content answers; if you ask it process questions it gives process answers.

Content questions are important. We need to ask ourselves questions like 'On what grounds do I take this to be true?', 'In this situation what is the right thing to do? Is this wholesome? Is thinking in this way on this topic taking me closer to liberation from suffering, or trying me more firmly to it?'.

But content questions can only take us a certain distance long the Buddhist path. We also need to know how to shift our focus away from content to process. We ask 'What conditions the arising of this mental state? What conditions its disappearance? Can i observe this arising and passing away - the universal nature of all phenomena - in real time as a direct experiance?' It is in shifting emphasis from content to process that our Dhamma practice becomes profound."

Ajahn Jayasāro
12.03.22
Attachments
YPT - 2022.03.12.jpg
We don't live Samsara, Samsara is living us...

"Form, feelings, perceptions, formations, consciousness - don't care about us, we don't exist for them"
Alino
Posts: 650
Joined: Thu Oct 01, 2020 3:15 pm
Contact:

Re: Yellow Page Teachings - Ajahn Jayasāro

Post by Alino »

=Being good at getting better=

"Recently, I much enjoyed reading the words of an American sportsman. He said that he had never had a great deal of natural talent, but have achieved success through 'being good at getting better'. What a wonderful phrase! Love of learning, perseverance, continuity of application, care for the small details and making regular marginal gains are the hallmarks of champions in training. An Olympic gold medallist swimmer has commented, 'People don't know how ordinary success is.' As Buddhists we might add that when we take full responsibility for the ordinary the door to the extraordinary is opened.

Meditation can be frustrating when we desire more than marginal gains while putting forth less than optimal effort. Many people want peace of mind without abandoning the causes of its lack. A good corrective to this tendency is to establish goals within the practice itself. Taking each element of Dhamma practice we can resolve to being good at getting better at it. Marginal gains accumulate."

Ajahn Jayasāro
15.03.22
Attachments
YPT - 2022.03.15.jpg
We don't live Samsara, Samsara is living us...

"Form, feelings, perceptions, formations, consciousness - don't care about us, we don't exist for them"
Alino
Posts: 650
Joined: Thu Oct 01, 2020 3:15 pm
Contact:

Re: Yellow Page Teachings - Ajahn Jayasāro

Post by Alino »

Hello friends,

I have finally uploaded all archives I had. Enjoy and share 🙏

https://t.me/ajahnjayasaroyellowpageteachings
We don't live Samsara, Samsara is living us...

"Form, feelings, perceptions, formations, consciousness - don't care about us, we don't exist for them"
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