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en:lib:authors:thanissaro:comfortablewithtruth [2019/10/30 10:32] – docinfo_head del. Johann | en:lib:authors:thanissaro:comfortablewithtruth [2019/10/30 13:26] – Title Changed Johann | ||
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+ | ====== Comfortable with the truth ====== | ||
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+ | A mental vision is often like a physical vision. Our eyes point out. And we tend to focus on things outside as well. Especially when things aren't going well. We look for somebody/ | ||
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+ | And as it turns out that's not where the real problem is. The problem is inside. As the Buddha said, we suffer because of craving and ignorance. And one of the major issues in ignorance is not seeing where we are causing ourselves suffering. When they say ignorance of the four noble truths, that's precisely what they mean: We don't see our own craving, we don't see our own ignorance, and so we keep doing things to cause suffering, and we don't know. Or when we happen to do things right where we're not causing ourselves suffering we haven' | ||
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+ | And this ignorance is not all that mysterious. As the Buddha pointed it out in his instructions to Rahula. Lesson one in the Dharma. One, he said: "be truthful", | ||
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+ | And it is precisely those areas there that we need to know about if we're going to gain any headway and put an end to suffering. It's not a question of learning about emptiness, or Buddha nature, or anything abstract like that, but just looking at: "Look, what am I intending right here right now. What's my motivation?" | ||
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+ | And an important way to approach this is to have the right attitude towards your mistakes. Many times you don't like to admit mistakes. So that just buries them deeper and deeper in ignorance. But the Buddha, when he's teaching Rahula, taught: You should be open with your mistakes, tell them to other people, I mean. Not to get yourself all tied up in remorse. Cause that just makes the problem worse. When you get tied up in remorse it lowers your energy level, lowers your self-esteem, | ||
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+ | So this is the basic principle in Dharma principle, if you keep looking inside what's wrong that doesn' | ||
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+ | So this is why we meditate, to get more and more sensitive to our intentions and their results. Very simple, focus on the breath. See how long you can stay with your breath, see what other things come up and push you off. And then learn to be quick to come back, and learn to get quicker, so that you don't get pushed off. Usually at the beginning this is one of the most disconcerting parts of the meditation, to see how hard it is to stay focussed on something simple like this. But it's an important lesson. There are a lot of currents flowing through the mind. The Buddha calls them asavas, or fermentations, | ||
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+ | Create a good space inside the mind where you can stay right here right now, it's easier to stay here, you're more inclined to stay here, and you see more and more what's going on in the mind. And if you discover there are people dealing in drugs in the backrooms, well, here you know now. And (if you want them to?) not get established here then you can expel them from the backrooms. So that more and more this home of the mind more and more does become like a home, and less and less like a bus station. Otherwise you have control of who comes in, who comes out, what happens inside the home. And you get more and more confident being truthful with yourself. And the sense of wellbeing you develop makes it more and more amenable, nicer to keep focussed inside. In the past when you focussed inside all you saw was a mess. And so you didn't want to look there. But now you look inside, and you've got a nicer and nicer place to stay, nicer and nicer place to look at. This gets your inner eyes focussed in the right direction. Because if you really want to see the Dharma, this is where you have to look. | ||
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