Who are you? What’s your purpose? What does “success” mean to you? These are the big questions you need to answer for yourself. Don’t let others tell you. Don’t let media moguls or politicians or workplace bosses or spirit guides or life coaches or family and friends tell you. Sure, listen to the people you admire and trust but remember that their life experiences and their visions of success aren’t yours…
It’s not uncommon for Buddhists to feel like their practice has stalled. Concentration wavers, awareness is lost, doubts arise, and the Buddha’s supreme freedom from samsara seems hopelessly unattainable. It can be an especially trying time if you’re a solitary practitioner lacking the guidance of a skilled meditation teacher. But it’s also an opportunity to straighten your views and re-affirm your refuge in the Triple Gem.
….
‘Tis the season for resolutions. The tradition of making a New Year resolution can be a useful one for cultivating the kinds of wholesome habits that the Buddha recommended (generosity, compassion, mindfulness… etc.). Here’s a collection of habit-building tips that can stop any good intentions crashing and burning by the end of January 2017. Merry Christmas everyone!
“The theme of this book is working with the Five (Mental) Hindrances (nīvarana). It is thus perhaps mainly a book for people with some experience of meditation who have encountered these Hindrances, obstructions, disturbances to some degree, and who are interested in knowing how to work with them.” – Ajahn Thiradhammo…
War, Famine, Pestilence, and Death… The world’s troubles never cease – an uncomfortable truth graphically illustrated by the 24/7 litany of horror stories being broadcast by global media corporations in all formats. The bad news is, there are no magic bullet solutions. The good news is, there are skilful behaviours for maintaining resilience and calmness…
An enlightened being remains equanimous under any circumstances. If awareness is present we, too, can recognise all experiences as impermanent (anicca) and unsatisfactory (dukkha), and we can remain calm because we do not mistake them as ‘I’, ‘me’, ‘mine’ or ‘self’ (anatta). However, we are unlikely to develop and maintain this ability if our practice is confined to a daily session on a cushion in the shrine room at the appointed time.
The psychological problems associated with modern-day consumerist societies (unrealistic aspirations, warped opinions, extreme emotions, stress, etc.) are well documented and all too commonly felt. Similar problems appear to have existed also in the Buddha’s time, around 2500 years ago, when societies were arguably simpler. The Buddha saw that these perennial existential problems arose from delusion, aversion and craving (aka the ‘three fires’) and his solution was mindfulness…
“There is a huge difference between the use of the mind to think, to analyse, reason, criticise, to have ideas, perceptions, views and opinions, and intuitive awareness which is non-critical… We’re not interested in just developing our critical faculty, because usually in countries like this it’s highly developed already, but to trust in intuitive awareness (sati-sampajanna).” – Ajahn Sumedho
THE REAL STUDY
“The eight factors of the Eightfold Path of the Buddha, the path of practice, are nothing other than this very body: two eyes, two ears, two nostrils, one tongue, and one body. This is the Path. And the mind is the one who follows the Path. Therefore both the study and the practice exist in our body, speech, and mind…” – Ajahn Chah
![Resin Buddha III (PJL 10-2014) [SAM_8860_1_2_fused]](http://trustinginbuddha.co.uk/wp-content/uploads/2014/10/Resin-Buddha-III-PJL-10-2014-SAM_8860_1_2_fused.jpg)
Realising that all is impermanent and nothing whatsoever should be craved, the Buddha was able to overcome dukkha (angst, inner turmoil… etc.) by letting go experiences and opinions and thoughts of ‘self’ and ‘world’…
