“Sights, sounds, smells, tastes, everything: When you know one, you know them all. They all have the same characteristics. It’s kind of like recognizing what characteristics this chicken has. All you have to do is learn to recognize one chicken.…
“When standing, walking, sitting, and lying down, keep your mindfulness continuous at all times. This is called practicing meditation (kammatthana) correctly. The reason why our mindfulness isn’t continuous is because we don’t do it. “Doing it” isn’t something the body…
“The mind is something really important. It can kill you or it can get you out of danger. We can see this from wild animals that we tame. Wild chickens, for instance, are really afraid of people. If you pounce…
“Ever notice how the Buddha image is sitting? Is his head bent back? Is it hanging down in front? He’s sitting there just right. So right now, let’s make our bodies just right, our minds just right. If the mind…
“Whether we’re happy or sad, feel pleasure or pain, cry or sing, as long as we’re in this world, these things happen in a cage. We don’t escape from the cage. Even if we’re wealthy, we’re in a cage. If…
“When they say, “Admonish yourself,” “self” is atta. As for yourself, it’s not like that. Suppose that some water is murky. You filter it and see the clear water that comes from the murky water: “That’s clear water.” If you…
“When a child is born, we don’t see any good or bad kamma. There’s just a body. It comes naked. This shows that the things in one life can’t be held in our hands to see in the next life.…
“Tranquility is stillness that lasts only for a little while. The stillness is the foundation for insight. Insight is seeing clearly, understanding more clearly than you did before. Insight is not simply still. The stillness of tranquility is like running…
“Even when you see that something is true, you can’t grab hold of it. It’s like a dog: Try grabbing hold of a dog’s leg without letting go, and it will turn around and bite you. Or a snake: Try…
“Skillfulness doesn’t focus only on pleasure or happiness. It has to see where that happiness comes from and what it’s like. You have to use your discernment to see what it comes from. Some people think that gaining a lot…