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84 days ago
THE PING PONG BALL OF FIXATION The cause of samsara, or ultimate confusion, is holding on to vague concepts. That is what is called fixation, or in Tibetan, dzinpa. When we do not have clear perception, we must hang on to vagueness and uncertainty. In doing so, we begin to behave like a Ping-Pong ball, which does not possess any intelligence but only follows the directions of the paddle....Whatever we do, our actions are not perfectly right because, based on this neurotic game, we keep being Ping-Ponged. Although it may appear that the Ping-Pong ball is commanding the players, although it seems amazing that such a little ball has so much power to direct the players' actions and even draw spectators to watch it going back and forth -- actually, that is not true. The Ping-Pong ball is just a ball. It does not have any intelligence; it's just operating on reflex....As the Ping-Pong Ball, you feel very dizzy and you ache all over your body because you've been bounced back ...
107 days ago
REALIZING CHAOS No one can save us from the state of chaos or samsara unless we understand the meaning of chaos and confusion, unless we have experienced it and suffered from it. Otherwise, although we may be in the midst of chaos, we don't notice it. You don't begin to notice chaos until you are already on the path. Then you begin to feel uncomfortable. You feel that something is a nuisance. Something's bugging you constantly. You realize the chaos when you are already making the journey. From "The Fourth Moment," in THE SHAMBHALA SUN, March 2006, page 46
172 days ago
Random sutta Random article Abbreviations Glossary General Index Help! the whole site only the suttas only books & articles Library Authors Thanissaro Affirming the Truths of the Heart The Buddhist Teachings on Samvega & Pasada by Thanissaro Bhikkhu © 1997–2009 A life-affirming Buddhism that teaches us to find happiness by opening to the richness of our everyday lives. That's what we want — or so we're told by the people who try to sell us a mainstreamlined Buddhism. But is it what we need? And is it Buddhism? Think back for a moment on the story of the young Prince Siddhartha and his first encounters with aging, illness, death, and a wandering contemplative. It's one of the most accessible chapters in the Buddhist tradition, largely because of the direct, true-to-the-heart quality of the young prince's emotions. He saw ...191 days ago
WILLING TO MAKE MISTAKES The notion of being willing to make mistakes is just the general sense that you are no longer hopeful, that you are no longer hoping to achieve complete perfection. You are confronted with all kinds of factors -- poverty, biasedness, aggression, passion, and trying to measure yourself -- and all those situations are the opposite of being willing to make mistakes. You don't want to make mistakes; therefore you want to stick with you biasedness; you want to stick with your poverty. You want to make sure that everything goes right. ...You don't want to make mistakes; you are hoping for something good. Whereas if you abandon hope, you have no idea what you are going to get in your life. Still, whatever comes is within the context of warriorship in any case. From "Outrageousness," a talk given to the Directors of Shambhala Training, July 1978.
