The Quotable Thanissaro

A discussion on all aspects of Theravāda Buddhism
dhammapal
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Re: The Quotable Thanissaro

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Thanissaro Bhikkhu wrote:Focus your attention on the positive things that could be done with the little amount of time you might have. And this doesn’t have to be just the little amount of time before death. It can also be the little amount of time you have where you’ve stopped at a stop light, taken a small break at work, when you’re waiting in a doctor’s office, when you’re waiting for the meditation session to begin. It seems like just a little bit of time, but often with little bits of time like that we tend to kill them. “Well, there’s nothing much I can do now, so I might as well just relax for a bit,” or whatever. But actually there’s a lot that can be done in a little bits of time.
From: The Positive Side of Heedfulness by Thanissaro Bhikkhu
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Re: The Quotable Thanissaro

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Thanissaro Bhikkhu wrote:When I first went to stay with Ajaan Fuang, one of the questions I asked him was, "What do you need to believe in order to meditate?" He answered that there was only one thing: the principle of kamma. Now when we hear the word "kamma," we usually think, "kamma-and-rebirth," but he meant specifically the principle of action: that what you do shapes your experience. If you're convinced of this, you can do the meditation because, after all, the meditation is a doing. You're not just sitting here, biding your time, waiting for the accident of Awakening to happen. Even in very still states of meditation, there's an activity going on. Even the act of "being the knowing" is still a doing. It's a fabrication, a sankhara.
From: Tuning-in to the Breath by Thanissaro Bhikkhu
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Re: The Quotable Thanissaro

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Thanissaro Bhikkhu wrote:Mindfulness of death. As the passages collected here show, the Buddha taught this topic not to induce a feeling of depression or hopelessness, or a sense of sentimental nostalgia for the beauties of the world. He taught it to encourage heedfulness, a sense that a great deal needs to be done in training the mind, and that not much time remains to do it. Thus mindfulness of death fosters an appreciation of what human life offers the opportunity to do. What is valuable about life is not the pleasures that can be experienced, but the skillful mental qualities that can be developed. Death is not the end, but a transition, and the transition will be easy or difficult depending on the qualities one has built into one's mind. Because there is no way of knowing when death will come, one should focus each day on which skillful qualities of mind most need developing, and which unskillful ones most need abandoning. Mindfulness of death is thus an excellent practice for ordering one's priorities. As AN6:19, AN6:20, SN3:25 and MN131 point out, today may be one's last day in this life. What remains to be done? Some ideas are offered by AN4:184, which point out the mental traits that lead one to fear death, and SN44:9 and Snp5:15, which point out the traits by which death leads to rebirth. If one focuses on lessening and eradicating these traits, one's mindfulness of death can actually lead to the deathless.
From: A Meditator's Tools: A Study Guide on the Ten Recollections by Thanissaro Bhikkhu
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Re: The Quotable Thanissaro

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Question: Did your interest [in Buddhism] grow at Oberlin?

Thanissaro Bhikkhu: During my sophomore year, during Oberlin's very first winter term, Don Swearer, a professor of religion, brought in a monk from Japan and a monk from Thailand to teach meditation. I signed up immediately. I remember thinking, "This is a really cool skill. You sit down and breathe, and you come up an hour later a much better person." That's what I liked about meditation from the beginning: learning how to bring your mind under control and find happiness inside.
From: Being A Monk: A Conversation with Thanissaro Bhikkhu by Rich Orloff '73, Oberlin College Alumni Magazine Spring 2004
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Re: The Quotable Thanissaro

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Thanissaro Bhikkhu wrote:The high value that the Buddha placed on shame contrasts sharply with the way it’s regarded in many segments of our culture today. In business and in politics, shame is all too often viewed as weakness. Among therapists, it’s commonly seen as pathological — an unhealthy low opinion of yourself that prevents you from being all that you can. Book after book gives counsel on how to overcome feelings of shame and to affirm feelings of self-worth in their place.

It’s easy to understand this general reaction against shame. The emotion of shame — the sense that you don’t look good in the eyes of others — is a powerful one. It’s where we allow the opinion of other people into our psyches, and all too often unscrupulous people take advantage of that opening to trample our hearts: to bully us and force on us standards of judgment that are not in our genuine best interests. It’s bad enough when they try to make us ashamed of things over which we have little or no control: race, appearance, age, gender, sexual orientation, level of intelligence, or financial status. It’s even worse when they try to shame us into doing harm, like avenging old wrongs.

But efforts to avoid these problems by totally abolishing shame miss an important point: There are two kinds of shame — the unhealthy shame that’s the opposite of self-esteem, and the healthy shame that’s the opposite of shamelessness. This second kind of shame is the shame that the Buddha calls a bright guardian and a treasure. If, in our zeal to get rid of the first kind of shame, we also get rid of the second, we’ll create a society of sociopaths who care nothing for other people’s opinions of right or wrong — or who feel shame about all the wrong things. Businessmen and politicians who see no shame in lying, for instance, feel shame if they’re not at least as ruthless as their peers. And for all the general dismissal of shame, advertisers still find that shame over your body or ostensible wealth is a powerful tool for selling products. When all shame gets pathologized, it goes underground in the mind, where people can’t think clearly about it, and then sends out tentacles that spread harm all around us.

This is where the Buddha’s teachings on healthy shame can be a useful antidote, helping to bring the topic into the open and to show that, with proper training, shame can be a great force for good.
From: In the Eyes of the Wise: The Buddha’s Teachings on Honor & Shame by Thanissaro Bhikkhu
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Re: The Quotable Thanissaro

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Thanissaro Bhikkhu wrote:As you gain more conviction in the Buddha’s awakening and see in particular the results of holding to the principle of action, the principle of karma, you do what you can to encourage others to do that, too. Now, you don’t become an unpleasant proselytizer. You’re not an evangelist here. But in cases where you see that people are open and are receptive, you want to share with them the benefits of your practice. Say, “This works for me. It might work for you.” The same with wisdom and discernment: It’s good to be able to share what you’ve got, to encourage other people to develop their wisdom and their discernment as well.
From: Can All Beings Be Happy? by Thanissaro Bhikkhu
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Re: The Quotable Thanissaro

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Thanissaro Bhikkhu wrote:We talk about the mind clinging, the mind hanging on to things, but it doesn't have hands to cling. When it "clings to something" it just keeps thinking about it over and over and over again, it keeps wanting it over and over and over again. To let go of the clinging means that you just let it stop. And the only way you can let it stop is to get out of it and see it simply as an event in the mind.
From: Cherish Your Friends by Thanissaro Bhikkhu
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Re: The Quotable Thanissaro

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Thanissaro Bhikkhu wrote:Generosity is what opens the heart, makes you realize that you have a lot that you can share with others and that once you’ve shared something it really becomes yours. As the Buddha said, if beings of the world knew the rewards of generosity the way he did, they wouldn’t eat without sharing, even if it were their last meal. As long as there was somebody there to share it with, they would share. And you don’t have to think about the rewards in another lifetime. You can think of the rewards right now: the quality of heart that goes with the fact that “I can give this to somebody, I don’t need to hoard it all for myself.” The hoarder’s mind is very narrow and what happens as a result of hoarding, as the Buddha said, is the very thing that hoarders are afraid of: poverty.
From: Life in the Context of the Practice by Thanissaro Bhikkhu
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Re: The Quotable Thanissaro

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Thanissaro Bhikkhu wrote:It's important to reflect on what true happiness is and where it can be found. A moment's reflection will show that you can't find it in the past or the future. The past is gone and your memory of it is undependable. The future is a blank uncertainty. So the only place we can really find happiness is in the present. But even here you have to know where to look. If you try to base your happiness on things that change — sights, sounds, sensations in general, people and things outside — you're setting yourself up for disappointment, like building your house on a cliff where there have been repeated landslides in the past. So true happiness has to be sought within. Meditation is thus like a treasure hunt: to find what has solid and unchanging worth in the mind, something that even death cannot touch.
From: Basic Breath Meditation Instructions by Thanissaro Bhikkhu
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Re: The Quotable Thanissaro

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Thanissaro Bhikkhu wrote:The fourth quality of an admirable friend is discernment. You really do understand how the mind creates suffering. You can see it in action, so that you can avoid it. This is the attitude that makes you a genuine friend to yourself, because the mind wants happiness. Everything we do is for the sake of happiness. And yet we always turn around and find that, while some of the things we’ve done have actually created happiness, a lot of the things we’ve done have not. They created just the opposite. Why was that? Because we had no discernment. We were ignorant of what we were doing, ignorant of the effects, ignorant of the motivation going on inside our minds. Things we should be very clear about — right here in our own minds — we tend to be muddled about because we’re paying attention to things far away. This is where we’re not really a friend to ourselves.

To be truly a friend to yourself, you have to look carefully at your actions. Before you do something, ask yourself, “What are the consequences going to be?” You don’t do something just because you feel like doing it. You do it because you think it’s going to have a good impact. If you see that it’s going to have a bad impact, then no matter how much you want to do it, you learn how to say No. That’s an aspect of discernment right there: learning how to say No to yourself when you have to, and making it stick.

While you’re doing something, watch the results that are actually arising. If you notice that even though you meant well, your actions are not having a good impact, stop. If you don’t see anything harmful happening, you can continue with the action. When you’re done, reflect on the long-term consequences. If the action actually did cause trouble, talk it over with somebody. Don’t be too embarrassed. Point out to them: “I did this, and these were the consequences.” That way, you learn from other people’s wisdom. The fool is someone who thinks he can figure out everything on his own. We’ve had who knows how many generations of people practicing the Dhamma now. There are bound to be people who’ve learned how to avoid mistakes and how to avoid things that may seem okay but are actually going to cause trouble down the line.

In this way, you take your happiness seriously. That’s what discernment is all about: realizing that as long as you have the power to act, you might as well use it well for genuine happiness, and doing what you can to learn. In this way, you cause less trouble for other people, and you set a good example. You’re a friend to them and a friend to yourself.
From: How to Be an Admirable Friend by Thanissaro Bhikkhu
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Re: The Quotable Thanissaro

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Thanissaro Bhikkhu wrote:Sometimes we read the passages in the Satipatthana Sutta about how you can gain Awakening in seven days if you're really dedicated, and we come away with unrealistic ideas about how quickly we should see results in order to deem our practice successful. This is not to say that it's not possible, but just that most of the people who could get results in seven days have already gotten results and gone to nibbana. That leaves the rest of us here muddling along — which doesn't mean we should be any less dedicated in our practice. We should just realize that it's going to take time.
From: Patience by Thanissaro Bhikkhu
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Re: The Quotable Thanissaro

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Thanissaro Bhikkhu wrote:Think about it: Why would you want anyone else to suffer? You might think about the evil or cruel things they've done in the past, but even then why would you want them to suffer? To learn a lesson? Well, they're going to learn their lesson because the principle of karma is going to take care of that — that's why the teaching on equanimity is there — so you don't have to go out and be God's vengeful sword to make sure that everyone gets their just punishments. Your only job is to make sure there are no limits on your goodwill. When people have done horrible things, you don't have to like them; you don't have to condone their behavior. That's not what goodwill means. Goodwill means that you don't wish anyone harm. If they're doing horrible things, you have every right to stop them if you can — after all, in doing horrible things, they're creating bad karma, more suffering for themselves. Just make sure that you don't harm them in trying to stop them.
From: The Sublime Attitudes by Thanissaro Bhikkhu
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Re: The Quotable Thanissaro

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Thanissaro Bhikkhu wrote:Often, when people have made up their minds to straighten out the world, the things they do to straighten out the world tend to get very unskillful and they end up making things worse. They don't like other people's greed, anger, and delusion, yet in the course of trying to straighten them out, they inflict them with their own greed, anger, and delusion. They simply compound the problem.

So your only responsibility to the world is to focus on doing what's skillful. That's all you have to take care of. As for the working out of everybody else's karma, that will work out on its own without your having to get involved. Just make sure that your own present karma is skillful.

One thing you can do that's skillful right now is to allow the mind to settle down with the breath. There's no unfinished business with other people that you've got to take care of right now. Your unfinished business is to see how skillful you can be in the way you direct your mind, for if you want true happiness this is what you've got to do. You're not going to find true happiness by straightening out the world, but you can find true happiness by straightening out the mind. Doing skillful things, saying skillful things, thinking skillful things: This is how your world is going to become a better world.

And this is not a small or narrow minded idea. You may have read that these poor Hinayanists, all they can think about is their own individual liberation, while other Buddhists have nobler, broader aspirations: They want to save all sentient beings from suffering. Now if suffering were a thing — like a house — that you could clean up, then it would be possible to go around cleaning up other people's houses for them. But it's not a thing. It's a pattern of unskillful behavior. Each person is suffering because of his or her own lack of skill. So each person has to clean up his or her own act. You can't make other people more skillful. You can't force them to choose to be more skillful. You can't clean up their act for them. You can show them by example, by cleaning up your own act. You can recommend that they clean up theirs, but your recommendations carry weight only if you can speak from experience in how you cleaned up your act, and you can show the actual example of your own behavior. But the actual cleaning is something that each person has to do for him or herself. Nobody can save anyone else. There's no other way that the world will get clean.
From: A Load of Straw by Thanissaro Bhikkhu
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Re: The Quotable Thanissaro

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Thanissaro Bhikkhu wrote:When you’re wishing for other people’s happiness, one, you want it to be true happiness. And two, you realize that happiness, especially true happiness, has to come from understanding. People, to be happy, have to understand the causes of true happiness and be able to act on those causes.

You’re not saying, “Well, may this person who’s killing and stealing, etc., be happy killing and stealing.” You’re saying to yourself, “May they see the light, realize that the killing and stealing doesn’t lead to happiness so they can stop those things.”

So when you find it difficult to spread thoughts of goodwill to other people or try to make thoughts limitless, you really have to stop and work on your understanding of goodwill. Otherwise it becomes make-believe. You sit there sending out pink rays in all directions, but it doesn’t really mean that much. When the meditation is over, you go back to your old prejudices or your old likes and dislikes. And you find yourself really wishing that someone else would suffer. That doesn’t accomplish the purpose of goodwill. The purpose of goodwill is to establish a principle in the mind. The Buddha calls it a determination: that you’re going to have goodwill regardless.

And it’s important to think about it in those terms. This is a determination that you’re going to act on goodwill regardless of how the other person is acting or speaking or thinking. You’re going to keep in the back of your mind the thought, “I want that person to understand the causes for true happiness.” That then becomes a part of your intention as you deal with that person.
From: Goodwill for Bad People by Thanissaro Bhikkhu
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Re: The Quotable Thanissaro

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Thanissaro Bhikkhu wrote:There are passages where the Buddha describes monks who win out over lust, comparing them to soldiers who are brave and victorious in battle. The ones who give in to lust are the cowards — which, of course, goes against a lot of what our society teaches us about being macho, about gaining the object of your lust and gaining the object of your desire, beating out other people, as somehow a kind of a victory. And I’m sure that attitude existed in Indian culture as well. That’s why the Buddha had to make the point very clear that when you win out over your lust, you’re a brave soldier and not just a weakling who couldn’t make it with somebody.
From: Victory by Thanissaro Bhikkhu
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