Mastering the Core Teachings of the Buddha: An Unusually Hardcore Dharma Book

Five Ways to Know Yourself.

The essential premise that if you want to know more about something you should pay careful attention to it has a simple, elegant brilliance.

Thus, the Buddha taught that what we think, say, and do has consequences for our subsequent moment-to-moment experience. When undertaking training in morality, we are proceeding from the premise that we can, if we choose, control what we think, say, and do, thus creating consequences that are pleasant and beneficial, both in terms of our experience

Another quick digression here: a dangerous notion that pervades many spiritual circles is that it is bad to want to awaken, and that no discipline, effort, or application of a technique could produce awakening. These notions are completely absurd and have paralyzed or preempted the practice of far too many. I believe these ideas have come from an e

The first shamatha jhana arises after the practitioner has gained the ability to steady the mind on some object, that is, after a state called “access concentration”, meaning the level of concentration needed to access the first jhana or insight stage.

By content, I mean everything except determined effort to realize the full truth of the three characteristics of impermanence, suffering, and no-self, that is, to realize what the Buddha realized.

There is a sudden shift; many mental phenomena, particularly the main narrative thought stream, shift out away from the illusory sense of “the watcher” and are just out there along with the sensations of the other five sense doors.

While the teacher may have learned to parrot the language of ultimate reality, this is absolutely no substitute for direct realization of it.

The hindrances are formally listed as: sensory desire ill will or malice sloth/torpor restlessness/worry doubt Each of these states of mind will inhibit meditative progress if we are not aware of them as sensate objects for investigation as they arise.