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

May your practice be for the benefit of all beings. May you aspire to be of benefit to all beings. May you realize what you are truly looking for, pursue it relentlessly despite all obstacles, and find it. PART I THE FUNDAMENTALS

Kindness toward ourselves Kindness toward others, both humans and non-humans Ability to set and respect reasonable boundaries Written communication ability Spoken communication ability Ability to skillfully support ourselves Ability to skillfully support others Generosity Patience Gratitude Persistence Honesty Integrity Dedication to service Abilit

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

successfully carry out our training in morality.

By training in insight, we can improve how we fundamentally perceive reality at a bare sensate level, such that our actual sensate experience becomes progressively clearer. This increased clarity can become hardwired into our brains, such that our baseline degree of sensate clarity increases.

The three characteristics of impermanence, dissatisfactoriness, and no-self

Finding the exact end of the out-breath is a commonly used exercise of great profundity once mastered.

The practice is this: make a quiet, mental one-word note of whatever you experience in each moment. Try to stay with the sensations of breathing, which may occur in many places, noting these quickly as “rising” (as many times as the sensations of the breath rising are experienced) and then “falling” in the same way. These are the fundamental insigh

Now, it is true that the battle is not always to the strong, nor the race to the swift, but that's the way to bet. In other words, those who: 1) do lots of practice in daily life; 2) go on more and longer retreats; 3) are more consistently able to concentrate and investigate quickly and precisely; 4) pay attention more often during their daily acti