Talk:Ken McLeod

Unsourced

• Suffering ends when we have sufficient ability in attention to be present in all experience -- even the experience of not being a separate entity.
• To cultivate right speech, listen as you talk so that you hear, with your own ears, exactly what you say and how you say it.
• Buddhism teaches that there is nothing outside us which is going to save us. An often overlooked implication of this is that there is nothing inside us that is going to save us, either.
• Choice depends on being able to perceive an alternative. If you are unable to perceive an alternative, the notion of choice is meaningless.
• The value of survival is greatly exaggerated.
• Samsara is not a place. It is the way we experience this world when our perception is distorted by ignorance.
• We think that if we collapse down on one thing, we'll understand it.
• Boredom is a surplus of attention with insufficient intention.
• Wanting to practise is not enough. You have to have intention. You have to have will.
• A good teacher seeks to give you your own knowing freely. It's a very precious gift. But like any gift, it has to be given with no strings.
• You can't know something you don't know, unless you open to the experience of not knowing.
• The point of Buddhist practice is to develop sufficient energy in attention to be present without confusion with whatever arises.
• When you can't do something, there are usually three possibilities, lack of capacity, lack of know-how, or lack of willingness. Capacity can be developed. Know-how can be learned. Unwillingness can be worked through (sometimes).
• When you are aware, you don't get to choose what you are aware of.
• You can buy a ticket, but you can't pick the destination.
• Reason is a weapon used by people who do not want to acknowledge their anger.
• All idealism is an attempt to dismiss a specific suffering or struggle from one's experience.