Search results for: "Mindfulness"

  1. Page 102
  2. Always in Training
     … The Buddha said that the human mind is very unreliable, very quick to change. That applies to minds outside and to your mind as well. So you have to have a couple of ways of reminding yourself of the need for heedfulness. And heedfulness is what? The realization that there are dangers but that they can be avoided by the way you act. If … 
  3. Humility
     … In fact, the word bhavana, “developing,” here, is the same word for meditation, but it means specifically developing whatever good qualities are needed in the mind. No matter how much effort needs to be invested in developing mindfulness and alertness, you’re happy to put in the effort. You see the benefits that come from training the mind. The same with delighting in letting … 
  4. Not Pained by Pain
     … Now, his explanation here is focused on how to give rise to a sense of pleasure, and then refine that pleasure in the course of getting the mind concentrated. Give rise to a sense of energy, and then refine the energy to have a calming effect on the mind—to get the mind into good strong concentration. But you can also use the same … 
  5. Fear of Death
     … The Buddha calls it an expansive mind state. When painful things happen in an expansive mind state, the impact is much different from things happening in a narrow and confined mind state. The image he gives is of a lump of salt placed in water. If you put the lump of salt in a glass of water, the water becomes unfit to drink. If … 
  6. The World Does Not Endure
     … You have it within your power to shape your life.” The mind is not just a result of physical events. As the Buddha said in the very first verse in the Dhammapada, the mind is the forerunner of all things. All things are achieved through the mind. It’s the mind that comes first. That’s the opposite of what a lot of people … 
  7. The Reality Principle
     … That’s an analogy for a mind that’s developed the four brahmaviharas. When you develop these limitless qualities of mind, and the mind becomes very expansive. And it’s the nature of such a mind that the results of past bad actions don’t have such an impact. They don’t impinge on the mind as much. So this is one very good … 
  8. Concentration Work
     … As you get used to being with the breath, you can’t help but notice that your mind is relating to the breath in different ways. There are times when the mind wants to simply enjoy the breathing; other times when it’s trying to figure out why it can’t enjoy it. What’s going on? Is the breath uncomfortable? Or is the … 
  9. New Feeding Habits
     … You give the mind something good to hold on to instead of the unskillful qualities it’s been following. So these two strengths—mindfulness and concentration—are like food for the mind. They strengthen the mind. You get a good place to stay, like with the breath. You breathe in a way that feels really good. Again, you’re free to do this. All … 
  10. Staying, Moving, & Neither
     … Simply open and allow, and once you’re there with that kind of energy, it’s a lot easier for the mind to settle down in a way that doesn’t require a lot of effort, a lot of exertion. This is one of the problems with reading the texts too much. We get a lot of preconceived ideas of what the mind should … 
  11. Slings and Arrows of Ordinary Fortunes
     … The more consistently you can stay with the breath, stay with the body, the more the mind will settle down. Mindfulness leads naturally into concentration this way. The concentration gives you a sense of well-being. And if you find yourself getting worked up about how the mind is not settling down tonight, tell yourself there must be someplace inside here where things are … 
  12. Independent of the World
     … And my mind is free like a wild deer.” So learn to see that relinquishment is a good thing. Giving up is a good thing. It’s a form of wealth. And finally, calm: As the Buddha said, “There really is no happiness other than peace.” Of course, he’s talking about the happiness of the mind, the peace of the mind. When you … 
  13. The Dhamma Eye
     … For instance, the origination of suffering is craving—and where is craving? It’s in the mind. What’s the origination of the causal chain that leads to craving? It’s ignorance. That, too, comes out of the mind. You then begin to realize all the other things that come out of the mind: fabrication, name-and-form, consciousness, your experience of the six … 
  14. The Buddha’s Map
     … When you’ve made up your mind you don’t want to go there, that makes it a lot easier to see these disturbances simply as little becomings forming in the mind. And you can watch the process. As you try to nip the becomings in the bud, you see more and more clearly the stages by which the mind creates a state of … 
  15. The Allure of the Hindrances
     … But you’ve got to test this one first, because the mind likes to lie to you. Sometimes some deeper issue is coming up, it’s about to come to the surface, and part of your mind just doesn’t want to face it. So its trick is to make you sleepy. So test it first. As for restlessness and anxiety, this is the … 
  16. Body & Food
    One of the basic principles of the practice is that if you want to see your mind in action, you’ve got to look at things that are very close to you. The more you deal with abstractions, the less you see. Your eyesight gets focused further and further away. As a result, you miss the motions of the mind. So you want to … 
  17. Passion, Dispassion, Compassion
     … But a mind free from passion doesn’t need that pain in order to be helpful. You see that there’s suffering and you want to help. That’s it. You don’t have to feel pain along with the people. You just see that it’s the right thing to do. The Buddha calls compassion of this sort an ornament of the mind … 
  18. New Eyes
     … Keep that in mind. As you’re sitting here, you’re harming no one. Keep that in mind. You’ve the opportunity to watch your thoughts simply as events, rather than having to use them to serve other people’s purposes and gain a living. Keep that in mind. So even though the results aren’t coming right away, a lot of other good … 
  19. The Carrot & the Stick
    To keep your mind on the path, you need to use both the carrot and the stick. Like getting a donkey: In the old days, you would put a carrot on the end of a very long pole and hold it in front of the donkey. The donkey, seeing the carrot, would walk after it. That way, you get the donkey to take your … 
  20. Goodwill & Kamma
     … The ways the seeds sprout also has to do with the quality of mind you’re bringing to the present moment. The Buddha talks about having a narrow mind or having an expansive mind. If your mind is narrow, your goodwill is narrow, your compassion is narrow, your empathetic joy is narrow, your equanimity is narrow. Your ability to deal with pain and not … 
  21. Mature Happiness
     … We develop mindfulness, which is the ability to keep something in mind—in other words, remembering that you want to gain some control over your mind and remembering what you’ve learned about how to do it. And you want to look at the mind in the right way so that you can step back from it and see it with some objectivity. To … 
  22. Load next page...