Search results for: "The Mind"

  1. Page 102
  2. Peace of Mind
     … This is why fulfillment in life has to come from within, developing good qualities in the mind, because these things stick with you even after death. And they don’t have to depend on anyone else. You know when you’ve improved the mind in terms of its virtue, in terms of its kindness, in terms of equanimity when equanimity is needed, discernment when … 
  3. Balancing the Bases for Concentration
     … The more refreshing the breath, the more blissful the breath, then the easier it will be for the mind to settle in, and the concentration can start doing its work. Concentration is a really important part of the path that’s often overlooked. It’s the part of the path that heals the mind. Many times you come to meditation with a sense of … 
  4. Investment Strategies
     … something that helps you stash away good qualities for the future, because conviction comes down to the idea that the training of the mind can make all the difference in the world. As you’re sitting here focusing on the breath, you’re developing qualities that will be very useful, such as mindfulness and alertness. In other words, when you see the mind moving … 
  5. Looking After Yourself
     … There’s a school of thought saying that the practice is not a practice of doing, it’s simply a matter of allowing things to happen, allowing the mind to unfold in its natural direction. But if that were the case, the Buddha wouldn’t have stressed heedfulness so much. He said it’s the basis for all skillfulness, the basis for the skillful … 
  6. To Excel
     … They like to hear that the mind is innately good, innately luminous, and that the luminosity and the goodness are the same thing, so that the practice is simply a matter of getting in touch with your true innately good nature. In fact, the less you do, the better. That’s what we want to hear. But you look at the mind, and it … 
  7. Metta
     … For the meditation to go well, you’ve got to get the mind to settle down. If you’re thinking about how you might harm somebody, or you’re living with the results of having harmed somebody, it’s very difficult to get the mind to be still. You start thinking about unskillful things you’ve done. There may be unskillful things where you … 
  8. Seclusion
    When the mind begins to settle down, it gives rise to a sense of ease. And the ease, the texts say, comes from seclusion. So what kind of seclusion are they talking about? To begin with, there’s physical seclusion. You’re not talking to anybody else right now. You’re not interacting with other people. All the burdens of interacting with other people … 
  9. Meditation Prep
     … He’s simply telling him to replace various levels of aversion in the mind—irritation, resentment, ill will, or the desire to harm—with more positive emotions. If you notice ill will coming up in the mind, try counteracting it with goodwill. Don’t just allow the mind to stay stuck with its ill will. You do what you can to foster an attitude … 
  10. Choose Your Cravings Wisely
     … After all, to get the mind into the present moment requires some skill, and you have to be able to remember what’s involved in the skill. How do you make the most of the breath in the present moment? How do you get to the mind to be willing to settle down? These are things that you remember from what you’ve learned … 
  11. The Skills of Stillness
     … You don’t have to pull the mind back. If it happens again, drop the thought again, and you’ll be back here. Each time you come back, reward yourself with a breath that feels especially good. If there are any pains in any part of the body, you don’t have to pay them any attention yet. Focus on the parts of the … 
  12. Wild Horses
     … Just as the fire clings to the wind, the mind clings to the craving. That’s what carries you on. It might sound good that you can go where you crave to go, but craving, like wind, can go in some pretty strange places. Think about what it’s going to be like when you die. You find that you can’t stay in … 
  13. Analyzing Anger
     … When you breathe in ignorance and talk to yourself in ignorance and hold perceptions and feelings in the mind in ignorance, you’re going to suffer. When we work with these things in breath meditation, we bring knowledge to them: seeing where they’re stressful, seeing where they’re not stressful; seeing where they’re helpful, skillful, where they’re not helpful, not skillful … 
  14. Rottweilers in the House
     … You look at things that can aggravate lust, and sure enough lust starts getting stirred up in the mind. Or you listen to things that might get you angry, upset, or fearful, and there’s already a tendency in the mind to want to be upset or angry or fearful, and you’re simply adding fuel to a fire. But it’s not the … 
  15. What You Can’t Change, What You Can
     … So try to open the mind, ventilate the mind a little bit to get an idea of what can be done, what can be changed. That way, you’ll be able to sit here with the breath. If the breath is going well, you keep it going well: That’s your empathetic joy. If it’s not going well, you can change it: That … 
  16. The Sport of Wise People
     … Building a Home for the Mind November 25, 2015 The texts often talk about concentration as being a home for the mind—vihara-dhamma—the place where the mind can settle in. Before you can settle in, though, you have to build a house. And as Ajaan Lee said, the work in building this house lies in the directed thought and evaluation. You find … 
  17. Lessons from Jhana
     … the speaker in the mind, commenting on things. And just being with the perception, just the one word—instead of speaking in sentences and questions, you’re just saying that one word over and over, breath, breath, breath and focusing on one sensation—can seem a little threatening, a little difficult. But if you can convince yourself that this is what the mind can … 
  18. Getting Connected Inside
     … As you get to know the body in different ways, you begin to realize how much the mind has closed off certain ideas or certain of its own activities, so that some parts of the mind’s activities are hidden from other parts of the mind. But as you begin to open things up in the body, you begin to open things up in … 
  19. Determination
     … And once those things are dropped, it’s easier for the mind to settle in and to be willing to stay right here. And as you stay right here, you realize you’re not depriving yourself. You’re finding a new source of well-being inside. And it goes deep inside. Here it is, right close to the mind. The breath is the closest … 
  20. Reclaim Your Breath
     … You need the sense of rapture or refreshment that comes when the mind settles down and there’s a sense of balance inside the body and in the relationship between the mind and the body. That way, this bath of breath really does feel refreshing, and it goes deep, deep, deep into the brain, deep, deep into the heart, all the parts of your … 
  21. Quick on the Draw
     … As soon as you see a thought appearing in the mind that’s going to take off in that direction—and you know the direction it’s going to take you, it’s not like you haven’t had an experience with these things—you have to recognize the part of the mind that wants to go along with an unskillful thought as something … 
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