Search results for: "The Mind"

  1. Page 104
  2. Your Desire to Practice
     … Because you begin to realize that events in the mind and events in the body are very closely connected. When you have this all-around vision of the body, you begin to have an all-around vision of the mind. A couple of weeks back, I was up in Canada, and somebody asked me about an experiment. He said that the experiment had proven … 
  3. Where You Set Your Heart
     … When we practice mindfulness in the way the Buddha described it, being very careful about where we do focus the mind and where we don’t focus the mind, of course it’s going to lead the mind to right concentration. The instructions for right mindfulness are just that: instructions on how to get the mind into right concentration. In fact, the Thai translation … 
  4. Centered in the Body
     … Walking meditation is a good opportunity to see how the mind flows out. You’re trying to maintain your center and you notice that it gets a little wobbly. Okay, why is it getting a little wobbly? It’s not so much from the impact of things flowing in. It’s things flowing out. There’s a physical sense that goes with the mind … 
  5. Good Heart, Good Mind
     … You need the discernment to realize that there are things in the mind that are more important than the survival of the body. The survival of your goodness is more important. And your ability to put up with pain: That, too, requires endurance and discernment. Your determination to make sure that your goodwill stays in place. All these things are perfections, which is one … 
  6. Samvega vs. Dispassion
     … to get the mind quiet so that you can really observe what’s going on, so that you can see, when the mind moves to something: Why is it moving there? We practice concentration together with restraint of the senses, all based on that principle that the Buddha taught to Rahula right from the very beginning, the principle of truthfulness. Why are you going … 
  7. Just One Person
     … We’re looking into the mind. First, give the mind a good place to stay so you can look at it well. Try to get to know your breath really well. Settle in. As the Buddha said, “Leap upward,” or “Leap in”—the word can be translated either way—pakkhandati. Leap up at the breath. Leap into the breath. Grow confident in the breath … 
  8. Feel-Good Religion
     … When you’re here, society impinges a lot less on the mind. But the problem is that you don’t yet have mental seclusion. You’re still bringing in with you all the issues of the past week, or the next week, whatever, weighing yourself down with all kinds of companions—and they’re not necessarily good companions. The mind that carries the past … 
  9. Worlds to Watch Out For
     … But a lot of it has to do with our interpretive code, the way the mind reads things. And if you find that your code is getting the mind worked up—it’s creating unskillful habits, unskillful mind states—you can change. This power to change is what the meditation’s all about. In fact, the Buddha’s teachings are all about the power … 
  10. Grounded in the Breath
     … So when you’ve surveyed the mind, surveyed the breath, surveyed the body, try to bring them together in a way that feels good. Stay based here in the breath. When the Buddha talks about the different stages of breath meditation, he talks about the steps dealing with the body, the steps dealing with feelings, the steps dealing with the mind, and then the … 
  11. A Meditator’s Environment
     … Sometimes the mind is out looking for trouble, listening for trouble. You’ve got to get some control over that, because if you can’t control that in the course of your daily life, it’s going to be really hard to control the mind as it settles down to concentrate. So you pay attention to your engagement in the senses with a strong … 
  12. Oneness
     … Part of the mind might object: “This is stupid. You’re not thinking about anything.” But that’s precisely the point: You don’t have to think about anything. The mind needs this opportunity to rest, to gain energy. Ajaan Lee compares this to putting a knife in a scabbard. You want to make sure that your knife is sharp when you need it … 
  13. The Safety of Dualities
     … That implies that our actions make a difference, and because our actions come from our intentions, and our intentions come from our minds, it’s worthwhile to train the mind. You want to get the mind really still so that you can see, when it moves, whether its movements are skillful or not. As you get deeper into the processes of the mind, you … 
  14. Nobody’s Servant
     … developing the qualities we need right here, right now, food for the mind, the sense of well-being that comes when you focus on the breath. Allow the breath to become comfortable, think of the sensitive parts in your body and how the breath might nourish them. Sometimes just thinking of that as a possibility changes the way you breathe, changes the way you … 
  15. Judging Just Right
     … In other words, we have to approach this as a skill, because it is possible for the mind to get into really heavy states of concentration where everything blanks out. You have no sense of the body. Nothing is going on at all, and no discernment can arise in that kind of concentration. And of course it’s very easy to get the mind … 
  16. Respect for Happiness
     … One of the Buddha’s terms for the mind when it settles down with the breath in the present moment is vihara dhamma, “a home for the mind.” A lot of us live like homeless people. The mind doesn’t have a place where it can find shelter, where it can feel safe. So you wander around, and you put up with all kinds … 
  17. Success by Approximation
     … The calming ones are useful for when the mind is feeling frenetic; the energizing ones, for when the mind is feeling sluggish. So even with skillful qualities, you have to learn how to make distinctions. Beyond that, there are levels of concentration, levels of equanimity, levels of right view. These things will progress as you go on the path, until the mind is totally … 
  18. Persistence: Lift Your Heart
     … You have parts of the mind that are on the side of the Buddha, and parts of the mind that are on the other side. A lot of right effort is learning how to convert the parts that are on the other side—either that or to abandon them, and to want to abandon them. This is an important element of having strong persistence … 
  19. Opportunities Everywhere
     … The things that’ll be helpful are the good qualities you’ve developed in the mind, the understanding you’ve developed about how the mind creates states of becoming: again, more of those balloons. At that particular point, it’s going to be especially serious because if you get in a particular balloon, you might find yourself in a whole other body in a … 
  20. A Clear Sense of Priorities
     … When you begin to ask those questions, you find that the practice starts making deeper inroads in the mind and really benefits you in ways that it couldn’t have otherwise. On a very simple level, take the practice of being mindful as you go through your daily activities. Now, mindfulness here covers both mindfulness and alertness. In other words, have a strong sense … 
  21. Active Truth
     … And the only way you can do that is to put the mind in a position where it doesn’t feel threatened by the stress. That’s what the path is for — and particularly the heart of the path: Right Concentration, putting the mind in a state of ease, even rapture, focused on one thing. This gives the mind a sense of power, a … 
  22. Load next page...