Search results for: "Mindfulness"

  1. Page 106
  2. A Warrior’s Strengths
     … the mind secluded from unskillful qualities. You’ve built up a strong resistance to them, or at least some resistance to them. That’s the beginning of a wilderness mind. Then you try to see the extent to which you can carry that wilderness mind into more complicated situations. There’ll be a back-and-forth. Sometimes you find it just disappearing right in … 
  3. The Mind’s Ostinato
     … The mind has its ostinato, too. You dig down deep enough, and you find it asking a question all the time: “What’s next? What to do next? What to do next?” If the answer’s clear, the mind tends to be happy. If it’s not clear, if there are confusing signals being sent, then it gets uncertain, ill at ease. So, to … 
  4. Anger
     … But when you’re trying to overcome the anger in the mind, the lastingness of those hormones is not helpful at all. So make sure to see the thoughts and the physical symptoms as two separate things. The mind itself may have calmed down somewhat from the anger, but the physical manifestations are still present, obstructing your view of the mind, so you want … 
  5. A Practice, Personal & Social
    When you focus the mind on the breath, you’re focusing on an area that nobody else can know: how you experience the breath from within, how you experience the movements of your own mind from within. People could look at you from the outside and see the rhythm of your breathing and they might notice expressions flitting across your face, but how you … 
  6. Breath Energies
     … They talk about perceptions being mental fabrications, having an effect on the mind, but they also have an impact on the body, too. This way, you begin to see cause and effect as the causal influences goes back and forth. Certain causes in the body have an effect in the mind. Certain causes in the mind have an effect in the body. One of … 
  7. The Range of Our Responsibility
     … Basically, it’s what we do with the body, what we say with our speech and what we think with the mind: That’s our responsibility. And all of this comes out of the mind in the present moment. That’s why we focus our meditation on being more and more clear about what’s going on in the mind in the present moment … 
  8. To Purify the Heart
     … And, as the Buddha said, you use your actions in this way as a mirror to watch your mind. That’s how you purify the mind. That’s how you purify the heart. These are good basic principles to keep in mind as you practice, so that you can find the happiness you want, the happiness that won’t let you down.
  9. Encouraging Perceptions
     … So, the next question is, is it beneficial? Is it really good to say these things? Is it really good to hold these perceptions? What use do they have? What impact do they have on the mind? Even though they may be true, if they’re not having a beneficial impact on the mind, you might want to let them go. But even if … 
  10. Observe Your Concentration
     … From the sense of joy, the mind becomes serene; and when the mind is serene, it becomes concentrated. So, while you’re listening to the talk on the aggregates, you can look at your mind in concentration and see that the concentration is made up of those same five aggregates. That other passage in the suttas then goes on to explain that when you … 
  11. Looking Inward
     … You find that certain ways of breathing that are tight, constricted, and uncomfortable put the mind in a bad mood. When the mind is in a bad mood, it’s going to go out and look for trouble. Basically, that’s what it’s doing: looking for trouble. But if you breathe in other ways, you find that the mind gets soothed, feels better … 
  12. Good Eating
     … You can think back, “Well, I do have these good things in my background, these good actions that I’ve developed in the past.” That right there is food for the mind. It strengthens you. It gives you the conviction that you can do this, that you are a worthy person. Virtue is also a good form of food for the mind. When you … 
  13. Horror Stories
     … As I said earlier, the place where you’re going to find awakening is a place you’ve been many, many times before, just focused in the present moment, noticing how the breath changes, how it has an impact on the body, how it has an impact on the mind, how the mind has an impact on the breath, and how your perceptions have … 
  14. Chickens from Hell
     … One of the purposes of getting the mind into concentration is to step back from the whole process and learn to see it as it’s happening. At the same time, we practice concentration to give the mind an alternative place to feed. Otherwise, we’ll just keep feeding on whatever the chickens produce. When the Buddha provides analogies for different parts of the … 
  15. Saṃvega & Pasāda
     … Your mind begins to settle down. Concentration feels pleasant. The breath is pleasant. Your state of mind is pleasant. The world doesn’t look so bad after all. If you could maintain that state of mind, it would be very easy to live in the world and not suffer—too much. At least that’s what you think. So you need the saṁvega, a … 
  16. Willing to Learn
     … Now, to look at it requires some strength of mind, and strength of mind needs help. That’s what the path is all about. It develops the factors in the mind that can help put you in a position where you can really comprehend the suffering and stress: factors like mindfulness, alertness, skillful intentions, skillful understanding. We all already have these qualities to some … 
  17. Your Quiet Corner
     … This, of course, is an analogy for the mind itself. As the Buddha once said, in his teaching the word “world” simply refers to the world of the senses. What is there in this world? There are the eyes and there are forms. There are the ears and there are sounds. Nose, aromas; tongue, flavors; body, tactile sensations; mind and ideas: That’s the … 
  18. Inconstancy
     … So why is it that when it’s all put back together, you can see it as attractive? The mind can easily lie to itself. When you realize the mind can lie to itself—and how much it does lie to itself—that’s good protection against distracting thoughts. The same with thoughts of inconstancy: Whatever you can think of that would pull you … 
  19. Two Guardian Meditations
     … That’s a useful way of augmenting your breath meditation, giving the mind, as Ajaan Lee would say, a good place to forage for food. Another way is the development of goodwill. Goodwill is the wish for happiness—for true happiness. And it’s to be extended to all. Again, this is to lift your mind up above ill will for anybody, no matter … 
  20. Centered in the Body
    Centered in the Body May 8, 2007 In one of the suttas on mindfulness of the body, the Buddha gives an image of how we should practice. He says: Suppose there’s a man, and they’ve placed a bowl of oil on his head. The bowl is full to the brim. There’s a beauty queen who is singing and dancing, and a … 
  21. Choiceful Awareness
     … We’ve heard about all the wonderful things that happen when you gain discernment and insight arises, and so we want to be right there, right now, without building the foundation, without mastering the skills that are needed for that insight really to have an impact on the mind, to have the really desired effect—which is to train the mind not to create … 
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