Search results for: "Mindfulness"
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- Animals in the MindAs we sit here focusing on the breath, we’re developing what’s called mindfulness immersed in the body. You keep the body in mind and you try to fill the body with your awareness, allowing your awareness to spread out and be filled with body. Don’t squeeze off your awareness of the body, which is something we normally do an awful lot …
- Taking StockOkay, after all these many days of activity, try to find a quiet spot in your mind. Put everything else aside and just be with the breath. That’s it: awareness and breath. As for the thoughts that may be buzzing around in the mind, just let them buzz away. You don’t have to chase them down; you don’t have to do …
- CharacterAs we practice keeping the breath in mind, we bring three qualities to the practice. The first is mindfulness, which is the ability to keep something in mind. In this case, you’re remembering to stay with the breath. And you’re also remembering the lessons you’ve learned from your past meditations—things that worked, things that didn’t work—so that when …
- Near to the Buddha… We meditate on the mind; we meditate on the breath. The breath is the closest thing in the world to your mind. Even in your own body, there’s nothing that’s closer to you than the breath. When you learn to develop qualities of mindfulness, alertness, ardency, concentration, discernment around the breath, then every time you breathe, there they are, right nearby. In …
- A Good Mood to Meditate… Here you’ve got this opportunity sit here quietly watching your mind. It’s an opportunity that rarely comes. Most people in the world are either too rich or too poor, too busy with their work, too enthralled with their pleasures, to have the time, to take the time, to really get to know their own mind. You’ve got the opportunity right now …
- 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 …
- 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 …
- 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 …
- 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 …
- 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 …
- 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.
- 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 …
- 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 …
- 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 …
- 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 …
- 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 …
- 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 …
- 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 …
- 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 …
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