Search results for: "Mindfulness"

  1. Page 108
  2. A World of Limitations
     … Actions do have their results, depending on the quality of mind with which you do the action, and the quality of mind you have when you receive the results. That’s the big fact of life right there. So we learn how not to fight it, but how to use it to our advantage. This means that time spent developing good qualities of mind … 
  3. A Meditator is a Good Friend to Have
     … When they talk about things being unconscious or subconscious, it’s not that there’s a basement in the mind where whatever happens has to be unconscious and in the dark. It’s simply that we’re not paying attention. Thoughts go flitting through the mind and then leave an imprint on the body. Or events in the body can have an impact on … 
  4. To Be Debt Free
     … Many people say, “The real work is with insight, so let’s go straight to insight.” But insight doesn’t happen in a really deep way until the mind has been stilled through mindfulness, concentration, and right effort, which are the three concentration factors of the path. There are times when getting the mind into concentration seems kind of dumb. Nothing new is happening … 
  5. The Challenge
     … If you really want to see how an action gives good or bad results, you have to get the mind to be very mindful, very alert, consistently. That’s why you have to train it in mindfulness and alertness and the consistency that leads to good concentration. You focus on the breath because that helps you step out of your usual dialogue inside the … 
  6. Karma Storms
    We come to a quiet place like this and we like to think that our minds will settle down right away. There’s nothing outside to disturb us, but the problem is that we come with our karmic baggage: habits of mind that we can see in the present moment, and also old karma that we can’t see where it’s coming from … 
  7. Accepting the Buddha’s Standards
     … There has to be at least part of the mind that’s standing very still and watching whatever is happening, not the least bit stirred by those things. Otherwise you just slip along with them, accepting this as the normal way of the mind. But it doesn’t have to be that way. Part of the practice is learning that the mind at normalcy … 
  8. Discernment All Along
     … So, basically the Buddha is telling you to hold up a mirror to your mind in action. Watch the mind as it’s engaged with the breath. Watch the mind as it’s engaged with all the various skillful things that are parts of the path: virtue, concentration, discernment—and see what you can learn. It’s easiest to learn when you’re engaged … 
  9. The Limits of Old Kamma
     … We’re sitting here with lots of different potentials—potentials in the body, potentials in the mind. As we meditate we explore to see which potentials lead to the greatest happiness, the greatest pleasure. Allow the breath to be pleasurable and also notice what your mind is doing, what potentials you have in your mind: What thoughts could you be thinking right now? What … 
  10. Audacious & Undaunted
     … This is how the Buddha’s awakening is relevant to us, because from there he went on to look into his own mind in the present moment. The third knowledge, which he gained when looking there, was what ended the effluents, in other words, the outflows of the mind that keep the mind going in this process of death and rebirth and re-death … 
  11. Mind Your Own Business
     … I kept wondering, “What do people do who are watching movies every day? Isn’t their mind a cacophony?" Well, the same principle applies to your conversations, because the things you talk about to yourself and to other people start reverberating around in the mind. Then when you’re sitting here trying to get the mind quiet, and particularly if there’s been something … 
  12. How to Be an Admirable Friend
     … The trouble comes from the fact that the mind’s thoughts are out of control. So the mind needs a measure of control, and this is where you exercise that control by developing mindfulness and discernment around the breathing. So you come back to the breath. Try to make the breath as interesting as possible. In other words, notice how the breath energy has … 
  13. How to Think about Death
     … Whereas if you can train the mind to contemplate these things and find ways of perceiving your own aging, illness, and death in a way that doesn’t disturb the mind at all, that lifts a huge burden off the mind. This comes under the principle of respect for heedfulness—in other words, realizing that we have to take time to think about things … 
  14. Start with Yourself
     … Then another element in an emotion is how the mind talks to itself, the dialogue you have inside. This is why we have these chants every evening, to train the mind in telling itself the right things. For example, you remind yourself, “May all living beings be happy.” Just keep repeating that over and over in your mind. Remind yourself that this is a … 
  15. Pain & Distraction
     … After all, the whole purpose of the practice here is to develop purity of mind, and purity of mind is just this: that the mind can separate itself from things. It can let go of whatever comes up. Doesn’t have to latch on. Isn’t hungry. Doesn’t have to feed. Ajaan Fuang’s comment was that everything else that happens in the … 
  16. Karma in the Present
     … You want to give the mind a good place to stay so that it has the strength to do what it knows is right. Another way of bringing good karma to the present moment, a good attitude to the present moment, is developing thoughts of goodwill. This works in several directions: First it creates a basis for skillful ideas in your mind so that … 
  17. What’s Important
     … There’s a desire in the mind for freedom. There’s a desire in the mind for integrity. There’s a desire in the mind to be honest, to be truthful. These desires exist, too. So, it’s not that we’re totally denying desire. We’re simply sorting our desires out and trying to give prominence to the ones that are most honorable … 
  18. Giving Meaning to Life
     … As you work on the path, you begin to see how the mind creates a thought world and you realize that you have the choice to go into that thought world or not. As you develop more and more mindfulness, more and more alertness, you understand these processes of the mind. Through understanding them, you can free yourself from them. You don’t have … 
  19. Over-informed
     … So what did he do? He got his mind into that state and he asked the question, “Is there still some stress here?” He realized it was in the directed thought and the evaluation. What happened if you drop that? In the beginning, the directed thought and evaluation were necessary parts of getting the mind to settle down, because otherwise, if you didn’t … 
  20. One Foot in the Present
     … Just make up your mind that if you do catch yourself losing the breath, you’re not going to berate yourself, you’re not going to get upset. You’ll just notice the fact that you’ve moved off the breath and come right back to it. Remember: It’s normal, especially if you’re new to the meditation. The mind isn’t yet … 
  21. Be Observant
     … Start with the breath because the breath is nearby, and the movements of the breath are more obvious than the movements of the mind. Ultimately, you’re going to want to turn around and look at the mind itself, but the mind is extremely subtle and fast. So you practice first with things that are a little bit slower, more blatant. Try to see … 
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