Search results for: "The Mind"

  1. Page 109
  2. Fabricated Path, Unfabricated Goal
     … You’re here to focus on the breath, creating a mind state that allows you to see what’s going on in the mind. And whether it reaches jhana at this particular time or not, that’s not the issue. The issue is: Can you get the mind still enough to start seeing what’s going on? And comprehending what’s going on? And … 
  3. Four Bases of Success
     … Think about the good that can come when the mind is well trained. As the Buddha said, it’s the essence of any skill that’s going to give rise to happiness: You’ve got to train the mind. Otherwise, if the mind isn’t trained it can make a mess of things, even when they’re going well. It’s like having a … 
  4. The Skill of Letting Go
     … Phenomena are led by the mind, created by the mind, dominated by the mind. So you want to look inside. The next three steps have to do with not just the fact of fabrication but also the value of fabrication. First you want to see, “What is the allure of this thing that I’m attached to? What do I find attractive?” Say, with … 
  5. Virtuous Beginnings
     … You begin to see exactly where the things are that set the mind off. You gain insight into the mind. Because after all, the eye is not the problem, the ear is not the problem. It’s what the mind does with the information that gets fed into it. You start asking yourself, “Why does the mind have to take things which are perfectly … 
  6. The Community of the Wise
     … Things that have hung around in the mind so long, we think that they’re actually a permanent part of the mind, that they’re innate, that they come with us when we’re born. But they’re not. All our attitudes are things that are constructed, things that have been put together, habits that have developed over time. We want to be able … 
  7. Don’t Stop with Acceptance
     … Otherwise, when something comes up in the mind, the question is: what to do with it? For instance, with pain: The pain itself doesn’t necessarily have to make inroads on the mind. In fact, that’s what we’re training ourselves to do: to allow the experience of pain to be there, but not allow it to “invade” the mind and “remain.” Those … 
  8. Meaning & Becoming
     … We can learn how to use our processes of the mind, the mind’s ability to create all kinds of things, and we can create the path out. The Buddha found this path. Many people have followed his instructions and they found the path, too. It’s open to everybody. The Buddha didn’t teach it only for Indians or only for members of … 
  9. A Conglomeration of Germs
     … The problem is in the mind: in the intentions that drive the perceptions. We use the body as a tool to understand the mind, to train the mind. So, you look after it as you would look after any tool. But at the same time, you have to realize that, as with any tool, you can use it well or you can use it … 
  10. Work on Your Mind
    In Thai, they have a phrase, “tam jai,” which literally means “to work on your mind.” They use it usually when you’ve suffered a loss or a setback, and you calm the mind down so that you’re not too upset, so that you can actually think straight, figure out what to do next, and not let the loss or the setback get … 
  11. The Allure of Self
     … In this case, if you hold on to your old narratives, you’re preventing the mind from settling down, finding some peace, finding some quiet in the mind. You’re preventing the mind from gaining some insight, some discernment. And when the mind doesn’t have any concentration or discernment, there’s no way it’s going to have an experience of the deathless … 
  12. You Can’t Clone Awakening
     … Sitting here with the breath, all of a sudden you find yourself off on an island in the Atlantic someplace, or sorting through the mind’s old movies. And you wonder how you got there. Well, the mind does have this tendency to cover things up, especially when you’ve made up your mind to do one thing and then another part of the … 
  13. The First Noble Truth
     … to figure out what it is that weighs the mind down, what puts a squeeze on the mind, and why. In fact, by centering his four noble truths on the issue of suffering, he’s saying that this is the most important issue you’ve got to understand and resolve. And the first step lies in actually seeing what suffering is. When you really … 
  14. The Path Is and Isn’t the Goal
     … If the mind is going to do any thinking and evaluating, have it think about and evaluate the breath. This is an important part of getting the mind to settle down. It’s not just a wobbly stage that you have to get past. It’s the process of fitting the mind together with the breath. You want to think about the breath very … 
  15. Willing to Learn
     … Then work on the more refined skills that come from just sitting here with the pain, sitting here with the stress in the mind, and realizing that the physical pain doesn’t have to stress the mind. You’re doing something wrong if you let it stress the mind. It’s not that you’re doing something wrong that causes the pain, but there … 
  16. Feeding on Feeding
     … The body feeds off the food, but the mind gains pleasure out of these activities because it’s found that this is how you survive, this is how you take in parts of the world and make them part of yourself. That’s what eating is all about: taking what’s not-self and making it self. The mind gets pleasure out of the … 
  17. Your Own Karma
     … When these things arise in the mind, you want to encourage them, either through thinking or not thinking. Sometimes we think that meditation is not thinking but sometimes you need to think in ways that encourage skillful qualities in the mind. This is why the Buddha has that whole list of recollections: recollection of the Buddha, the Dhamma, the Sangha; your own past generosity … 
  18. When You Practice on Your Own
     … As you learn how to deal skillfully with feelings, you gain more and more insights into the mind as the mind is settling down. At the same time, you’re making sure that the mind doesn’t wander off to other things. You begin to notice: What does it mean to “wander off” to other things? What happens? You begin to see the process … 
  19. The Wealth of Simplicity
     … He said, “Lots of times we think that when the mind has lots of thoughts, it’s wealthiest, but no, actually that’s when it’s poor. When the mind has only one or two things that it’s thinking about: That’s when it’s wealthy. It can give those things its full attention.” It is like an exotic fruit in the market … 
  20. Equanimity
     … You don’t simply force the mind to be equanimous through force of will. You’re coming out the other side of having fed the mind and your inner sense of the body so well that the equanimity comes from a sense of satisfaction. Your own internal needs are met, and you can view the world with a lot more peace, with less hunger … 
  21. Getting Yourself
     … It’s because it’s a useful tool in looking into the mind. It’s a useful strategy for getting the mind very still, very clear, very balanced, with very strong sense of well-being, so that you can start looking into the parts of the mind you normally don’t want to look into, and see the defilements that you ordinarily pretend not … 
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