Search results for: "Mindfulness"

  1. Page 113
  2. Breath Meditation: The First Tetrad
     … Along the way to awakening, as the Buddha points out, you can use the breath to develop many levels of concentration that provide a comfortable dwelling place for the mind in the present moment. The body also benefits if you focus on the breath in the way that he recommends. So it’s good both for body and for mind. Stop and think. Is … 
  3. Centered
     … This is an ideal state of mind for observing what’s going on in the mind. Thoughts can arise and pass away, you see them arising and passing away, but you’re not shaken by them. And you’re not arising and passing away along with them. They have their ups and downs, but you stay still, here in the middle. And so the … 
  4. Breathing Skillfully
     … If your mind wanders away, just bring it back. Remind yourself that all the important things you’re going to learn about are right here, where the mind and the body meet at the breath. After all, it’s right here that you’re creating whatever suffering weighs down the mind. If you don’t create suffering here, nothing else weighs down the mind … 
  5. Meditation Prep
     … He’s simply telling him to replace various levels of aversion in the mind—irritation, resentment, ill will, or the desire to harm—with more positive emotions. If you notice ill will coming up in the mind, try counteracting it with goodwill. Don’t just allow the mind to stay stuck with its ill will. You do what you can to foster an attitude … 
  6. Not Swept Away
     … We develop that observer by being mindful. You focus on the breath as the breath comes in, the breath goes out. Whatever the breath is going to do, you be aware of it. Keep in mind that this is where you want to be. It’s not that you’re here to get the breath. You’re after the mind, and you’re going … 
  7. The View from the Mountaintop
     … See what answers come up in the mind, what kinds of insight arise. There’s no guarantee that everything that comes up in a still mind is going to be the truth, but you’re in a much better position because when the mind is still like this, it’s like opening all your drawers, or having access to all the drawers where you … 
  8. Victory
     … We bring the mind to the present moment with the breath so that we can gain some strength from the breath and gain strength from getting the mind to settle down and be still. So gather your thoughts in right now. If you’re going to think about anything, think about the breath. Think about the mind being with the breath. Then pay attention … 
  9. Name & Form
     … Those are the two principles that you always have to keep in mind when you’re listening to any of the Buddha’s teachings. When you read about mindfulness, how does mindfulness relate to kamma? How does it relate to causality? When you read about goodwill, how does it relate to kamma and causality? It’s only when you see these things in the … 
  10. Change Your Perceptions
     … So we work to overcome sensual desire, ill will, sloth and torpor, restlessness and anxiety, and uncertainty or doubt, to bring the mind into concentration. And we get the mind into concentration by changing our perceptions. When the mind is in concentration, then you can apply the four noble truths. Ask the questions of the four noble truths: “Where is the suffering right now … 
  11. Choosing Sides
     … Do you want to stay with the breath? Or do you want to take this time to wander around in the world of your mind and pick flowers and gaze at the sky with no concern for where you’re going? Or do you want to put it to work to develop good, strong powers of concentration and good, strong powers of mindfulness? Mindfulness … 
  12. The Power of Present Karma
     … You try to bring the mind to the establishings of mindfulness. But in other cases, it’s up to you to find out where those potentials are. Still, the fact that he reminds you that they are there: That’s important. That alerts you to possibilities. You want to keep that in mind. So, even when your defilements are roaring in your ears and … 
  13. Stop Shooting Yourself
     … You want to learn how to analyze what it is about them that really pains the mind. As it turns out, it’s not the actual sensation of the pain or the painful words, but what the mind does with these things. That’s really what makes deep inroads into the mind, which is why training the mind is such an important part of … 
  14. On Deserving to Be Happy
     … That, the Buddha said, is the duty of mindfulness as a governing principle. We hear so much about mindfulness as simply watching things arise and pass away on their own, and accepting the wisdom of accepting that. But that wasn’t how the Buddha defined mindfulness. Mindfulness is a more active property. It means keeping in mind the duties with regard to the path … 
  15. 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 … 
  16. Escape Routes in the Present
     … And so to endure these things, the trick is not simply sitting there and enduring but learning how to find another spot where you can place your mind so it doesn’t feel oppressed by these things. This is why we practice meditation: to give the mind some alternatives. Because as the Buddha said, if your only alternative to pain is sensual pleasure, you … 
  17. To Be Worthy of the Dhamma
     … The same with the tetrad on the mind. First you get sensitive to the state of the mind, and then you figure out how to use perception and feeling to gladden the mind if it’s been depressed or lacking in energy. Then you concentrate it, steady it. That calms it down. Then you release it stage by stage. You release it from gross … 
  18. All-around Eye
    One of the signs that your practice is progressing is that you’re more and more able to protect yourself from unskillful mind states as they come up. In fact, that’s what a lot of the training is about: to give you the tools you need to protect yourself. The Buddha gives a teaching that focuses on the power of your actions because … 
  19. Tranquility & Insight Through Jhāna
     … So, when you start with something obvious—say lust comes into the mind—you want to see how it originates. And the origination is not to be found out there, in the sensory experience; it’s to be found in here, in the mind. What is it about the mind that goes for these things? Then you see how it passes away when the … 
  20. Limitless is the Buddha
     … Tell yourself, “In five minutes I’ll make the decision for five minutes from now, but right now I’m deciding for now, and the decision is No.” Each time you can say No like that, you’re strengthening the mind—strengthening the mind and learning to take delight in the fact that you’re strengthening the mind. That way you find it easier … 
  21. Look After Yourself with Ease
     … Then he realized that the qualities he had developed in his mind, the skills he had developed in his mind in his daily life, could see him through, and he could do it again. So he did. Looking after yourself is a combination of skills, but also attitudes. The Buddha talks about the principles of finding happiness in the present life. The first is … 
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