Search results for: "Mindfulness"

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2. Play AudioThe Quest for Inner Happiness
   Every evening before we meditate as a group, we do some chanting to induce the right frame of mind for the meditation. For instance, the chant on the brahmaviharas: “May I be happy. May all beings be happy.” That’s meant to remind us of why we’re here. We want true happiness, a happiness that doesn’t cause any suffering, any harm to … 
3. Play AudioFor Your Benefit Here & Now
    … how to bring the mind into the present moment in a way that’s alert and quiet at the same time. You come to the breath because that’s your anchor in the present moment, and you try to stay here. To stay here solidly, figure out how to keep the mind interested in the breath. This is one of the reasons why Ajaan … 
4. Play AudioRight Learning
    … There may be a thought chattering away in the back of your mind, but you don’t have to pull it in and make it fill your whole mind. It can be just there in the back of the mind. You know that it’s there, you don’t deny that it’s there, you admit its presence, but then you learn to work … 
5. Play AudioGenerating Desire
   Generating Desire November 28, 2008 Part of the definition of right concentration is that you seclude your mind from sensual thoughts, from sensual obsessions, and it’s not easy. The mind likes to spend a lot of time planning sensual pleasures. A man once came to see Ven. Ananda and said, “I hear that the monks, even the young ones, train their minds to … 
6. Play AudioThe Return of Chickens from Hell
   What have you got right here, right now? You’ve got a body sitting here breathing and you’ve got a mind that’s thinking and aware. So let’s see if we can put these things together. See what we can make out of them. You could spend the hour thinking about the day or last week or next week. Or you could … 
7. Play AudioDrowsiness
    … If it does come on while the mind is beginning to settle down, do what you can to make the mind active. That’s the important principle. Give the mind work to do, here in the body or with some other Dhamma topic, and experiment to see what works for you. The fact that you’re actually discovering something on your own makes it … 
8. Play AudioIronies
    … In other words, you have to be mindful. “Mindful” means keeping something in mind. In this case, remember to stay with the breath, that this is going to be your frame of reference, it’s going to be the theme of your meditation. You’ve got to keep reminding yourself to do that, because the mind so easily forgets. Its habit is to focus … 
9. Play AudioSolidly Here
    … We don’t really see the impulses coming out of our own minds because we’re concerned about what everybody else should be doing. So when you realize that you’re leaving untended the area where you actually are responsible, that’s when you’re ready to practice. That’s why we meditate: because our actions do come out of our minds, our intentions … 
10. Play AudioMending the Social Fabric
     … So both for your own sake and for the sake of those around you, look after your mind. You’ve got the breath. There’s a lot that can be done with the breath to soothe the body, to soothe the mind, to heal the body, heal the mind, strengthen the body, strengthen the mind. And when we all see eye-to-eye on … 
11. Play AudioPractice at Home
     … Two further states of mind get developed that way. One is a mind of goodwill, and the other is a mind of sympathy. They’re not quite the same. Goodwill is a basic wish for happiness for all beings—for yourself and for others. Sympathy is when you learn how to sympathize with someone else’s idea of what’s happiness, although it may … 
12. Play AudioSongkran Blessing
     … Even as the body gets weak, you can still do many, many things with your mind. And even if your mind begins to go a little bit, you can develop thoughts of goodwill, you can try to focus your mind as much as you can. You can do a lot of good. Years back, Ajaan Maha Bua had a student, a woman who had … 
13. Play AudioLearning by Doing
     … All phenomena are preceded by the mind. It’s what’s going on in the mind prior to sensory contact that determines whether you’re going to suffer from it or not. It’s because of what’s going on in the mind that you can suffer from really negative things, and even from really positive things that come into the senses. But when … 
14. Play AudioFeeding your Attack Dogs
     … that when these things come into the mind, it’s not cosmic forces acting through you, it’s your old karma: these thoughts that spring up over you and suddenly take you off in different directions. You’re sitting here meditating, minding your own business, very dutifully working with the breath, and then suddenly you find yourself off someplace else. The fact that there … 
15. Play AudioEquanimity Isn’t Everything
     … The most striking one is the practice of making your mind like earth, making your mind like water, like wind, like fire. How is it like earth? If you throw disgusting things on the earth, the earth doesn’t shrink away. The same principle applies to the other elements. You use water to wash away disgusting things and it doesn’t get disgusted. The … 
16. Play AudioDecisions
     … That task is to get the mind to be as stable and clear as possible in the present moment so that you can see even more clearly what you’re doing. It’s a process of developing sensitivity. The more you watch the movements of the mind and the breath, the more familiar they become. As they become more familiar you start seeing subtleties … 
17. Play AudioVirtue, Concentration, Discernment
     … You’re alert; you’re mindful. At the same time, as you develop your discernment, you bring the mind to deeper and deeper levels of peace. In this way, discernment is an advanced version of concentration. This is a theme that you see throughout the Forest tradition. Ajaan Chah makes a comparison: He says the practice is like a mango. The mango has one … 
18. Play AudioA Simple Path Through a Complex Map
     … So you can imagine the Buddha making a map of the mind, or the workings of the mind—the challenge he faced because the mind is very complex. When he formulated dependent co-arising, he focused more on the complexity. There are other teachings that are simpler, but when he wanted to give a full picture of the causes of suffering, he laid them … 
19. Play AudioSelf View & Conceit
     … The only thing you can do is put the heat of your effort on the mind, keeping after the mind when it’s causing any sense of stress or suffering or disturbance. You want to figure out what’s going on. That’s the heat: Ajaan Lee calls it the heat of ardency, the wisdom factor in mindfulness and concentration practice. And through that … 
20. Play AudioMarshalling the Emotions
    Marshalling the Emotions October 7, 2005 Meditation has to engage not only the thinking part of your mind, but also the emotional part. Otherwise it gets dry and doesn’t totally train you. So it’s good to think about the emotions that need to be involved in meditation for the training to be more complete. The first emotion you’re supposed to bring … 
21. Play AudioOf Past & Future
     … Understand enough to bring the mind to stillness. Understand enough to bring the mind to the present moment, to watch what it’s doing, to do it skillfully, to be mindful, alert, right here. If you find yourself wandering off, try to keep it as short a wander as possible. If the mind is persistent and constantly going back to the past or worrying … 
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