Search results for: "The Mind"

  1. Page 113
  2. Feelings Not of the Flesh
     … You also get clearer on the things that come up in the mind that would pull you away. As the Buddha said, there’s no strong concentration without discernment. One of the things you’re going to learn how to discern is how not to fall for the thoughts that come wandering through the mind, telling you that “You’ve had enough just sitting … 
  3. Perception
     … So as you get more sensitive to how the mind labels things—and you can see this more clearly the more still the mind is—try to apply that sensitivity to the way you perceive things around you, the way you perceive the people around you, the way you perceive the situations around you, realizing that you do have choices in how you apply … 
  4. Changing Your Default Settings
     … But like a scale that’s been out of balance for a bit, the mind tends to go back and find its old balance. This reflects one of the Buddha’s teachings – that the things that make us really happy and miserable in life are not so much the events outside that can have a huge impact on us in one way or another … 
  5. Worth
     … You want to look at it as an opportunity to develop good qualities of the mind and heart: things like generosity and virtue, persistence, patience, discernment, goodwill, and equanimity. Renunciation, truthfulness, determination. These are all qualities that the heart needs. And they’re things that stick with you, in this life on into the next life. This is where you look for value: your … 
  6. Watching Over Time
     … Now, we can talk about* *balance in abstract terms, but when you’re dealing with the breath, the breath is a good way of actually monitoring the question of balance in the mind. There are a lot of teachings where the Buddha talks about balancing different qualities. He says that when the mind seems to have too much energy, you should try to use … 
  7. Today Is Better than Yesterday
     … When you think about ignorance in the mind, it’s not simply that you don’t know. It’s that there are parts of the mind that just don’t want to admit the truth, so they find reasons for covering things up. To fight these members, you need to conviction. That deals with the cynical members, telling them that, yes, the effort you … 
  8. Jhana: Responsible Happiness
     … And because a lot of the energy flow in the body is related to different issues in the mind, you’ll find that parts of the mind that tended to not have a voice now start having a voice as well. You allow them to get healed, too. All of this, just as you focus on the breath, is your medicine: steady awareness combined … 
  9. Sensual Passion
    In the Buddha’s description of concentration practice, he says that you’re aloof from sensuality, aloof from unskillful qualities in the mind. The word sensuality—kāma in Pali—is often misunderstood. Sometimes it’s translated as aloof from sensual pleasures. But the Buddha doesn’t have you search out a really difficult, painful place to practice. You try to find a place that … 
  10. To Purify the Heart
     … The breath is like a mirror for the mind. The way we breathe, the way we relate to the breath energy in the body, tells us a lot about the state of the mind right now. It’s possible to sit down and, within a few minutes, give yourself a headache, a backache, or get things all messed up inside. Or it’s possible … 
  11. Mindfulness of Death
     … A lot of things are going to come thronging into the mind at that time, and you have to be prepared to choose which things are really worth focusing on and which ones are not. Even though there’s not much strength left in the body, you’ll have to muster as much strength in the mind as you can, because you’ll be … 
  12. Signs Along the Road
     … But if you’re tuned in just right, the subtleties come out, and you can catch the small movements of the mind. It’s in those movements of the mind: That’s where you’re going to see your cravings, that’s where you’re going to see your clingings, that’s where you’re going to see the processes of becoming as they … 
  13. Dethinking Thinking
     … the allure or the drawbacks? Why? That line of inquiry requires both developing qualities of the mind and thinking things through, because sometimes the mind will say, “I’m attracted to this because of x.” Well, are you really attracted to that because of x, or is the mind just lying to itself? You question things, you try to figure them out by questioning … 
  14. Respect for Concentration
     … In other words, they help right concentration along, but the concentration is the heart of the path because when the mind gets really still, it can see things clearly. It can understand what’s going on inside. So you really want to have respect for concentration because it connects to something else you should have respect for, which is the principle of true happiness … 
  15. Stake Out
     … After all, it is a physical property, but of the physical properties, it’s closest to the mind and the most sensitive to what’s going on in the mind. When a thought comes up, you can see that it reverberates both in the body and in the mind. You make up your mind that you’re not going to, as they say in … 
  16. Meditator, Mediator
     … Give reasons for why that particular solution doesn’t work and say, “Can you think of another one?” The part of the mind that hasn’t had a chance to talk will start talking. The part of the mind that has never learned how to negotiate, never learned how to deflect controversy, will start learning to be in dialogue. Remember, you’ve got this … 
  17. Practice in Dying Skillfully
     … There’ll be distraction and pain—the same problems we deal with as we’re meditating, sitting here trying to get the mind with the breath. First you find yourself fighting off distractions and if you don’t get the distractions out of the way in time, then the pain comes, especially if you sit for long periods of time or if you’re … 
  18. Animals in the Mind
     … It lies with the impulses of the mind that just want to go flowing out, running out after these things. That’s how you create a bridge from your sensory input into the mind, where that input can do a lot of damage to the mind. As we’ve seen, the impulses that come from outside, if you take them in, can do a … 
  19. Path & Goal
     … topics that will give more energy to the mind, or topics that will steady the mind. The ones that give energy are the things like recollection of your virtue, recollection of your generosity, recollection of the devas, realizing that the qualities that make a person into a deva are qualities that you have in yourself, so you’re headed in the right direction. That … 
  20. Skills to Make a Difference
     … And often, you’ll misuse some of the skills or some of the powers of the mind—because the mind is very powerful. It shapes your life. The fact that you’re engaged in the world depends on the mind. You’re not simply sitting here on the receiving end of sights, sounds, smells, tastes, tactile sensations, or ideas. The mind actively goes out … 
  21. Acceptance Without Suffering
     … Our main problem is that we’re looking for food for the mind outside, because the mind needs food, too, just like the body. Food for the body is pretty simple. We know what it is. With food for the mind, though, you have to ask yourself: What are you feeding on? You can feed on your intentions. You can feed on acts of … 
  22. Load next page...