Search results for: "The Mind"

  1. Page 117
  2. Take Care of Your Tools
     … Images coming into the mind? Just because there’s an image in the mind and it’s coming in a way that’s very uncanny doesn’t mean it’s true. If you find it unsettling or disturbing, breath deep down into the heart a couple of times and it’ll go away. If you suddenly find yourself outside of the body, just think … 
  3. Refuge in the Dhamma
     … The teachings on kamma are directly related to the meditation because, as they point out, kamma comes from the mind. This is why you want to train the mind because our thoughts, words, and deeds are really going to have an impact on our lives. Even how we relate to things moment by moment has a big impact. You’re sitting here with your … 
  4. The Cost of Happiness
     … That’s when the mind is insensitive. It’s not seeing what’s going on. One of the most important aspects of the meditation is to make those periods of blanking out shorter and shorter, until you finally get to the point where you don’t blank out. If the mind is going to move, you see it move. And you’re in a … 
  5. Endurance & Contentment
     … Technically, it’s defined as directed thought and evaluation, but it basically comes down to the chatter going on in the mind. When you invest that chatter with your identity, it makes it hard to step back from it. So instead, you can look at it as the committee of the mind, or the corporation of the mind. Or try Ajaan Lee’s image … 
  6. Believe in Your Actions
     … There’s the part of the mind that has to be alert but there’s also the part of the mind that has to be ardent. You have to want to do things skillfully and you have to put in the effort to figure out what is skillful in any situation. And be willing to learn from your mistakes. Heedfulness is not easy. It … 
  7. Wearing the Breath
     … The reason why we want to get our awareness all-around is because when thoughts come into the mind, the fact that they’re able to stay for a while means that there has to be a little bit of tension someplace in the body to hold them, like a little marker, and those patterns of tension can be anywhere. So, if you’re … 
  8. Truth Without Air Quotes
     … This is the way the mind works. These are the processes that lead to suffering. If you want an end to suffering, this is what you’ve got to do. It’s interesting that with dependent co-arising, in later centuries, the question arose: Is dependent co-arising happening in the context of the world at large or inside the mind? There was a … 
  9. Trading Up
     … Then you’re ready to work on the mind. In other words, you’ve got to clear away a lot of the underbrush, clear away a lot of the junk in your life if you want to have some space for the mind to develop. The path factors dealing with concentration start with right effort. Here again there’s a trade. You work on … 
  10. Anxiety
     … So learn to hold on inside to the parts of the mind that really are useful, and then you can let everything else go. All the other things are avenues by which danger can come, but the good things in the mind are a place of safety.
  11. Streams of Anger
     … If anger arises in the mind, you tell yourself, “I’m not going to act or speak on this anger.” Part of the mind will say, “But that other person really did something wrong.” The reason you’re holding things in check is to remind yourself that you’re actually suffering from the anger because of things in your own mind. That other person … 
  12. The Not-Self Discourse
     … Then you evaluate how well the mind is staying with the breath. Ajaan Lee makes a comparison, that alertness is like a pulley. You pull a rope in one direction, then you pull the rope in the other direction. You look at the object of your mindfulness, and then you turn around and look at the mind watching the object of the mindfulness. Keep … 
  13. The Context for No Context
     … But getting the mind outside of that context requires a certain kind of context as well. When the Buddha talks about the ability to put the mind in this position where you’re seeing things arising and passing away, it requires a whole series of aids in the practice, many of which are not just meditation techniques. They go back through the way you … 
  14. The Politics of Arising & Passing Away
     … What is it in the mind that gives rise to these things to begin with? You’re not simply a passive observer watching a TV show, faced with only one choice: the choice of getting involved in the show or not. You’re actually the producer of the show. There’s something going on in the mind that keeps churning these things out. You … 
  15. Guarding the Truth
     … When the concentration provides a sense of well-being, you’re not so hungry to go after whatever the mind tells you. When it’s still and clear, you can see clearly exactly what the mind is doing. Then you’re in a position to see how you’re filtering things, where the filter is clogged, what you have to do to clean it … 
  16. Views, Virtue, & Mindfulness
     … Also, remember that the suffering that weighs down on the mind comes from within the mind itself. If there’s going to be a solution, it has to come from within the mind as well. That’s all part of right view. In other words, your actions are what make all the difference, so the solution is going to have to come from your … 
  17. An Ennobling Pleasure
     … As you’re getting more and more sensitive to the breath, you’re developing the mind’s powers to be more and more sensitive to its own movements, which is where the real issues are. How the mind creates a sense of becoming this or being that, taking on a sense of identity, assembling a sense of the world, what we mean by the … 
  18. Right Resolve in Real Life
     … Noble right resolve basically is the first jhana, when you’ve succeeded at clearing out of the mind things like sensuality, ill will, and harmfulness. The concentration also helps with your right resolve, because a lot of these resolves are not easy to stick with. We can think in the abstract that, yes, it would be a good thing to have the mind free … 
  19. Breath Meditation: The Fourth Tetrad
     … When a hindrance comes up, the Buddha says in the section dealing with the mind that you should try to gladden the mind, steady the mind, and release the mind. In gladdening the mind, what kind of obstruction is getting in the way of your feeling glad about the fact you’re here? Is doubt getting in the way? Is restlessness-and-anxiety getting … 
  20. A Good Foundation
     … This is why the Buddha discovered that an important part of the path is the sense of pleasure, refreshment, that comes from getting the mind in good concentration. It’s also why he has so many different techniques for getting the mind into concentration. Breath is number one. As Ajaan Lee says, it’s your home base. All other meditation methods are foraging places … 
  21. Tuning Your Lute
     … But here in the West, our big problem is the mind.” Well, the big problem is the mind’s obsession with the body. That’s something everybody, West and East, has to deal with. There are times when you say, “I want a higher level of concentration, like the concentration that comes with the breath.” But if your mind’s not capable of doing … 
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