Search results for: "The Mind"

  1. Page 119
  2. When Things Regress
     … And he found that he was able to get the mind into concentration more and more consistently. So you have to apply the same principle to your own times of regress. It’s a normal thing that’s going to happen. The mind is a complex phenomenon. You’re dealing with lots of different defilements, not just one. Ajaan Lee’s image is of … 
  3. A Dhamma Bucket List
     … So what good qualities would you like to develop in the mind? Those are the things that will help you. Think about wind going from one house to another, carrying a fire with it. The wind is pretty blind. That wind is craving. We know how blind craving can be. You want to have some control over the cravings that come into the mind … 
  4. Recollecting the Buddha
     … what the mind tells itself, images that come into the mind, feelings that can overwhelm the mind. So you’ve got to be careful. You’ve got to familiarize yourself with these processes ahead of time, so that you can exert some skillful control over them. And that’s exactly what breath meditation is for: getting you familiar with these things, so that you … 
  5. Lessons in Fabrication
     … Breathe in a way that gladdens the mind. Breathe in a way that concentrates the mind. Breathe in a way that releases the mind. So even in something as simple as how to breathe, the Buddha gives instructions. The same with how to talk to yourself: All the different suttas are instructions telling you that this is a good way to think about this … 
  6. Building Character
     … In his definition of the term, it’s not that the mind is one-pointed. It’s that the mind has a solid stability that can weather the ups and downs. Whether they’re ups and downs in outside conditions or ups and downs in your meditation—whatever the ups and downs, you want to have the mind on an even keel so that … 
  7. Appreciating Merit
     … The saving grace is that the mind really does want happiness. If it sees that its habits are not leading to happiness and that there are alternatives, that’s where the mind is trainable. It’s not a machine. It learns—if it’s willing to learn. Usually, running into suffering, running into stress are the things that finally force us to learn. So … 
  8. The Riddle of Freedom
     … You hear the mind say, “Well, I’m too tired today,” or “I’m too…” whatever—too hot, too cold, too early, too late—whatever excuses the mind makes up for itself. Or there’s the excuse that “I’m just simply the way I am. This is the way I am, so I’m just going to act this way.” That belief in … 
  9. Strong Through Admirable Friendship
     … As you get to know your breath, the mind is right there, so you get to know your mind really well. You’re focused on the present moment. You’re doing something skillful. The mind becomes more and more transparent to itself. That’s a potential, that’s a possibility, that might not have occurred to us. That’s how admirable friendship is the … 
  10. A Sense of Yourself
     … The more peace there is in the mind, the less disturbance. Ask yourself, what’s getting in the way of the peace? What attachments? What obsessions in the mind? And what can you do about them? How can you see through them? There’s part of the mind that holds on to them because you think it’s worth holding on. You’ve got … 
  11. The Whole Story
     … something that flows out of the mind. We tend to think that other people’s behavior either attracts us or repels us, or the features of certain objects attract us or repel us. But they have other features as well. People have other actions as well. Largely what’s happening is that the mind is out looking for something to get worked up about … 
  12. The Gift of Discernment
     … You have a sense of what you should do, because the mind, after all, is an active faculty. It doesn’t just sit here passively receiving things. Raw material comes in, and you shape it. As long as the mind is going to be active, that’s its primary need: knowing how to shape things properly. The Buddha can’t change what raw material … 
  13. Alighting on the Dhamma
     … So you bring to the mind questions framed in these terms as you’re sitting here meditating. When the mind settles down, don’t question it too quickly. But once you’ve really settled down and gotten a sense of being here solidly with the real sense of singleness, then you can ask yourself, “Is there still some disturbance here?” Here we’re not … 
  14. A Gift of Well-Being
     … Where do your actions come from? They come from the mind, the state of the mind right now. If you learn how to tend to that state, your actions will be a lot more skillful and a lot more appropriate for the situation. It’s in this way that the meditation is a gift to yourself and to other people, just at the practice … 
  15. Attachment to Precepts
    One of the fetters that ties the mind down is something called, in Pali, sīlabbata-parāmāsa. Many times, you see it translated as “attachment to rites and rituals” or “attachment to precepts.” I know not a few people out there who say, “Well, that’s one fetter I’m not attached to. I’m not attached to rites, rituals, or precepts. I just do … 
  16. Character
     … You want to pay attention to what you’re doing right here, right now, and especially paying attention to keep the mind with the breath. If the mind wanders off, you notice that, so that you can bring it right back. And that’s done by the third quality, ardency. This is when you’re trying to do it well. And it’s in … 
  17. Love is Conditional, Goodwill Is Not
     … When the body is disturbed, then the mind is disturbed. And when the mind is disturbed, then the breath gets disturbed. It’s a vicious cycle. Now we’re trying to cut that cycle. But it means that we’ll have to notice what kind of habitual patterns we already have: where they’re useful, where they’re not, why they need to be … 
  18. Patterns to Happiness
     … You evaluate the object to see what’s working in the sense of getting the mind to settle down. For instance, when you’re focused on the breath, you can play with the breath in different ways: long in, long out, short in, short out, long in, short out, short in, long out. Try to see what rhythm feels best for the body right … 
  19. Customs of the Noble Ones
     … If you’re willing to watch the breath, get to know it, play with it a bit, try to see what kind of breathing feels good, it gives you an anchor in the present moment so that the mind isn’t running out after all kinds of things. It’s got a basic sense of well-being right here. In the beginning, the well … 
  20. Near to the Buddha
     … We meditate on the mind; we meditate on the breath. The breath is the closest thing in the world to your mind. Even in your own body, there’s nothing that’s closer to you than the breath. When you learn to develop qualities of mindfulness, alertness, ardency, concentration, discernment around the breath, then every time you breathe, there they are, right nearby. In … 
  21. Right Livelihood
     … The only way the mind can stand up to that kind of contemplation is if you’ve got the strong sense of wellbeing that comes from nourishing the mind with right concentration. Otherwise, the insights that can come from meditation, if you don’t have a good solid foundation like this, can be disorienting, destabilizing. So as the foundation for your practice, you want … 
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