Search results for: "The Mind"

  1. Page 119
  2. A Snare of Death Laid Out
     … It means the mind’s fascination with planning them, all the embroidery we create around them, all the perceptions and feelings and thought constructs—verbal and mental fabrications. Often that’s where our craving is focused. Often, when you desire a person, it’s not the person you desire. You desire your perceptions and thoughts of the person. So you want to get the … 
  3. Worry
     … Otherwise, the mind will be hungry, desperate, and will jump at anything. So again, you’re training the mind not to be overcome by pleasure, not overcome by pain. You’re not only establishing something good here in the present moment, but you’re also doing this for the sake of the future. You will need these abilities when things get difficult. When unexpected … 
  4. Admirable Friendship
     … It was just disturbance. “What’s the disturbance in the mind? What am I doing that’s causing that disturbance?” If you can pay attention in here and ask those questions and look for those disturbances, that’s what’s going to solve all the problems. Because once the mind is not creating unnecessary suffering or disturbances for itself, it’s not going to … 
  5. Helping Others Is a Battle
     … To face up to those things, you have to get the mind in a state where it’s really at ease with itself, where you feel comfortable in your own skin and not easily knocked over by unskillful thoughts that come through the mind. Then you can deal with them. This is why we put so much emphasis on getting the mind into concentration … 
  6. Brahmaviharas on the Path
     … You have to realize, of course, that the brahmaviharas are not the natural, innate quality of the mind, any more than their opposites are. Ill will comes to the mind just as easily as goodwill. Thoughts of harmfulness come just as easily as thoughts of compassion. This means we have to develop the brahmaviharas. This is a kind of karma. It’s a mental … 
  7. Equanimity Isn’t Everything
     … They have a real pull on the mind, a real hold on the mind. This is where you have to exert a fabrication, like we’re doing it right now: focusing on the breath, adjusting the breath. There’s verbal fabrication in the directed thought and evaluation as you direct your thoughts to the breath and evaluate the breath. Bodily fabrication is the in … 
  8. Your Duty Lies Right Here
     … If you don’t train the mind, you’ll do things that get you reborn into a lot of suffering. So it all comes back here. What are you doing right now? What’s happening in the mind? What choices are you making? Are you making them skillfully? That’s where you’re responsible. If you’re not responsible for this, then can you … 
  9. The Web of Pain
     … This is to combat a tendency the mind has, which is to focus on the pains. You may have noticed that sitting here meditating for an hour, a lot of pain seems to come up in the body, whereas you can sit still for an hour and watch a movie, watch a TV show, and there doesn’t seem to be much pain at … 
  10. The Buddha’s Shoulds
     … In particular, all the factors of the path develop sensitivity of the mind so that you can see where in the mind is something of real value. As we’re sitting here meditating, we’re engaging in one of the Buddha’s shoulds. You should develop the path; you should develop concentration. Anything that gets in the way of your concentration right now, you … 
  11. Training Your Minds
     … When we talk about the mind being like a committee, sometimes it seems like that’s too small an image. It’s more like a crowd, and lots of people in the crowd have different agendas. So as you’re meditating, you have to realize that even though part of the mind is with the breath, there are other parts that don’t want … 
  12. 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 … 
  13. 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 … 
  14. 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 … 
  15. 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 … 
  16. 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 … 
  17. 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 … 
  18. 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 … 
  19. 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 … 
  20. 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 … 
  21. 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 … 
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