Search results for: "The Mind"

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  2. Training like an Adult
    Training the mind is like training yourself to master a sport. Part of the training is focused on the practice sessions, i.e., what you’re doing right here as you’re meditating, as you’re here doing walking meditation, the skills you want to work on, because we are working on skills. A while back, I was talking to a group of meditators … 
  3. The Best Work Around
    Bring the mind to the breath in a friendly way. If you treat the meditation as a war, the mind is going to fight, but if you treat it as a process of creating friendship—developing a friendly relation with the present moment—the mind will soften into the present moment and be a lot more willing to settle in to make itself comfortable … 
  4. The Brightness of Life
     … When the Buddha said that the mind is naturally luminous, he didn’t mean that it’s naturally pure, or that it’s already awakened, simply that it can observe itself. That luminosity of the mind, he said, is the prerequisite for the fact that we can develop good qualities in the mind. We follow the path that the Buddha himself followed: We act … 
  5. Healing & Protection
     … That way, regardless of the pains there may be in the body, the mind doesn’t have to be pained, because the suffering and stress that’s caused by the mind: That’s the suffering that really gets to the mind. If the mind is well trained, the pains in the body can’t seep into the mind because they’re there in the … 
  6. At the End of the Day
     … Seeing the larger picture like that, he asked, “Where does karma come from?” It comes from the intentions in the mind. So he turned in and looked at the mind. All the ups and downs in the world come from here: all the ups and downs in the mind. If you don’t tune in to the mind, there’s no end to the … 
  7. The Right Place to Look
     … So find some topic here in the body and the mind in the present moment where you can settle in and have a sense of well-being. We work with the breath because it’s the closest thing in our experience to the mind without being the mind itself. It’s how we sense the body. If we didn’t have any breath, we … 
  8. Changing Your Mind
     … As he said, the mind changes so quickly that he couldn’t think of a good analogy for how quick it is. There’s nothing else in the world that can change and reverse direction as quickly as the mind. This is why we need a lot of mindfulness. We set yourselves the task of getting the mind to settle down, to be still … 
  9. Like a River Full of Water
     … And where do your efforts come from? They come from the mind, so the mind has to be trained. If it’s not trained, it has a habit of creating a lot of unnecessary suffering and stress. So this is our major responsibility right here: looking after the mind. If we take care of the mind, then other issues take care of themselves. Even … 
  10. Seeing Through Your Defilements
     … We’re here to get the mind, to understand the mind, and to see through these defilements—in other words, to see the tricks they play in the way they talk to us. One of the big issues in the mind is how the mind talks to itself, and then other voices slip in. You think you’re talking to yourself, when actually it … 
  11. Training for Happiness
     … As with any training, if there’s just the stick, the mind is going to rebel. You need a carrot as well. You need some rewards for the mind. So you reward it with comfortable breathing. That way, the mind begins to settle down a little bit more. You begin to see your own mind a lot more clearly. Because the movements of the … 
  12. The Forerunner of All Things
    When the Buddha says that the mind is the forerunner of all things, it’s both empowering and scary. Empowering in the sense that if we want to change our lives, we can start from within. We don’t have to wait for other people outside to change; we don’t have to wait for our circumstances outside to be good. We can start … 
  13. The Primacy of the Mind (2)
    The Primacy of the Mind (2) June 22, 2021 All phenomena are preceded by the mind or the heart: the first verse in the Dhammapada. Last night I talked about how people tend to forget this verse when they come to meditation—forgetting the active role of the mind. Tonight I’d like to talk a little bit more about the topic because the … 
  14. Analyzing Results
     … And when you’re right here, how do you maintain right here? Some thoughts may come up and nibble away at the edges of the mind, and it’s almost as if the mind can brush them off, nothing much happens. But other thoughts eat right into the center of the mind, or the mind goes out to eat them. Then you’re off … 
  15. Tranquility & Insight with the Breath
     … This way the mind is a lot lighter. And you find that the mind, when it’s lightened and made peaceful through insight like this, is a lot more stable and a lot more peaceful than simply getting it tranquilized. Because even when the mind is simply tranquil with the breath, there’s always the sense that you’ve got some loads on the … 
  16. Committed to the Breath
     … It’s near the mind, but it’s not directly at the mind. I remember, years back, reading a Tibetan lama saying that the breath is a very poor object for meditation, because what happens when you die? You won’t be able to focus on the breath—you should focus directly on the mind. Well, focusing on the mind is like observing wildlife … 
  17. Tending the Flame
     … And again, as you’re maintaining it, you’re going to be seeing things going on in the mind that you missed before. Sometimes you see things you don’t like about the mind. But when the mind is more settled like this, it makes a lot more sense just to admit, “Yeah, I do have these unskillful thoughts in my mind.” We have … 
  18. Getting the Most Out of Now
     … Because the way you breathe can have a huge impact on the mind. If the breathing is tight and restricted—too short, too long, not satisfying, not nourishing—it puts the mind in a bad mood. And then from that bad mood the mind lashes out, or goes out someplace else trying to look for pleasure. But here if you can create a sense … 
  19. Questioning the Hindrances
    There’s an interesting passage where the Buddha says that you need both tranquility and insight in order to get the mind into right concentration. The Pali terms are: for tranquility, samatha and insight, vipassana. You need them both for there to be right concentration. This goes against the idea you sometimes hear that the Buddha taught two very distinct kinds of meditation. One … 
  20. The Breath All the Way
     … If the mind is feeling depressed, sluggish, or stale, ask yourself how you could breathe in, how you could breathe out in a way that would be gladdening to the mind. What kind of breathing would give energy to the mind, give refreshment to the mind? Or you can branch out and use other topics of meditation to gladden the mind as well. Think … 
  21. To Gladden the Mind
     … There’s the body, there are feelings, and there’s the mind. With the body, of course, we’re mainly concerned with the breath. The mind is your awareness right here. And we’re trying to create a feeling of pleasure, as a kind of glue to keep the mind with the body. If, as you survey these things, you find that one of … 
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