Search results for: "The Mind"

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  2. A Healthy Attitude Toward Happiness
     … What we’re trying to do here is to teach the mind to find something deep inside that doesn’t need to feed. That goes against the grain because all we know is feeding, either physically or mentally, emotionally. Because this is the only way the mind seems to know how to function, we’re not willing to pull away and say “Oh, there … 
  3. Fear of Death
     … That inclines the mind to realize that maybe your awareness could exist without body, and it would actually be a good thing. As for the fear that you’ll be missing out on human sensuality, here again, you need an alternative pleasure. In this case, it would be the pleasure of any of the jhanas. Get the mind focused on the breath, and the … 
  4. Look After Yourself with Ease
     … If you have some unskillful habits, you have some well-worn pathways in the mind, and it’s very easy to run down them, especially if you’re feeling hungry for pleasure or if you’re feeling some sort of lack or - disease inside. You go running out with whatever comes into the mind and then takes you away. But if you’ve got … 
  5. To the Far Shore
     … If something unskillful comes up in the mind, you want to see it as soon as it comes, so that you can see what’s causing it—what incites it. The Buddha uses the word samudaya, which translates as “origination.” When he uses that word, he’s usually talking about causes coming from within the mind itself. So, say, when sensual desire comes up … 
  6. Treating the Diseases of the Mind
     … It’s in the interaction of the body and the mind right at the breath where you learn an awful lot about the mind. When you’re feeling lazy, you might want to contemplate death, realizing that it could come at any time. The question always is, are you ready? And the answer almost always is, “Not yet.” Ask yourself, “Why? What’s standing … 
  7. Horror Stories
     … As I said earlier, the place where you’re going to find awakening is a place you’ve been many, many times before, just focused in the present moment, noticing how the breath changes, how it has an impact on the body, how it has an impact on the mind, how the mind has an impact on the breath, and how your perceptions have … 
  8. Goodwill Without Limits
     … It requires both the heart and the mind: heart in the sense of your intentions, what you will, what you aspire to in life; and your mind in the sense of trying to figure things out: How do you find a happiness like that? So in training yourself in the brahmaviharas, you’re training both the heart and the mind. The heart in the … 
  9. Not-selfing Your Selves
     … You note them so that you can recognize, “Okay, this is an event in the mind.” Then the question is, “What is the impact of this event?” And particularly these voices in the mind, what are they saying? Why are they saying it? What’s their reasoning? Where do they really lead? This is what the investigation is all about, so that you can … 
  10. Saṃvega & Pasāda
     … Trying to get the mind in concentration is good for you and for the people around you. As the Buddha said, if you don’t have the sense of pleasure that comes from getting the mind into concentration, then no matter how much you may see the drawbacks of sensuality—of being attached to the body—you’re going to go back to sensuality … 
  11. Truths of the Will
     … So learn to be clear about your intentions, recognizing which ones you should cultivate, which ones you should drop, so that the truth of the path, that fourth truth, becomes a reality in the mind—and the third noble truth, the end of suffering, will become a reality in the mind as well. That way, nibbāna, unbinding, total freedom from suffering, which actually goes … 
  12. An Environment for Practice
     … Some of them are there for training the mind; others are there for creating calm, peace, and harmony in the community; still others are there so that the community inspires respect. If monks are squabbling or competing with one another to get fancy things, it doesn’t inspire any support for the community. And not only does the individual monk who’s breaking the … 
  13. A Healthy Body Image
     … That allows the mind to settle in and be able to watch itself clearly. As for the healthy negative image: That’s when you realize that everybody’s body is made up of the same stuff. There’s a liver, there’s a spleen, there are kidneys. There are intestines and all that crap in the intestines—literally. And the stuff in the stomach … 
  14. Appropriate Attention
    The nature of the mind is that it doesn’t sit around just doing nothing. It’s not simply a passive receiver of outside stimuli. It’s out there looking for things. It’s constantly active because it knows there are dangers all around. And so the question always in the back of the mind is, “What next? What next? What do I do … 
  15. Discernment Through Right Effort
     … There’s the effort to prevent unskillful things from arising in the mind, and if unskillful things have arisen in the mind, you try to abandon them. As for skillful things, if they’re not there yet, you try to give rise to them. When they are there, you try to maintain them and bring them to the culmination of their development. Those are … 
  16. Fully Absorbed
     … Part of the mind will say, “Well, this is dumb,” and you have to say, “No, this is not dumb. This is a skill.” And it’ll argue; it’ll say, “I’ve got to think of things, analyze things.” Not yet. The first step is to develop this. Because as this state of the mind is developed, insights will come. Now, there are … 
  17. The World Offers No Shelter
     … It teaches us to develop qualities in the mind that have a lasting value. They start with the qualities of the path: virtue, concentration, and discernment—and even before that, with the bases of merit: generosity, virtue, developing goodwill. Even though these things are not permanent, they can take you to a place that does not get swept away. In the meantime, they provide … 
  18. Friends with The Breath
     … If you were to draw a map of where the mind goes in the course of not even a day, just 30 minutes, it would be all over the place. We’re not very much aware of the different forces moving in, what they call the currents of the mind in the forest tradition. But you sense the currents once you’ve got an … 
  19. The Treasure of Equanimity
     … The act of giving a gift broadens the mind, makes the mind more expansive, as you take into consideration the needs of other people and try to help those needs. And finally discernment: the ability to see what’s skillful and what’s not, to see what is your business and what’s not your business. This is where equanimity and discernment come very … 
  20. The Advantages of Many Selves
    We talk a lot about the committee of the mind, all the many different “you’s” inside there. When you realize you have to train them all, it gets kind of discouraging sometimes. There seem to be so many of them. But it’s good to see that they’re also our opportunity. If there were just one you, and the one you was … 
  21. Between Right & Wrong
     … As the mind settles down, give it a chance to rest. When it’s rested, then you can ask it: What still is causing a sense of burdensomeness or of stress? Anything that weighs the mind down, or as one of the forest ajaans said, anything that puts a squeeze on the mind: Is there anything still there? Look for it. The more assiduous … 
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