Search results for: "The Mind"

  1. Page 121
  2. Learning How to Learn
     … Then, when any questions come out of the meditation, we’re talking about the mind. We’re not talking about Buddhism or Christianity or any particular religion. We just talk about issues that arise in the mind. That way,” he said, “we can understand each other.” So focus on the breath. As my teacher said, it’s common property, so common that we hardly … 
  3. Levels of the Breath
     … As you learn to fabricate in more subtle ways, more solid ways, more unchanging and unified ways, the mind can settle down more and more solidly, securely. Some people, when they get to this stage, think that the mind isn’t doing anything at all: no self, no actor, nothing. But actually it’s doing just one consistent thing. When there’s that one … 
  4. Heedful, Ardent, & Resolute
     … You notice there are things that have come up in the mind that are unskilful, so you learn to let go of them and then you do what you can to prevent them from arising again. As for skillful things in the mind that haven’t arisen, you try to give rise to them. When they’re there, you try to maintain them and … 
  5. Ajaan Suwat 100 Years
     … Try to pare things down to what’s really relevant to getting the mind to stay still right here, right now. And as for any disturbance in the mind, simply regard it as an instance of the first noble truth, or the second. In other words, something to be comprehended and then to be abandoned. Even little disturbances in the mind, you learn how … 
  6. Modest in Manner, but Not in Goals
     … You want to be able to watch your own mind, because, as the Buddha said, our happiness and our suffering come from within the mind. We do things that lead to suffering because we don’t know what we’re doing. The way around that, of course, is to be more alert to what you’re doing. And it starts right here with the … 
  7. The Truth of Perceptions
     … What happens if you put aside this perception of the mind being one? The mind goes to a perception of nothingness. This takes you as far as perception can go, but you’ve learned an important lesson: Perceptions are a sketch. They focus on different aspects of reality. And some are true, some are false. But you can have lots of different true perceptions … 
  8. Ardency
     … Why bother? Well, for one thing, the breath keeps you grounded in the present moment, where the mind is creating unnecessary suffering and stress. And two, when you’re close to the breath, you’re also close to all the processes of fabrication or intention in the mind. When you’re close to your intentions, you can begin to see where the ignorance is … 
  9. Healing Awareness
     … Get on good terms with it, and it’ll teach the mind a lot of things it needs to know—because the breath, as Ajaan Lee said in one of his Dhamma talks, is a mirror for the mind. It responds very quickly to what the mind is doing. So it’s a good topic for becoming sensitive to what your awareness is like … 
  10. The Dhamma Mirror
     … You try to do the two of them together, because where are you going to learn insight? From getting the mind still. After all, “insight,” as far as the Buddha was concerned, was not a technique, it was a quality of mind that you’re trying to develop. You don’t wait until your concentration gets really strong, and you don’t wait until … 
  11. The Skill of Patience
     … I don’t have to make them into anything that makes any sense at all.” They’re just random chatter in the background of the mind. Keep it in the background. With some thinking, you can simply say No and it goes away. With other thinking, the more you say No to it, the more it flares up—the part of the mind that … 
  12. Listening to the Body
     … You don’t know how many times the mind has walked over to Palomar and back before you’ve even taken a step. In this way, it wears itself out. The right way is that the body takes one step and the mind takes one step with it. Then the body takes a step, you’re with that next step. That way, the mind … 
  13. Honest & Observant
     … When you’re being generous, watch the mind to see what its motivation is, to see the parts of the mind that would argue against being generous, that would want to hold on to something even after you’d given it away. Then see if you can train them to think more skillfully. You begin to see the power of your actions to shape … 
  14. Use Your Imagination
     … It’s not the case there’s just one way that things will work in the mind, because the mind doesn’t have just one set of defilements. It has lots of different defilements. Greed, aversion, and delusion can come in 108 different forms, and maybe 108 is too small a number. If you want to just memorize a few principles and hope that … 
  15. Strong Through Mindfulness
     … It’s an image that sticks in the mind. And it’s meant to stick in the mind. Ajaan Lee tells a story about a mother monkey who ends up dying out of concern for her baby monkey. I’ve known people complain about that image—but it’s one that sticks in the mind. In this case, the point that Ajaan Lee is … 
  16. A World of Limitations
     … Some of the things you want actually get in the way of training the mind. So it’s up to you to decide: Does this training of the mind really have top priority in your life? And to what extent are you willing to sacrifice other things for the sake of training the mind? The Buddha has a teaching on making vows, determining what … 
  17. Appreciating Dispassion
     … You rest a little bit when you sleep, but even then there’s part of the mind still working. When you go unconscious, there’s part of the mind still working. It’s so habitual, so constant, that you tend not to notice it. So when you do concentration, one of the purposes is to peel away the layers of fabrication so that you … 
  18. Imagine Your Breath
     … Also, when you have a sensation of blockage, is it really in the spot where the mind tells you it is? One thing I’ve found helpful is to ask yourself, if the mind says that this particular knot of tension is in the front: What if it’s an extension of a knot of tension that’s actually in the back? Hold that … 
  19. For the Good of the World
     … It’s based on the realization that when people have passed over, the only way you can get in touch with them is through the power of the mind, what Ajaan Lee calls the current of the mind. And the best thing you can do for them is to send them a current of peace, a current of goodwill, hoping that they find a … 
  20. New Feeding Habits
     … You give the mind something good to hold on to instead of the unskillful qualities it’s been following. So these two strengths—mindfulness and concentration—are like food for the mind. They strengthen the mind. You get a good place to stay, like with the breath. You breathe in a way that feels really good. Again, you’re free to do this. All … 
  21. Choices that Matter
     … So learn to appreciate the fact that you can make choices, and the choices do make a difference—so that when the mind begins to settle down, you can choose to try to maintain that sense of stillness. There’ll be some frustration as the mind slips away, but don’t give in to the frustration. Just keep coming back, coming back, coming back … 
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