Search results for: "The Mind"

  1. Page 126
  2. The Buddha Meant What He Said
     … You’re trying to bring the mind to concentration. It is an activity. It’s something you’re doing. You get the mind in concentration and try to maintain that. That, too, is an activity. You want to get good at it so that you can watch it. It’s like someone who’s really good at a physical skill: a sport, a musical … 
  3. Eight Principles
     … The body may be wet, but the mind isn’t wet. He contemplated that, repeated it to himself and contemplated it at the same time, until the mind really did take note of the fact that wetness was not a property of the mind. It was a property of the body. But when you take possession of the body, there you are. You’re … 
  4. An Hour of Bliss
     … Something that’s really nourishing for the mind. The way to do that is to learn how to train the mind so that it doesn’t become prey to greed, anger, or delusion, because those are the mental qualities that lead you to do things that harm yourself, harm people around you. The first weapons you need in fighting them off are two very … 
  5. Harmless & Clearheaded
     … And same with the mind: When the mind is distracted by pleasures that are intoxicating or harmful, you’ve got to do something about it, because otherwise if the mind is left to stay in its old ways, it’s like an illness that’s simply allowed to run its course. It can do permanent damage. It can kill you. So if you see … 
  6. In Charge of Your World
     … So this is why we train the mind. Regardless of the situation outside, it’s through training the mind that we’re shaping the world—the world in which we live and the world in which the people around us live as well. So even though the mountains of aging, illness, and death may be moving in, we can still train the mind. Because … 
  7. Creating a New Self
    As I’ve said many times before, the mind is like a committee. It’s got lots of different members. Each member lives in its own world, has its own ideas about what’s going to lead to happiness. Sometimes they actually have meetings, and other times they just move in and move out. But their worlds are pretty impervious to each other. Because … 
  8. Learning by Doing
     … Of those three qualities that the Buddha recommends for mindfulness practice, and which also slough over into concentration practice—the mindfulness, alertness and ardency—ardency is the wisdom factor. That’s a fact that’s often overlooked. It requires wisdom to motivate yourself to do this to begin with. There are lots of voices in the mind that would rather be doing something else … 
  9. A Load Off the Mind
     … It allows you to have that quiet corner in the mind where you can observe these things. And you can use that quietness to get more and more sensitive, more and more skilled at learning how to take the loads off the mind.
  10. An Inside Job
     … Stress, pain, all these things keep pushing the mind, squeezing the mind. And how long do you want to put up with that squeeze? Wouldn’t you rather learn how to shape things in such a way that you don’t have to suffer? The choice is yours. So you have to try to figure out ways of motivating yourself, gaining some discipline over … 
  11. Fear
     … being mindful of the breath, keeping it in mind; being alert to the breath, watching what’s happening, making whatever adjustments are needed so that the mind can settle down. That gives rise to the next strength, which is concentration. Once the mind settles down, it can start seeing things clearly for what they are. In particular, it begins to see that through clinging … 
  12. Appropriate Attention, Appropriate Intention
     … There’s a way to understand the processes in the mind and develop dispassion for all the things that make us suffer. It’s funny, we are passionate for the things that make us suffer. That’s our problem. We like a lot of the things that cause suffering and we actually like a lot of the things that really are suffering in and … 
  13. Becoming Capable of Happiness
     … For one, it feels good in the mind to give. That’s when the happiness that comes from generosity begins to get internalized. From there, the motivations go higher and higher until finally giving is just a natural ornament for the mind. The precepts are a skill as well: They provide training in mindfulness, alertness, ardency, and all the other qualities you’re going … 
  14. May All Beings Be Heedful
     … There are dangers within the mind—dangers outside, of course, but also, more importantly, dangers in the mind—but it’s possible to avoid those dangers through being skillful. So the proper attitude is to try to maintain a sense of heedfulness, enjoying the results of your heedful actions. Remember, the Buddha didn’t say he would teach only those people who didn’t … 
  15. Right Inner Speech
     … One of the advantages of getting the mind still like this is that it helps you to see, it helps you to pull yourself out of those mental conversations that go on in the mind all the time, between all the different factions in there. If you’re in the thick of it, it’s hard to gain perspective. But when you step out … 
  16. Cut Through the Narratives
     … What is this doing to the mind? Is it leading to skillful qualities or unskillful qualities? The fewer narratives are swirling around, then the easier it is to see these things in these terms. So try to give the mind some space so that it can look at these things simply as processes without all the narrative elaboration, and you’ll find that the … 
  17. Equanimity Isn’t Apathy
     … Learn to develop the mind that’s like earth. Learn to develop the mind that’s like fire—not in the sense of burning you up, but in the sense of being willing to burn anything, likable or not. That’s its natural duty. Think of the meditation as your natural duty. You’re here in this body. This body is causing suffering for … 
  18. Self-Hatred
     … This way, you can catch any movements of the mind. The more you get to know the mind, the more you realize that it’s not just stuff going on in the brain. Thoughts are often related to patterns of tension associated with different parts of the body. A lot has been written about how the body contains a lot of memories. They’ve … 
  19. Preparing to Die Well
     … Like having a set of tools that you use to work on the mind: When the mind has been fully shaped, fully developed, you put the tools down. This is how we prepare for death so we can learn how to do it well. As Ajaan Lee said, most people die without any rhyme or reason, flailing around and latching onto whatever the mind … 
  20. The Art of Right Speech
     … We’re not just memorizing words or ideas; we’re learning how to deal skillfully with issues in the mind. And the first principle in that skill, he would say, is how we relate to the breath, because there are many layers in the mind. Some are more conscious than others, and one of the ways we get in touch with some of the … 
  21. A Complete Training
     … The best way to understand the mind is to realize it’s not just mind, it’s heart as well. The functions that we assign to the heart in English and the functions that we assign to mind all come under the one word citta in Pali. You find this also in many other languages in Asia that have been influenced by Buddhism. After … 
  22. Load next page...