Search results for: "The Mind"

  1. Page 127
  2. Two Kinds of Cross-Questioning
     … But as the mind begins to settle down, you want to understand how you got it to settle down. When the mind is not settling down, you want to ask: “What’s going on here? What am I doing that’s getting in the way of its settling down?” In some cases, it’s simply the fact that you’re carrying a lot of … 
  3. Respect Your Center
     … I don’t know how many times I’ve heard people say, “Well, just allow the mind to settle in, and it’s just going to naturally grow without your having to really do anything about it.” In some cases, that’s true, but in a lot of areas, you have to go against tendencies of the mind that *seem *natural. You have to … 
  4. Don’t Be Afraid of Mistakes
    When we talk about the committee of the mind, or when Ajaan Lee talks about all the various consciousnesses that may be hovering around your body, or when the Buddha talks about your thoughts being not-self, the purpose is to get some distance from those thoughts. But it doesn’t mean you have to distrust them. It simply means that you want to … 
  5. The Wheel of Dhamma
     … This is why we practice concentration, to give the mind that place to stay, a more secure foundation. In other words, when pain comes up, either a physical pain or mental pain, you don’t just go jumping right into it. Try to find the part the body and the part of the mind that’s not totally overwhelmed. At the very least, remind … 
  6. Overcoming Delusion
     … As we sit here meditating, there’s no question about what we’re doing or saying, it’s mostly about what we’re thinking, trying to train the mind to develop good qualities, so that its thoughts are skillful, i.e. appropriate: thinking when it’s appropriate to think and not thinking when you don’t have to. And a large part of the … 
  7. Sorting Yourselves Out
     … You want to simply allow it to be comfortable, to flow in different parts of the body, have a sense of the energy flowing all around without any obstacles, so that the parts of the mind that want to settle down will have some allies, and the part of the mind that wants immediate gratification, immediate pleasure, will be able to find it. That … 
  8. Customs of the Noble Ones
     … In fact, it becomes your sport, to see how you approach the issues of greed, anger, and delusion in the mind, all the various cravings in the mind, but not as someone who’s hungry. After all, that’s exactly what craving means. It’s a kind of hunger, a kind of thirst. If you see a craving arising, but you’re feeling full … 
  9. Your Inner Ally
     … This way, you strengthen your ally in getting the mind to settle down. So remember, you’re not going to get everything totally still. Some people think they have to get everything totally still before they can get the mind to settle down. Years back, when I ran Wat Dhammasathit, a monk came to visit, and he was complaining that there was no quiet … 
  10. Not Just a Witness
    I’m reading a book on the psychology of Now, how the mind creates its sense of what’s going on in the present moment. The author points out, as she goes from one revelation to the next, that we don’t just pick up stimuli from outside and then put them together to see what we’ve got. We anticipate; we generate perceptions … 
  11. Evaluation
     … After you’ve got the mind settled in and things are going well, you want to ask yourself, “What still needs to be done? What still is not quite right? What still is lacking? What are you doing that’s adding unnecessary stress or a burden on the mind right now?” The best way to see that is to watch for inconstancy. The level … 
  12. No Resistance
    Sometimes it seems that when you try to focus on the breath, the distracting sounds around you, other distracting things around you, impinge even more on the mind. But that’s simply because when you’re with the breath, there are not a lot of complications. When you’re thinking a complex thought, you have to block things out. The mind is very good … 
  13. What’s Getting in the Way
     … Where is the potential for rapture? Where is the potential for ease? Where in the mind is the potential for stillness? What would happen if you developed those potentials and kept at it? When, say, sensual desire does come up in the mind, what would it be like not to give in? And what would the mind need to do to be in a … 
  14. Victory in Battle
     … You’re trying to find freedom, but there are parts of the mind that are trying to keep you tied down, so you have to regard them as traitors, as enemies. You can’t identify with them. So there is a battle, but winning the battle inside doesn’t mean that you give up on winning some things outside. Look at the Buddha. After … 
  15. Respect
     … It’s not simply by wishing or wanting that we can get there; we have to develop skillful qualities in the mind—like we’re doing right now: training the mind in mindfulness, training the mind in alertness. Keep the breath in mind—that’s mindfulness—and be alert to what the breath is doing. Know when it’s coming in, know when it … 
  16. Potentials
     … There are potentials in the mind, like the potential for sensuality. It may lie latent, but it doesn’t take much to provoke it. And the fact that we have these potentials, both good and bad, is what allows us to practice. You probably know the passage where the Buddha says that you look at form, feeling, perception, fabrication and consciousness, and you ask … 
  17. Rites of Passage
     … The truth of the matter, though, is that there’s a part of the mind that flourishes when it’s not burdened with sensual attachments. When it’s really secluded from sensual attachments, it blossoms. And part of the practice is learning to appreciate that very still center of the mind, the sense of wellbeing that comes from dropping all those attachments. Even though … 
  18. The Wisdom of Self-regulation
     … But the Buddha wants to take you further than that, to a point where there really is no suffering in the mind—the mind is totally free, totally without limits—and that requires work. We have to learn how to straighten out the mind, all the unskillful habits we have. This process of self-regulation is something that has to be learned. Think about … 
  19. Just Rightness
     … Ideally, you want to bring the mind to a state of concentration that’s balanced. For it to be right concentration, you have to be in a position where you really can observe what’s going on. First, be really focused on the breath and then learn to step back a bit and watch not only the breath, but also the mind as it … 
  20. The End of Uncertainty
     … In this way you learn how to be a connoisseur of your actions, and particularly a connoisseur of actions and events in the mind. A connoisseur of food has to develop a very refined palate; a connoisseur of music, a very refined ear. What you’re trying to do is to develop a refined sensitivity to what’s going on in the mind. This … 
  21. Analysis of Qualities
     … So that’s the main issue we’re working on: ;putting the mind in a position where you can rely on it. As your powers of observation develop, you can apply them to subtler things—not just the breath, but whatever comes up in the mind. You begin to notice certain ways of thinking that you’ve held on to for a long time … 
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