Search results for: "Mindfulness"

  1. Page 129
  2. The Buddha’s Filters
    There’s a Romantic notion that we should approach experience as a whole, each moment, without any filters, without any preconceived notions, with fresh eyes—and that we should respond spontaneously with whatever new ideas come up in that unfiltered mind. The problem is that our minds can’t operate without filters. Too many things are coming in and out all the time. What … 
  3. A Slave to Craving
     … the skill of getting the mind to be still, getting it to be mindful, concentrated, discerning. I know a lot of people who don’t like these teachings because they sound harsh, but the only way you’re going to get the mind out of its complacency is to show it stark reality. You think you’ve got this friend, but it’s your … 
  4. Preparing to Die Well
     … But before you can do that, you’ve got to develop mindfulness, concentration, alertness: all the qualities of the path. Then when the path is done, it gets let go of, too. 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 … 
  5. Empathetic Joy Is Ennobling
     … Ask yourself, what do you get out of ill will? And there will be a part of the mind that likes to feed on ill will, likes to feed on anger, likes to get worked up, resentful. But you have to ask yourself: What kind of food is that? What kind of nourishment is that for the mind? It’s like food that tastes … 
  6. Bringing Right resolve
     … The quality of the mind, the maturity of mind, and our determination and our effort: All of these things are the qualities that make the path whole, so that the Dhamma not only appears to the mind, but also, as the Buddha says, it becomes something you touch with your body. In other words, it’s a total experience. It’s not mediated by … 
  7. Discernment
     … So try to get the mind still enough to allow your discernment to get more and more refined, more and more subtle. It works in stages. The more still the mind can be, the more refined your discernment can be, the more subtleties you can see—and the more you can put an end to your suffering. Ajaan Fuang used to say that the … 
  8. Refuge
     … Put your mind at ease about those. Don’t worry about your relatives, and don’t set your mind on sensual pleasures that you’re leaving. There’s something better. Set your mind there.” So as you meditate, you’re getting practice in how not to suffer no matter what happens, even when death comes. This is how you handle it. Develop your concentration … 
  9. Maintained by Fabrication
     … He’s giving us a picture to hold in mind, opening up possibilities for us to keep in mind as we keep fabricating. I was talking the other day to someone who was saying he came to the meditation thinking that at the beginning he would just find his mind, where it was, what was going on on its own, and then decide to … 
  10. Dispassion Is Freedom
     … The mind feels a lot more expansive: That’s dispassion. The mind really feels expansive because it’s not concerning itself with little tiny things. The Buddha tried to induce in his listeners a taste of dispassion when he gave the graduated discourse. You think of all the good things in generosity, the good things in virtue; the rewards of those things, but then … 
  11. Discernment & Determination
     … Then you’ve got to figure out how to do it, both in the sense of the steps that need to be done, and also in how to get yourself motivated—because you know what works in getting your mind to act. If you don’t know what works with your mind, try to find out. If you feel intimidated and daunted by how … 
  12. Looking Off to the Side
     … first the four jhanas, then the four formlessnesses that you can develop based on the fourth jhana, as interim goals that you can actually focus on in making the mind more sensitive. This is the important part of the practice: making the mind more sensitive to what’s going on. All the things you need to know about awakening are right here. Even the … 
  13. Quality
     … It’s to build the qualities of mind: patience, endurance, restraint. Those are the qualities that bring the results, not your desire for fast results or your efforts to push things fast. This is why the Dhamma is so amazing. It requires really good qualities of mind in order to know it. It can’t be known by people who don’t have those … 
  14. A Full Heart
     … being fully aware of the body, having what he called an enlarged mind or a heightened mind, in other words, an awareness that spreads its range all around. That’s another way in which we create a lack: We don’t allow our awareness to be all-around. We make it very narrow, very confined, focused on a few things, a few issues that … 
  15. The River of Karma
     … If your mind is expansive, then the results of those actions are going to be mitigated by the good karma you’re creating in the present moment. The good state of mind you’re creating: That is a kind of karma. This is an important principle to keep in mind, that when you attain a state of concentration you’re not running into some … 
  16. Two Eyes, Not Just One
     … They were clearing out their minds as much as possible to sense the animals all around in the same way that you want to sense the animals in your own mind—the animals of greed, aversion and delusion—because they may show up first in just little, tiny hints that there’s something going on. If you’re not really quiet, you’re not … 
  17. Unlimited Compassion, Limited Resources
     … Next below that is the person who knows how to help him or herself, because it’s only when you can straighten out your own mind that you can really know, what it means to straighten out a mind, what it means to straighten out a life. Only then can you give reliable help to others. Watch out for the conceit, the self-image … 
  18. True & Beneficial
     … That’s when they have a real impact on the mind. Otherwise, you can read a lot of Buddhist philosophy and say, “Yeah, I’ve seen that happen in my mind. I’ve seen that happen in my mind.” But we’re not here just to affirm what you’ve seen. We’re here to say: Given that you’ve seen this, now how … 
  19. The Regularity of the Dhamma
     … To do that, you need to develop certain qualities of mind: That’s the path. You need to put the mind in a position where it really can look at stress coming and going, and not feel threatened by it, especially when the stress is really painful, really burdensome. Our normal reaction when we feel stress and strain is to say, “This is happening … 
  20. Two Kinds of Cross-Questioning
     … As we’re working with the breath here, we’re developing qualities of mind that make it easier and easier to see what’s actually going on. The mindfulness part—the part that keeps things in mind—keeps reminding you that you want to do this skillfully. You want to stay with the breath; you want to keep the mind here. There’s the … 
  21. Deconstruction
     … You breathe in and out gladdening the mind, concentrating the mind, releasing the mind. There’s a lot of constructive work you have to do. So you’re not just settling in and being really quiet—because that can be another wrong extreme of letting go. Some people say, “Well, who cares about discernment, just reject everything.” The mind rejects, rejects, rejects, and it … 
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