Search results for: "The Mind"

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  2. A Slave to the Dhamma
     … It’s important to realize that this is a part of training the mind. If training the mind were simply a matter of closing your eyes and sitting very still, it’d be a lot easier, but it wouldn’t really challenge you in the way that the full training of the heart and mind does. One of the things I’ve always liked … 
  3. Our Variegated Minds
    The Buddha once said that the mind is more variegated than the animal world. When you stop to think of it, that’s saying a lot. Think of all the different kinds of fish and birds and mammals and reptiles and all the little animals, big animals, striped animals, spotted animals, the thousands and thousands of species—and our mind is more variegated than … 
  4. Adult Dhamma
     … When he taught Rahula meditation, he started off with the images of making the mind like earth, making the mind like water, like fire, like wind. In other words, earth doesn’t react to what it dislikes. If you throw something disgusting on the earth, the earth doesn’t shrink away. The same with fire: It can burn disgusting things and doesn’t recoil … 
  5. Heedfulness is the Path
     … Truth is not a quality of statements—“Is this statement true? Is that statement true?” Ultimate truth is quality of the mind: the mind’s truthfulness with itself, its willingness and its ability to admit the truth and to act on the truth. And that’s how the truth is found in other ways as well. So we don’t look for the truth … 
  6. Sunrise, Sunset
     … What kind of thinking does the mind like to settle down in? When you’re trying to meditate and part of the mind wants to get into concentration, while another part says, “Not for the time being. Let me wander around a little bit first,” what are those thoughts? Do you like wandering around in thoughts of lust? You can excuse yourself in all … 
  7. The Limits of Old Kamma
     … We’re sitting here with lots of different potentials—potentials in the body, potentials in the mind. As we meditate we explore to see which potentials lead to the greatest happiness, the greatest pleasure. Allow the breath to be pleasurable and also notice what your mind is doing, what potentials you have in your mind: What thoughts could you be thinking right now? What … 
  8. Right & Wrong Decisions
     … We work on the mind so that it can develop those skills. When we work with the breath, it may seem like a detour but it’s not. When you’re with the breath, you’re in the present moment. As you work with the breath to make it comfortable, to make it energizing, whatever the body needs right now, you’re making it … 
  9. Circumspection
     … As the Buddha pointed out, doing concentration requires some insight into how the mind works, how it wanders, how it relates to the breath. For some people, getting the mind to settle down is easy. They can get away with less contemplation in that area. Still, there will come a point where they’ll have to start pushing the mind in that direction if … 
  10. Help Others, Help Your Mind
    As we train the mind, it’s important to remember that the Pali term for “mind,” citta, also includes the heart. And we have to train both sides. The side that figures things out, the side that reasons—that’s the mind. The side that wills—that’s the heart. When we teach the mind how to think clearly, observe clearly, we want the … 
  11. One Foot in the Present
     … It’s the moment where the mind is making its choices. Intentions arise here, and the results of your intentions also can be seen arising here. This is where you learn about intention, you learn about the causes of stress and pleasure, pain and ease, because you can see them happening in real time. So try to keep at least one foot in the … 
  12. Owners of Our Actions
     … Just the simple act of noticing when the mind has wandered off and you bring it back; the simple act of noticing, “How can I breathe in a way that gives my mind a sense of comfort so that it wants to stay here”: All these simple acts help put you more in control of the mind, the area where you are responsible and … 
  13. Significance
     … And as I said, staying with the breath, staying in the present moment, trying to keep the mind as still as possible, helps you access your memories of what worked and what didn’t work in the past and of what you should or shouldn’t be doing right now. When the mind is running around, it can’t access things. It’s like … 
  14. Can All Beings Be Happy?
     … So you’re developing this wealth of the mind. And even further, when you train the mind so that it’s not overcome by pleasure, not overcome by pain; as you’re able to maintain your mindfulness, alertness and maintain your steadiness even when there’s pain in the body, even when there’s pleasure in the body, pain in the mind, pleasure in … 
  15. Standing Outside Your Thoughts
     … The fourth approach is basically built on your desire to relax as you’re getting the mind into concentration. There is a certain amount of energy that goes into the concentration, but, once the mind settles down, there’s also the ability to relax into the breath, relax into your sense of the body right here, so you want to extend that relaxed state … 
  16. Believing & Knowing
     … In the same way, the good results that we get from the practice developing the precepts, developing mindfulness and alertness, overcoming the hindrances, getting the mind in states of concentration, are like the footprints. They don’t prove that the Buddha was awakened, but they give us encouragement. We see the good results that come when we train the mind, and that strengthens our … 
  17. No Dharma Without Karma
     … And even before that, the Buddha recommends that you practice generosity—because there are lots of things you can learn about the mind, lots of things you can learn about the Dharma, by practicing generosity and virtue, and by bringing the right attitude toward them. You’re not being forced to do these things. In fact, that’s one of the main points about … 
  18. Shaping Your Breath, Shaping Your Life
     … If it were, the mind would just be on the receiving end of everything. But here the mind can make choices, and it can use those choices to impress changes on its experience. That’s why the Buddha said, in the first verse in the Dhammapada, “The mind is the forerunner of all phenomena.” The way you approach experience is going to determine whether … 
  19. A Good Path to Be On
     … You try to be alert and mindful so that you can watch the mind, see how the mind moves around, see how it clings to things, and ask it why. What’s the allure? And to get to the allure, you have to ask some pretty strange questions, because the reasons we go for certain things are not always aboveboard. We have lots of … 
  20. Alone at Death, but Not Lonely
     … Why is it that pain in the body has an impact on the mind? If you learn how to see that as something strange, then you’ve got a handle on the problem. All too often our reaction is, “Well, of course, if there’s a pain in the body, it’s going to pain the mind because the body and the mind are … 
  21. Common Ground
     … There’s a common structure to the mind. Now, to get to this level may require different techniques, different strategies for different people, but we get finally to that one point where it’s all the same. Ajaan Fuang once said that Ajaan Mun commented that, “We’re all the same, but we’re not the same. But when you come right down to … 
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