Search results for: "The Mind"

  1. Page 139
  2. Bedside Dhamma
     … In other words, they don’t realize that there is something in the mind that doesn’t die, so there’s always going to be the fear that death will be annihilation. Even though people don’t talk about their fear of death, that’s always there in the background. You notice when old people get delirious, demented, or really difficult to be with … 
  3. A Thread Out of the Maze
     … This takes a huge burden off the mind, and allows you to see the more subtle and precise ways in which even the movements of the mind can cause stress of a more subtle form. When you focus on that, learn how to stop that. Again, it’s a choice. You have that freedom. This is why the Buddha has us focus again and … 
  4. To Understand the Path
     … In particular, with right concentration, try to give the mind a state of well-being from which you can work, because the work of insight, if it’s not coming from a state of well-being, can be very disorienting, very alienating. Dis-identifying with all kinds of things, if you’re not coming from a solid place, can leave you hanging, so that … 
  5. The Solvent for Sticky Narratives
     … So which would you rather do? We find that the old ways have their appeal, and this is precisely why the Buddha has you get the mind into concentration. It can stir up some of these old issues, but it puts you in a position where you can look at them from a different perspective. You can see the part of the mind that … 
  6. Refuge for All Beings
     … It may take some training, because part of the mind may say, “Well, let’s see this person suffer a little bit first, and then we can wish for their happiness.” But you have to think of the Buddha. He taught everybody. As we said in the chant just now: the Buddha, the Dhamma, and the Sangha are refuges for all beings. There are … 
  7. A Much Better Place
     … Ultimately, there is no “here” or “there” or “in-between” in the mind. That sense of being in the body or the body being in the mind or whatever: Ultimately that goes. When that goes, then any sense of being oppressed either by being in the world or by the world being in you: That goes away, too. It has no basis. But before … 
  8. Getting into the Body
     … Whichever aspect of the breath seems most prominent now—the in-and-out breath, the sense of breath energy in the body, whatever seems the most congenial place to focus the mind—let the mind settle there and just be very intent on sticking with it, noticing what you’ve got here. The image of heightening is useful. Think about how you go up … 
  9. On Idle Chatter
     … That’s a bad habit to develop if you’re trying to become a meditator, both in terms of trying to get the mind into concentration and just learning how to watch your own mind. If you’re used to just talking all day, then when the time comes to sit and meditate, the mind says, “Hey, I’ve been churning out thoughts all … 
  10. Friends with the Breath
     … But as we work on the mind here, we’re developing qualities that can come to completion, that don’t have to depend on the world—things that come from within, things you can be proud of, the good qualities of the mind. Think about the things you ordinarily have to do in order to gain happiness in the world. It’s always a … 
  11. Truths Noble in the Heart
     … What is suffering, after all? What is stress – or however you want to translate dukkha? And what is the mind doing that’s giving rise to more stress and more suffering over and over again? Many people will want to look into this problem at some point in their lives. But again, it’s when you take this issue as the primary issue in … 
  12. Stay Principled
     … where to focus the mind, how to stay with the point of your focus or the theme of the meditation; how to work with it so that the mind can begin to settle down and stay settled down. There are even skills techniques how to leave meditation. All these are techniques that we can work on, but they’re not what the meditation is … 
  13. In Memory of King Rama IX
     … And notice that when something unskillful has come up in the mind, you do your best to, at the very least, keep it in bounds. You may not be able to get rid of it, but at least don’t let it show, and don’t let it take over your thoughts. If something in the mind says, “Okay, this is worthy of anger … 
  14. Defeatism? - Anything But
     … So here, proper form is keeping the mind with the breath; keeping yourself centered here with a sense of wellbeing so that the mind and body feel good together. And then watch. Ask questions. Stick with it. And that way, your desire, instead of getting in the way of the practice—as desire sometimes can do—it gets tempered and becomes a base for … 
  15. Only Your Best
     … training the mind, developing good qualities that you can depend on, so when things outside start falling apart, things in the body start falling apart, you’ve got something in the mind that does not fall apart. There are lots of activities in the world that don’t give that many rewards, they’re things you’ve got to do and there doesn’t … 
  16. Perfections as Priorities
     … So if we’re not here just for our own personal pleasures or to leave a mark in the world, what are we here for? Well, the teaching on the perfections points you to the mind. You want to be here to develop qualities of the mind. You may not want to be here, but here you are, so what are you going to … 
  17. Protection, Inside & Out
     … Watch the mind to see how the mind is going. And then you’re ardent, trying to get rid of unskillful qualities and develop skillful ones. That ardency is based on a quality called appropriate attention. That, too, is one of your inner refuges. It’s what lies at the beginning of right view. That’s something you have to remember as well. Appropriate … 
  18. Respect for What’s Noble
     … When we understand his teaching about why we have pain, or why the mind suffers, we can see why there’s such an etiquette of respect around the teaching. As he said, if you really want to get the most out of the teaching, you can’t despise the teacher, you can’t despise the teaching, and you can’t despise yourself, because an … 
  19. Worldly Dhammas
     … When gain comes, you can use it to be generous, to develop compassionate qualities of the mind. Rather than identifying with it, you can see: “Where does it come from, where does it go, and in the meantime, what good use can I get out of it?” When you come right down to it, these things are not really yours—never have been, never … 
  20. Something New
     … Then you ask yourself, “Are the results really satisfactory?” As long as there’s suffering in the mind, no. There’s something wrong with what you’re doing. There will be part of the mind that says, “I can’t change. This is just the way I am.” That part: That’s defilement speaking. You have to learn how to recognize it, because all … 
  21. A Pleasure Without Stories
     … It requires that you invest your activity, your intelligence, your ingenuity in getting the mind quiet with the breath. Just sitting here observing things coming and going, coming and going, arising and passing away: That’s going to do it. It’s not going to do it because you watch things arise and pass away, and then part of the mind says, “Okay, where … 
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