Search results for: "Mindfulness"

  1. Page 143
  2. Concentration Work
     … In doing this work, you exercise your faculties of mindfulness, alertness, and discernment. There’s a tendency in some circles to encourage students talented in concentration to direct their energies in the direction of concentration. If they’re more talented in the area of analyzing the mind, they’re encouraged in the direction of discernment. Ajaan Fuang, though, would turn tables on people. If … 
  3. 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 … 
  4. Guardian Meditations
     … Only when you’re really sensitive can you have those “Aha” moments that really go deep into the mind, open things up, change your perspective on everything. This is why the eightfold path is not only composed of right view, but also other factors that help to increase your ability to know, to learn, to be aware of the mind, and to help you … 
  5. Brahmaviharas at the Breath
     … But as you meditate, this is where you move from beginner’s mind to expert’s mind. In beginner’s mind there are a lot of potentials, but a lot of them are unrealized, and you’re totally unaware of them. Someone who’s truly expert has learned how to find those potentials and explore them, to develop a sense of which potential you … 
  6. Seclusion
     … There’s what the Buddha calls our asavas, these things that flow out of the mind. The mind has a tendency to go flowing out the eyes, the ears, the nose, the tongue, the body. Think of it as your brain is going out the eyes, the ears, the nose. It’s a pretty disgusting image, but that’s what the mind does. It … 
  7. Metta Math
     … But goodwill raises the level of the mind. It’s not innate. You start out having goodwill for some people. The normal human attitude is that you have goodwill for some but not for everyone. But with the sublime attitudes, the brahmaviharas, you’re trying to raise the level of your mind to a brahma level. It’s the brahmas who have goodwill for … 
  8. Thinking About Your Fears
     … This is why it’s good to be able to get the mind into a state where you can focus on the sense of space, realizing that the mind can be perfectly content, perfectly happy, without any reference to the body at all. Space, consciousness, nothingness: These are states of concentration you can work on and dwell in. As you get the mind to … 
  9. Together but Separate
    It’s one of the ironies of the practice that in the practice of right mindfulness and right concentration, we’re trying to create a sense of oneness, bringing things together, whereas the function of right view is to see things as separate. But there’s a natural progression, and it’s not really a paradox at all. Just think about how you ordinarily … 
  10. Two Types of Dukkha
     … This is why we sit and meditate, closing our eyes to the world, so that we can see what the mind is doing right now that’s adding unnecessary suffering, adding unnecessary stress to what we’re experiencing. We try to bring our attention as much as we can into the present moment so that we can watch the workings of the mind. Otherwise … 
  11. Worldly Dhammas
     … Try to tune your mind in to that attitude. As the Buddha says, make your mind in tune with the breath. Make your mind in tune with fire, water, earth. You can also make it in tune with space, or with the simple knowing quality in the mind. If you can maintain this type of perception, it really frees you from a lot of … 
  12. The World of the Body
     … In other words, you’re the one who makes up your mind where you want to go, how you want to go about it. Once you’ve made up your mind, you’ve got to stick with it. Otherwise, you develop something and then you drop it for a while, and then you develop some more and then you drop it for a while … 
  13. Something New
     … You couldn’t change your mind, or if there was a change in your mind, it would have nothing to do with what you were doing, because both the change in your mind and what you’re doing externally would be already determined from the past. That, the Buddha taught, was a pernicious doctrine. It was so bad that even though he wasn’t … 
  14. 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 … 
  15. The Door of the Cage (2)
     … And they might be reading your mind right now. What would they be thinking? “Here’s someone who started out well, but now has gone astray.” Thinking about that should give rise to a sense of shame, a healthy sense of shame. These beings have your well-being in mind and they’re disappointed. Now, those two reflections depend ultimately, though, on the Dhamma … 
  16. Cheating the System
     … The fact that you have a body, the fact that you have a mind, the fact that you’re a being, leaves you exposed to pain all the time. As Ajaan Suwat once said, take an iron spike and you can stick it anywhere in the body and there’s going to be pain. What’s not normal is learning how to not suffer … 
  17. The Anatomy of the Present
     … The water here stands for your state of mind in the present moment. The large river represents a mind that is developing thoughts of unlimited good will, compassion, empathetic joy, and equanimity. It’s developed in virtue and developed in discernment. And it’s trained so as to not be overcome easily by either pleasure or pain. When your mind has these qualities, it … 
  18. Control
     … You turn and look at your mind. You get up in the morning, you plan to do x, and yet you find yourself later during anti-x, or non-x. Fortunately, the mind doesn’t have to be that way. You can train it. We’re trying to take advantage of that fact. As the body starts disobeying us, and we find that things … 
  19. Sensuality
     … In fact, the mind gets a lot clearer, and it’s through the clarity of the mind experiencing this kind of pleasure that you can begin to see what’s actually going on in the mind. So he decided not to be afraid of that, and actually to pursued it. It’s ironic, how often we read about the dangers of getting attached to … 
  20. Let Go Like a Millionaire
     … Whatever else comes up in your mind, don’t let go of the sensation of the breathing as the breath comes in, the breath goes out. Try to make yourself interested in the breath, to see what kind of breathing feels good and what kind of breathing is good for the body and mind. If you’re tired, what kind of breathing will give … 
  21. Good for What Purpose?
     … You think that you can trust whatever urges come up in the mind. Yet who knows what’s going to come up in the mind? As the Buddha said, the mind can change directions very fast. If the mind is basically anything, it’s basically changeable—and quickly changeable at that. So what do we do? I know some people who say they don … 
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