Search results for: "Mindfulness"

  1. Page 145
  2. Feelings of Unworthiness
     … Your mind can change very fast. As the Buddha said, nothing can change as quickly as the mind. There’s no analogy that he could give for how quick the mind is to change its course. Now, that can be a negative thing, but it can also be a positive thing, as when you have a good change of heart. You realize that your … 
  3. Equanimity & Karma
     … But, as he explains, those extra arrows are the ones that actually weigh down the mind. That first arrow doesn’t have to weigh down the mind at all. So try to develop the right qualities of mind, which he enumerates as: one, the ability to develop unlimited goodwill and equanimity; two, working on your virtue so that you don’t have to criticize … 
  4. In Debt to Generosity
     … That’s one thing to keep in mind. Another thing to keep in mind is the comment that Ven. Maha Kassapa made once. He was looking back on his life as a monk. He had become an arahant seven days after his ordination and, as he said, “For seven days I ate food and I was a debtor to the countryside. But from that … 
  5. Stick with It
     … One of the tendencies of the mind is that when it knows certain things are going to come up that it doesn’t want you to see, it diverts your attention someplace else. You’ve got to learn how to resist that, to see right through whatever the diversion is. You begin to see things in the mind that you don’t want to … 
  6. The Buddha’s Narrative
     … After many false starts through several years, he finally found true happiness through training his mind in the path we’re practicing right now: developing mindfulness, alertness, concentration, ardency, and all the skillful qualities of the mind. He was able to bring his mind to good solid concentration. Then he started asking questions: Was this his only life or were there other lives? In … 
  7. True Friends
     … As for the other voices in your mind that would suggest you go away, regard them not as your thoughts, just as committee members in your mind. We’ve picked up all kinds of voices inside our heads. Some from people we know—members of our family, teachers—others from the internet and other media, people we don’t know at all. You meet … 
  8. Lessons for New Monks
     … It also means that you’re fencing the mind in: Instead of looking for your pleasures in the senses, you’re going to learn how to look for your pleasure inside because an important principle in restraint of the senses is that you keep mindfulness established in the body—which could include being mindful of the breath—and you’re going to look for … 
  9. Self-Healing
     … Learn to picture those to your mind and see what picture is most conducive to breathing easily, breathing well, with a feeling that it’s good to be here just doing nothing but breathing—and protecting the mind from anything else that would come in and interfere. We focus on these activities because, as the Buddha said, this is how we put together our … 
  10. Disenchantment
    Try to find a sense of nourishment in the breath, because the mind needs nourishment. If it doesn’t find its food here, it’s going to go looking someplace else. As long as we’re beings, we need to feed. The Buddha pointed out that that’s the thing we all have in common: All beings depend on nutriment. As long as we … 
  11. Overcoming Complacency
     … Your “I” right now is the meditator, the person trying to be mindful. Okay, that’s a much more skillful “I,” or a much more skillful sense of self, than a lot of other things you could be doing right now. So hang on to it while it’s skillful. Try to get one with the sense of mindfulness, one with the sense of … 
  12. Contentment
     … Change your mind. Change your attitudes. Develop the skills inside that make it satisfying to change your mind, to change your attitudes. That’s where we should focus our attention. That’s the culture of the noble ones. Just as Ajaan Mun faced a lot of pressure to make his practice more like standard Thai or Laotian practice, we get a lot of pressure … 
  13. “My Way”
     … When the Buddha talks about the mind being luminous, he’s not saying that it’s necessarily good, just that you have this quality of being able to see things, observe things going on inside. In particular, the Buddha asks you to focus that power of observation on your actions—your thoughts, your words, and your deeds—to see where they’re coming from … 
  14. Balanced Breathing
     … Well, there are other things you can’t be careless about, too, starting with the little defilements in the mind, because they can grow into big defilements. You can’t be careless about little lapses of mindfulness, because they can grow into huge lapses. So try to be meticulous as you look after the breath. Take very seriously whatever sense of comfort you can … 
  15. Renunciation
     … It comes down to the factors of the first jhana, the thinking and evaluating that go into getting the mind to settle down with a sense of well-being, a sense of fullness and ease that comes from seclusion: secluding yourself from all your sensual thoughts. You find that there are certain parts of the mind that really thrive when they can put those … 
  16. Potentials for Good
     … Ajaan Lee talks how we have lots of potentials in us—in our bodies, in our minds—and yet for the most part, we don’t use them, don’t get the best use out of them, because our minds are not focused. When you can bring the mind to a focus on the pleasant parts, and focus in a way that encourages them … 
  17. The Karma of Ideas
     … We tend to forget that it also applies to the mind. In fact, though, it applies primarily to the mind. Our ideas are instances of karma as well. The things you focus on, the things you choose to think about, the questions you choose to ask, the perceptions you choose to hold in your mind: These are actions as well. They all fall into … 
  18. The Source of Goodness
     … It’s important to keep this story in mind as you take the practice out into your normal daily life. As you develop the qualities we’re working on—mindfulness, alertness, concentration, discernment, tranquility and insight—you find you become a steadier person. Your mind has a good grounding and a good home. You’re not so open to influences from outside, especially negative … 
  19. You Can’t Relax Your Way to Awakening
     … There are some unskillful states of mind that cause suffering which, when you watch them, just go away on their own. They wither away in front of your sustained awareness. The fact that they’ve been causing suffering in the mind is simply because you haven’t been paying them any attention. When you pay them attention, you see, “I don’t really want … 
  20. Full Attention
     … Feynman wrote a letter back saying, “Look, isn’t physics part of humanity? Isn’t it part of the human mind, human psyche, the human desire to want to understand things?” In other words, the uncontrolled desires we have are part of our human mind, but the desire to get them under control is also part of our human mind—the part that sees … 
  21. Resources for Endurance
     … We sit to get the mind quiet, bring the mind to concentration, gain insight. If everything depended just on the quality of the intention, that’d be all you’d have to do, just hold on to that good intention. But the question is, does it work? A lot of times, other things need to be brought in as well. You check the results … 
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