Search results for: "The Mind"

  1. Page 149
  2. Noble Treasures
    The mind has a very deep habit, a little question inside that keeps getting asked over and over again: “What are we doing next? What are we doing next?” If you come up with a lot of different answers, the mind gets scattered and feels fearful. So, for the next hour, try to convince yourself that there’s only one thing you really have … 
  3. Starting from Within
     … Right here at the breath is where the body and the mind meet. Your most direct experience of the body is actually breath sensations, the feeling of energy that flows throughout the whole body. So if you want to understand what you’ve got inside yourself here, both inside the body and the mind, the breath is a good place to start. Be aware … 
  4. Metta Through Samvega
     … It’s very easy—when the mind is quiet and you’re off by yourself—to start thinking about old wrongs: people who’ve harmed you, the injustices you’ve been subjected to. That’s when it’s good to hold the image of the fish in mind: The things you’re competing for, the things you’re upset about, are just that last … 
  5. A Clean Break at Death
     … The proper use is to get you to the deathless, to the point where the mind doesn’t have to experience death anymore. That next best thing is to be able to approach death in such way that the mind is not affected by the death of the body. If it’s going to be reborn, let it be reborn in a good place … 
  6. The Prison Break
     … What kind of mood are you bringing to the meditation? Does the mind need to be gladdened to be here? Think a bit about why it’s good to be here, settling down, trying to get the mind quiet. Then when other thoughts come in, you have a good argument. Say, “Not right now. I can think about those things some other time. Right … 
  7. Energy Channels
     … That’s the important thing, in the course of being very meticulous, very precise, very sensitive to what you’re doing, as you’re trying to bring the mind to stillness. Notice where there are places where there’s still stress that you’re causing and learn new strategies so that you don’t have to cause that stress and still able to keep … 
  8. Refuge & Strength
     … But just looking at the qualities of the mind, if you find that the mind seems to be out of control, remind yourself: The mind is like a committee. There are lots of different voices in there, but you don’t have to listen to all of them. You don’t have to identify with them. Let them be other members of the committee … 
  9. Breath Energies
    An emotion is a thought that has an impact not only on the mind but also on the body. And it has that impact through the breath. Not only the in-and-out breath, but also the breath energies moving throughout the different parts of the body: along the blood vessels, along the nerves. It’s strange that some people don’t even think … 
  10. Respect, Confidence, & Patience
     … There are lots of techniques for dealing with all different kinds of problems in the mind. When teachers give you just one technique, it’s sort of one-size-fits-all, or Henry Ford’s old maxim: People can have whatever color car they want as long as it’s black. Given the complexity of the mind, there’s no way that one single … 
  11. Respect
     … As the mind settles down, you’ll see things more clearly, you’ll see where you’re holding on to ideas or feelings that are weighing you down, and you let go of them. But then you’ll find there are other more subtle ones that are also weighing you down. So let go of those, too. It’s a gradual process, growing gradually … 
  12. Cosmic Scale, Human Scale
     … They seem big to us in day-to-day life, but it helps to see them as really small – as preparation for being willing to get the mind to settle down. The main purpose of this contemplation is *samvega—*as in the Buddha’s comment that the water in the oceans is less than the tears you’ve shed, less than the blood you … 
  13. Interdependence & Death
     … What would matter at that point?” The qualities you build into the mind—or the qualities that strengthen the mind’s good side and also allow you to abandon the things that would keep you tied down. Another way of contemplating death is to remind yourself that once you leave this body you’ve got here, you’re not going to want it. Ajaan … 
  14. No Preferences
     … The mind settles down quickly and is very still, and the mind says, “Okay, what’s next? Let’s move on to insight.” Well, maybe you have to get your concentration solidified before you’re really ready to develop insight. There are many, many examples of people who’ve gotten a little bit of stillness and wanted to jump straight for insight, and end … 
  15. True & Beneficial
     … When we learn a truth about the way the mind works, the next question is: How do we use this truth to put an end to suffering? How do we use this to find true happiness? There are a lot of people who have insights into not-self or emptiness, conditionality, and some of those insights are actually useful if you put them to … 
  16. The Noble Pursuit of Happiness
     … It just ground the mind down. He realized he would have died and gained nothing from it. So he cast around for other alternatives, and he finally landed on right concentration, which later became one of the factors of the path he taught. It was the first of the factors he discovered. He thought of the time when, as a young child, he’d … 
  17. One Thing Clear Through
     … It becomes just a natural expression of the mind. All the steps of the practice become a natural expression of the mind once it’s fully trained.
  18. Treasure Island
     … That’s when you develop the discernment that comes from actually trying to get the mind to settle down, actually trying to get the mind to be one with the breath, trying to develop all the factors of the path. Even right view, although it leads the way, gets fully trained only by actually following through with developing these factors of the path. All … 
  19. Heedfulness
     … So it’s better to be open with yourself that there are skillful and unskillful urges in the mind, and you want to know how to sort them out. A large part of discernment is just this: sorting out what’s skillful in the mind, what’s unskillful, and then doing what you can to give rise to the skillful and to abandon the … 
  20. Skilled in Leaving Concentration
     … But you notice, after a while, that when the mind finally settles, it’s in one spot. It might be the middle of the head. You intended it to be at the middle of the chest, but it moved to the middle of the head, or vice versa, or anywhere. Then, the next time you sit down, go right there. What was the quality … 
  21. Inner Refuge Through Inner Strength
     … There are dangers here inside the mind, and there are dangers outside. But the dangers inside the mind are important ones. Keep that thought as your motivation and then, based on that, develop the five strengths. The first is conviction—conviction in the Buddha’s awakening, the three knowledges he gained on the night of his awakening, and most importantly the knowledge he gained … 
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