Search results for: "Mindfulness"

  1. Page 151
  2. 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 … 
  3. Developing the Heart
     … All these things go together, which is why they use the one word citta for heart and mind. From the Buddha’s point of view, our division between heart and mind is artificial. After all, the way we think is going to have an impact on how we feel and what we’d want to do, and how we feel and what we want … 
  4. A Skillful Attitude
     … And get your mind in position. Getting them into position is the easy part. With the body, you just sit up straight, your hands in your lap. Face straight ahead and close your eyes. That’s the body in position. Getting the mind into position means focusing it on the breath. Wherever you sense the breath or the process of breathing, focus your attention … 
  5. Clinging & Feeding
     … It’s because we cling to them that the mind suffers. The aggregates may have stress simply in the fact they arise and pass away, but that doesn’t really afflict the mind unless the mind clings to them. So we have to understand what this clinging is and how we can get past it. First off, it’s good to notice that the … 
  6. Shoulds & Ideals
     … If your mindfulness is weak, if you have trouble keeping things in mind, well, you work at developing it, making it stronger. Every time you realize you’ve slipped off away from the breath, come back, come back. Remind yourself that this is why you’re here, this is what you want to develop. Then as the mind settles down, you get excited about … 
  7. Complaining Rights
     … But, again, that desire to get the sympathy is going to stand in the way of your seeing, “This is what I’m actually doing that’s causing the suffering.” The doing is very subtle, which is why we have to get the mind really still when we practice concentration, because there are lot of little subtle movements in the mind that we otherwise … 
  8. An Ennobling Pleasure
     … As you’re getting more and more sensitive to the breath, you’re developing the mind’s powers to be more and more sensitive to its own movements, which is where the real issues are. How the mind creates a sense of becoming this or being that, taking on a sense of identity, assembling a sense of the world, what we mean by the … 
  9. Right View Comes First
     … Based on that knowledge, you hold that knowledge in mind—that’s right mindfulness. You’re mindful that you should abandon the wrong version and develop the right version of each factor. And then right effort actually does the work of abandoning and developing. So in both ways of describing the path, he starts with right view. You need to know what you’re … 
  10. A Good Foundation
     … The mind will need some nourishment, a good foundation, so that these insights don’t knock it off balance. This is why the Buddha discovered that an important part of the path is the sense of pleasure, refreshment, that comes from getting the mind in good concentration. It’s also why he has so many different techniques for getting the mind into concentration. Breath … 
  11. Evaluation
     … After you’ve got the mind settled in and things are going well, you want to ask yourself, “What still needs to be done? What still is not quite right? What still is lacking? What are you doing that’s adding unnecessary stress or a burden on the mind right now?” The best way to see that is to watch for inconstancy. The level … 
  12. Squeezing Goodness Out of the Aggregates
     … This is how you get the mind into concentration. We try to get the breath so that it’s easeful. We try to get the mind so that it can stay constantly with the breath. And that requires a certain amount of control. Then Ajaan Lee goes on to say then the Buddha let go of both sides: both what was constant and inconstant … 
  13. The Buddha’s Secret Weapon
     … just having the mind still with a non-sensual comfortable sensation flooding the body, your awareness filling the body, so that the mind doesn’t feel constricted. It feels wide open, at ease. That satisfies the mind’s desire for pleasure. In fact, that’s a pleasure that’s much more encompassing, much more immediate than even sensual pleasure. And it’s much more … 
  14. Reclaim Your Breath
     … You need the sense of rapture or refreshment that comes when the mind settles down and there’s a sense of balance inside the body and in the relationship between the mind and the body. That way, this bath of breath really does feel refreshing, and it goes deep, deep, deep into the brain, deep, deep into the heart, all the parts of your … 
  15. 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 … 
  16. The Making Of
     … Ask yourself, “Where is the breath comfortable? Where is it uncomfortable? How is it fitting in with the mind? How is the mind fitting in with the breath?” And when there’s a sense of ease, what do you do with it? In the Buddha’s images for the different jhānas, the first jhāna has the only image in which is a conscious agent … 
  17. The Solvent for Sticky Narratives
     … You can breathe in a different way, think in a different way, hold different perceptions in mind. Take the narrative apart. Create something better in its place. You can breathe in a way that gives rise to concentration; think in a way that gives rise to concentration; hold perceptions in mind; create feelings through the way you breathe and think: That can all get … 
  18. The Brightness of Life
     … to get the mind in shape so that it can master those solutions in the full conviction that, as Ajaan Fuang says, we can find the brightness of life. That was his comment about what he owed to Ajaan Lee. He said it was because of Ajaan Lee that he found the brightness of life. It’s good to keep this in mind. The … 
  19. The Truth of Transcendence
     … So you want to look for that and to develop the qualities of mind that can see that craving and develop dispassion for it. This is why we develop all the different factors of the path, why we’re sitting here concentrating right now, trying to be mindful, trying to get the mind centered: so it can find a pleasure that lies above the … 
  20. Wisdom, Compassion, Purity
     … getting the mind to be still; having it centered with a sense of well-being. And then discernment: being able to use that concentration to see what’s going on in the mind—where you’re causing yourself unnecessary suffering; what you’re doing that’s getting in the way of finding the happiness whose potential lies within. The Buddha wasn’t operating from … 
  21. A Becoming Critic
     … These worlds can include the world outside—but when you think about it, the world outside is actually many different worlds—and all the worlds inside your mind. Yet even though they’re inside your mind, once you get into them, they surround you. They become not only a mental experience, but also a bodily experience. Sometimes they’re centered on sensuality, sometimes on … 
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