Search results for: "Mindfulness"

  1. Page 152
  2. Culture Shock
     … He was going to have to teach his mind to be more self-reliant, and by developing that self-reliance he found that there’s a lot more to the mind than he originally expected. So as you come to the Dhamma, try to keep that same purpose in mind: a true happiness that doesn’t have to depend on anything, a happiness that … 
  3. The Karma of Self
     … And we neglect to control some things where we really do have some power, particularly in the area of the mind. If it weren’t possible to bring the mind under some control, you couldn’t do meditation. You couldn’t focus the mind. You couldn’t be mindful. You couldn’t develop any of the qualities that are needed. You’d just be … 
  4. Don’t Stop with Acceptance
     … Otherwise, when something comes up in the mind, the question is: what to do with it? For instance, with pain: The pain itself doesn’t necessarily have to make inroads on the mind. In fact, that’s what we’re training ourselves to do: to allow the experience of pain to be there, but not allow it to “invade” the mind and “remain.” Those … 
  5. Getting Back on Your Feet
     … Some sights and smells and sounds are actually helpful, soothing to the mind when it’s been frazzled by things. The sound of the crickets, the sound of the hummingbirds, the sounds of nature: Those are relaxing. They’re actually healing. The sight of the huge thunderclouds off to the east this evening: Those kinds of things give respite for the mind. But there … 
  6. Large-hearted
     … What is it?” One advantage relates to the fact that if there’s a blind spot in the body, there’s going to be a blind spot in your mind. The reason we develop whole-body awareness is that we want to have an all-around vision of what’s going on in the mind, in the body, so that defilements can’t sneak … 
  7. The Graduated Discourse
     … The other two qualities are singleness of mind and appropriate attention. Singleness of mind starts out, of course, by being focused totally on the talk. How do you move from that kind of singleness of mind, say, to the singleness of right concentration? Part of the answer has to do with appropriate attention. Appropriate attention usually means seeing things in terms of the four … 
  8. Freedom Undefined
     … It’s not so much that you’re here to learn about Buddhism; you’re learning to use the tools that Buddhism offers to sort out your own mind. First the tools help you look at the habits, the things the mind is doing. Then, when you notice that what you’re doing is causing suffering to yourself or other people, you have the … 
  9. Admen Inside
     … This is one of the reasons why we develop mindfulness, not just to keep general things in mind, but specifically to keep in mind the fact that when you go into a world like that, there are going to be consequences, even though the world claims that there won’t be any. It shuts them out, because each world of experience cherry-picks, at … 
  10. Factors for Stream Entry
     … If your mind is a mess, it’s going to be a mess for other people, too. If your mind is straightened out, at the very least, you’ll be a lot less of a burden on others. You notice sometimes as people get older, they suddenly reach a point where you can’t get to them anymore. They’re in their world—maybe … 
  11. Integrity — In Memory of Luang Loong
     … As you meditate, try to make your mind one, because we’re going to be giving this meditation to Luang Loong, and the more single your mind is, the more value it has. When you’re going to give something as a gift, you want to make sure it’s a good gift. And the oneness of the mind is like going to a … 
  12. Consciousness, Awakened & Not
     … You’re very conscious of this fact in the beginning as you’re trying to get the mind into concentration and you find it difficult. But as you get more and more inclined in the direction of stillness, as the mind gets more and more content to be there, the effort goes underground. So you have to develop your sensitivity, to keep on looking … 
  13. Happily on the Path
     … the way the mind shapes its experience. Part of that is learning how to find joy in simple things like generosity and virtue, and moving up to finding joy in the concentration, joy in the fact that you’re getting some control of your mind, you’re beginning to see into your mind. There may be a lot of things there that you don … 
  14. 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 … 
  15. 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 … 
  16. 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 … 
  17. 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 … 
  18. 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 … 
  19. 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 … 
  20. 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 … 
  21. Being Reliable
     … As the Buddha points out, the mind is capable of all kinds of things. Look at the animal kingdom: all those different kinds of animals. They all represent different kinds of unskillful behavior, unskillful intentions. There are so many of them. We’re capable of anything if we haven’t trained our minds properly. And the mind is so quick to change direction that … 
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