Search results for: "Mindfulness"

  1. Page 153
  2. 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 … 
  3. 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 … 
  4. 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 … 
  5. 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 … 
  6. 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 … 
  7. 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 … 
  8. 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 … 
  9. 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 … 
  10. 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 … 
  11. 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 … 
  12. 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 … 
  13. 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 … 
  14. 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 … 
  15. The Burning House
    The Burning House May 4, 2016 We focus on the present moment so that we give the mind a sense of feeling at home here. This is the place where you belong. Now, for most of us, we don’t live here. We live in the past, we live in the future, and come running through the present moment just for a moment, like … 
  16. Testing Karma
     … You’re trying to develop a state of mind that lasts. You stitch mental moments together with mindfulness, remembering to stay with one object again and again and again, because the mind can so easily forget and slip off to other things. So you have keep reminding it, “Stay right here; stay with the breath,” and see how long you can do that. Push … 
  17. Pay Attention to Some Things
     … Try to keep them foremost in mind. At the end of the day, make a survey of the day. What important things did you learn about suffering and the end of suffering? Try to keep those in mind. Don’t clutter your mind with things that are irrelevant. That way, you maintain your focus, and the problem gets solved.
  18. A Path for a Noble Desire
     … You have to be mindful—in other words, you have to keep your aim in mind. If you’re really serious about what you’re aiming at, you can’t just drop it and forget about it. And you have to be concentrated on what you’re doing, focused on what you’re doing. So that’s the pattern of any path that leads … 
  19. Guided Meditation
     … And what have you got? You’ve got the body sitting here breathing, and you’ve got the mind here thinking and aware. So you bring all those things together. You think about the breath. The way you keep the breath in mind, that’s mindfulness. Then you’re alert to how the breath is going, knowing when it comes in, knowing when it … 
  20. Seven Facets of Discernment
     … What you do with your mind right now? What skills can you learn about how to keep your mind focused—how to keep it observant, where to focus it—so that when aging comes you don’t focus on the things that deplete your strength? So that when illness comes, you don’t focus on the things that make the mind upset. The same … 
  21. A Healthy Ego
     … In fact, the Buddha said heedfulness is the source of all good qualities in the mind. You realize that if you don’t train your mind, the mind can create a lot of problems. It’s like having a Rottweiler in your house. If the Rottweiler isn’t trained, it’s going to create a lot of problems. The second quality is altruism, which … 
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