Search results for: "The Mind"

  1. Page 156
  2. The Middle Way
     … You want to feed the mind so that it’s willing to listen to what your discernment has to tell you: Yes, you’ve been remiss. Yes, you’ve been sloppy. You’ve been complacent. You’ve been self-indulgent—messages we don’t like to hear. You’re more likely to listen when the mind feels well fed, when it feels nourished. But … 
  3. A Radiant Practice
     … In other words, the suffering that weighs down the mind is the suffering that we create for ourselves. The happiness that most uplifts the mind is the goodness we do. That’s merit. You’re looking for happiness in a way that causes no suffering to anyone at all. It’s something you create from within, so its effects go within. And as with … 
  4. The Wrong Uses of Right
     … Where is the stress to begin with? And then, we look deeper into the mind to see what in the mind is giving rise to that particular stress that’s weighing down the mind. Then do what we can to abandon that cause, developing whatever qualities of mind are needed to abandon that cause. That’s the right use of right view. But the … 
  5. Loving Yourself Wisely
     … So this is one of the reasons why we train the mind in meditation. It’s not just for relaxation; it’s for gathering strength. On the one hand, as the mind gets more still, you see things in the mind a lot more clearly, you can understand when there’s an unskillful impulse and you can see what it’s coming from. When … 
  6. Battling the Hindrances
     … So it’s not the body speaking, it’s the mind. You have to probe around in there for a while to see: What is it that wants to go in that direction? You’ll find some very ingrained habits, but the fact that they’re ingrained doesn’t mean that they’re part of your innate nature. They’re just habits, so you … 
  7. Defabricating Anger
     … And as you maintain it, how can you let it spread? Because you want that feeling of ease and well-being to spread through the whole body, so that the mind can have a really good place to stay here in the present moment. So now you’re shaping the present moment with knowledge, and you’re getting a better understanding of how you … 
  8. Right Speech, Inside & Out
     … to steer the mind into right concentration. But the path doesn’t go straight there. The next step is right speech. That, of course, is also connected to right concentration in the sense that the first jhāna contains directed thought and evaluation, and directed thought and evaluation are the way you talk to yourself before you break into speech. So to train your attitude … 
  9. To Look after Yourself with Ease
     … That’s the important thing—because it is possible for the body to be in pain, but the pain does not have to invade the mind. The reason it invades the mind is because we open the door to it and bring it in. That’s a lack of skill on our part. You want to be able to sit with the pain, realizing … 
  10. The World Is Swept Away
     … Instead, you’ve decided to come here, to practice meditation, to get the mind centered in a sense of the body. Just sitting here—breathing in, breathing out, breathing in a way that feels good. As you breathe in, notice: Where do you feel the energy moving in the body? That’s the breath we’re talking about. Ask yourself if it feels good … 
  11. The Buddha’s Rules of Order
     … Deeper parts of the mind pick them up, and those images can drive you. I think I’ve told you about the time I was visiting someone and he was watching a show on Fox. During the advertisement for the late-night news, there was a big white panel above the heads of the announcers, and on the panel they kept flashing: “Be afraid … 
  12. A Post-goodness World?
     … That creates a spaciousness in the mind. It’s a good theme to be thinking about. It feels good and it inspires you to do good actions. They, in turn, reinforce the basic wisdom in that original question: “What when I do it will lead to my long term welfare and happiness?” The wisdom lies in realizing that your happiness is going to depend … 
  13. Step Outside the World
     … At the same time, the mind is really solid. It’s firmly in its frame of reference: the body as a whole, from the top of the head down to the tips of the toes, with the breath still, and the mind in equanimity. This is the frame of reference where you can see these bubbles of little worlds coming up in the mind … 
  14. A Mind like Wind
     … If you want to create some space for the mind, you have got to cut these things away. This is why meditation starts by establishing a frame of reference. You start out with the body in and of itself. In other words you’re not thinking of your body in the world, whether it’s a good looking body or not, whether it’s … 
  15. Discipline
     … You’re going to have to subdue some of the thoughts in the mind that are opposed to the training. We see this in the formula for mindfulness practice. You keep focused on the body in and of itself—ardent, alert, and mindful—subduing greed and distress with reference to the world. In other words, whatever the affairs of the world right now, you … 
  16. Skillful in Everything
     … what behavior is skillful and what behavior is not skillful.” It starts with very basic things and works on up to the behavior inside the mind. There are skillful ways of acting, skillful ways of speaking, skillful ways of thinking, skillful ways of managing your mind—and there are unskillful ways. The practice is all about mastering skills that can lead to an end … 
  17. Gratitude, Goodwill & Generosity
     … And yet an important part of getting the mind to concentration is learning how to think skillfully first before you can stop thinking. Because some thoughts are very sticky: They actually prevent you from settling down, they keep coming up with all sorts of issues as to why you shouldn’t be meditating. So you have to learn to think in ways that counter … 
  18. What’s Not on the Map
     … Real insight, though, comes from developing these qualities in the mind. It’s like going out in the wilderness. You read the maps, you make your plans, but when you get out in the forest you realize that the forest doesn’t look like the map. The map has splotches of solid pale green with red lines and little symbols on it. But when … 
  19. Wisdom as a Tool
     … So as soon as something comes up that seems important, watch what happens next in the mind. You notice that all these pieces of advice teach you to be very careful about causality, learning to see all things—even your most profound insights—simply as part of a causal process. What happens after the insight? What can the insight be used for? If you … 
  20. Put the Other Person’s Heart in Yours
     … The biggest danger that faces you in the world is that you might do something unskillful under the influence of ill will, because that then becomes your own kamma and it becomes a habit in the mind. It bends the mind, as the Buddha said. When your mind is bent in that direction again and again and again, your views are going to be … 
  21. The Wisdom of Ardency
     … Mindfulness also means remembering to recognize what’s coming up in the mind. In Thai, they use the same word for “to remember” and “to recognize”: cam. When sensual desire comes up, you recognize it: “This is sensual desire.” You don’t go into it. You stand outside it. You recognize that it’s a hindrance and that you want to figure out how … 
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