Search results for: "The Mind"

  1. Page 159
  2. You Can Do Better
     … The word “origination” doesn’t mean just cause; it means a cause coming from within the mind. That’s to be abandoned. Here again, it’s desire and passion, in other words, craving: craving for sensuality—your fascination with sensual thoughts, sensual fantasies; craving for becoming—wanting to take on an identity in a world of experience so that you can get something you … 
  3. Focal Points
     … For the time being, use this as a technique for seeing what works and what doesn’t work in getting the mind into concentration. This is where playing with assumptions becomes not just a game, but something of value. You actually get beneficial results out of it. We’re not just playing little mental exercises for the fun of it. It can be fun … 
  4. Quality
     … You’ve got the mind that’s both thinking and aware. That’s what you know. Anything that goes out beyond that, you don’t know for sure. So stick with just what you know. Bring all these things together: body, breath, thinking, awareness. As for anything else, just keep reminding yourself, “I don’t know that. I don’t know that.” What’s … 
  5. Not Crushed by the World
     … Of course, you’re sitting here with other people, but there’s still seclusion inside the mind. That’s what you want to focus on. And that’s something you can maintain even when there are a lot of other people around—if you’re determined and if you’re skilled. So let’s work on that skill. There’s music off in the … 
  6. Raise Your Standards
     … We’re doing that so that the mind can have a good place to settle down and see its actions more clearly—in particular, to see where we’re creating unnecessary stress and suffering so that we can put a stop to it. One of the ways of doing that is to remember that we’re motivated by the desire not to harm anybody … 
  7. Brahmaviharas & the Breath
     … getting the mind to settle down and develop a sense of ease with the breath, comfort with the breath, and then learning what to do with that comfort. First, you adjust the rhythm of the breathing. You focus on one spot in the body to see how the breath feels at that spot and then you breathe in a way that gives rise to … 
  8. The Four Noble Truths from Within
     … So we bring awareness to the breath, to the way the mind relates to the breath. Then we have perceptions and feelings. Those are the factors that fabricate the mind. What kind of perceptions are we going to bring to this process of being right here so that we can create feelings of well-being that can sustain us? These are all things you … 
  9. Using Perceptions
     … Either way, you can use perceptions like this to help the mind settle in. So even though it’s a sketch, it’s a useful sketch. What this means, of course, is that whatever we experience is going to be colored by the perceptions we bring to it, and it is possible to change your perceptions. So change them well. One of the most … 
  10. Goodwill for Bad People
     … The purpose of goodwill is to establish a principle in the mind. The Buddha calls it a determination: that you’re going to have goodwill regardless. And it’s important to think about it in those terms. This is a determination that you’re going to act on goodwill regardless of how the other person is acting or speaking or thinking. You’re going … 
  11. Rooted in Desire
     … One of the reasons we practice right concentration is to put the mind in the right place—where it can see that sensual desire is not all it’s cracked up to be, and it really is something you might want to let go of. Learn how to give up your attachment for it. Now, this requires a strong desire of another kind. The … 
  12. The Noble Truth about Craving
     … This is a parable for what happens to the mind. When it takes on a state of becoming, it starts out with a desire. At first, the desire is just a little tiny thing. You say, “Wouldn’t it be nice if x?” Then you decide to go for it. And in the course of going for x, you change. You become a different … 
  13. Mind Your Own Business
     … I kept wondering, “What do people do who are watching movies every day? Isn’t their mind a cacophony?" Well, the same principle applies to your conversations, because the things you talk about to yourself and to other people start reverberating around in the mind. Then when you’re sitting here trying to get the mind quiet, and particularly if there’s been something … 
  14. The Sublime Attitudes in Context
     … They obscure the mind. The nice pink cloud of universal goodwill, compassion, empathetic joy, and equanimity gets spread out in all directions, looks nice, feels nice, but it can hide a lot of things, like contrary attitudes that you don’t want to express to yourself. When the brahmaviharas are just a cloud like that, then when the time comes to actually act on … 
  15. Ultimate Reality
     … This is why we practice concentration, why we have techniques for concentration, and specific questions to ask about what you’re doing while you’re centering the mind, what the results are. That’s something you can learn as you sit here with your eyes closed. That’s knowledge you can use. It can guide your actions. After all, the mind is an active … 
  16. The Rewards of Right View
     … Of course, that turns the mind to think about: Well, what is permanent? What is constant? What is something you can rely on? That’s how the perception is meant to direct your thoughts. The Buddha says that if you try to maintain this perception of inconstancy but you still find yourself attracted by the baits of the world, you have to keep reminding … 
  17. Who’s in Charge Here?
     … The customs of the noble ones are customs that go against the customs of practically every nation on earth, because they put the training of the mind first. They put the Dhamma first. It’s for this reason that the customs of the noble ones are closely connected to the principle of practicing the Dhamma in accordance with the Dhamma, because that’s one … 
  18. The Joy of Heedfulness
     … In other words, you can’t simply let yourself be content even with good things in the mind, much less bad. I was listening to a talk a while back where someone was saying that when you read about jhana, it gets you all worked up, and you want to have jhana states in your mind. But the Buddha taught contentment. So this person … 
  19. Antidotes to Craving
     … If you find yourself clinging to it, you’ve got to learn how to pry loose the fingers of the mind. They keep wanting to hold on. Then there’s craving for becoming. You think about the different things you didn’t get to do or be in this lifetime, and you say, “I’d like to take on that identity.” This was a … 
  20. Inner Authorities
     … It came from training the mind. Think about the Buddha himself, how many voices he had to sort through. People told him that the path he was following was an impossible one. He had sought out the teachers who were most authoritative in that time, and found their teachings lacking. He had to pull himself out of their training. And how did he finally … 
  21. Tapping into the Breath
     … It’s about learning what’s going on between body and mind, because this is a good testing ground for all the issues in the mind. The body is the first thing you’re aware of. The body is the first thing you’re moving around, the area of reality you’re most responsible for. And yet it’s not-self. That doesn’t … 
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