Search results for: "The Mind"

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  2. Good at Thinking
     … Give the mind a chance, so that it doesn’t have to keep churning its wheels all the time. Think about how nice that would be. This is called a useful, beneficial use of your thinking. And then think about ways that you could get the mind to settle down. Again, this is another useful use of thinking. For instance, you can keep the … 
  3. Proving the Teachings
     … We tend to blame our suffering on people outside, situations outside, but actually, whatever the situation is, the reason it makes the mind suffer is because of the way the mind relates to it. Think of all the effort we put into trying to make ourselves happy, yet the mind has a way of undermining that happiness, sabotaging our efforts. This is why we … 
  4. Centered on Concentration
     … It gives the mind an anchor. The images in the Canon are many: It gives the mind nourishment, it gives it solidity, it gives it support; it’s a shelter for the mind; they call it vihāra-dhamma, a home for the mind; it’s medicine for the mind—all these good things. So you have to learn how to respect it. In the … 
  5. Gladden, Steady, Release
    There are three things you want to check for if you want the mind to settle down: First, does the mind need to be gladdened? Is there something you have to do in order to lift its spirits, so that you’re feeling no regrets about the past, no worries about the future, so that you can feel good about being right here? The … 
  6. Quiet in Every Way
     … So, we have to do what we can to discourage the mind’s involvement with all that chatter. The Buddha breaks the mind’s chatter down into two different activities: one is directed thought, and the other is evaluation. You direct your thoughts to a topic and then you start mulling it over, commenting on this, commenting on that, backing up and restating things … 
  7. How Much Concentration Is Enough?
     … It’s not as if you’re trying to get the mind into the deepest, ultimate concentration and just leave it there. You want it to be still enough and alert enough to observe the mind in action. This is why the kinds of concentration where you *can’t *observe the mind are not really necessary. The Buddha talks about taking the mind all … 
  8. As They’ve Come to Be
     … What causes those things to come up in the mind? And don’t look for the origination out there in the world; it’s in the mind. When the Buddha uses that word, “origination,” nine times out of ten he’s talking about causes coming from the mind. So, say that there’s a bout of lust coming up in the mind. What inside … 
  9. In Times of Danger and Fear
     … This is why we meditate, to see the mind in action. The Buddha gives us a task: Try to keep the mind with one object. Relate to that object in a way that’s comfortable. For instance, you can focus on the breath. The breath can come in and out on its own without your paying attention, but now you’re going to pay … 
  10. Heedful of Small Dangers
     … And look for ways to strengthen the mind, which is what we’re doing right here, right now: giving the mind strength, trying to get the mind to be still and provide it with at least a square inch of stillness inside. There may be a lot of chatter going on in the mind, but you have to learn how to treat that chatter … 
  11. The Open Committee
    The Open Committee March 7, 2005 The mind is like a committee with an open membership. It seems that anybody has the right to say anything at the meetings. No one ever checks credentials to see who’s coming in and with what kinds of intentions. If you sit and watch the thoughts that go through the mind for a while, you begin to … 
  12. Calm
    Calm January 13, 2019 As we meditate, we try to bring the mind to a state of calm. But you notice, if you look at the Buddha’s explanations for the factors for awakening, there are times when calm is appropriate and times when it’s not. The fact that there are times when it’s not doesn’t mean that you’re not … 
  13. The Heightened Mind
     … So we have to make the issues of daily life serve the training of the mind. This is one of the reasons why we talk about developing the perfections. As you go through the day, it’s not just to get the particular job done, it’s to develop qualities of the mind like persistence, determination, and endurance. Then you give the mind a … 
  14. Perfect Breathing Isn’t the Goal
    We focus on the breath, we work with the breath, to give the mind a good place to settle down. If you want to be here for a long time, there has to be a sense of well-being. You try to create that well-being by focusing on the breath, by adjusting the way you breathe, by adjusting your perceptions of the breath … 
  15. Creating a World of Concentration
     … We’re trying to bring into being a state of concentration to begin with, and it requires two qualities of mind—one is serenity and the other is insight—to try to calm the body down, calm the mind down. There are basically two ways of doing this. One is just to give the mind something to focus on that it likes, and it … 
  16. Responsible for Your Actions
     … The same thing with figuring out what’s skillful and what’s unskillful in the mind: You’ve got to get the mind as clear as possible, as still as possible, to see clearly, operating on the principles of conviction in your actions and right view about what you want to look for in terms of what the problem is inside the mind i … 
  17. Happy to Be Here
     … But particularly here with the mind, they’re among the skills you need to get to know the mind, to get the mind to settle down. Then you have a place where you can watch it. Any little movement that comes when the mind is still, you can see it because you’ve made yourself very, very quiet. Suppose you know there’s a … 
  18. The Fires of Sensuality
     … As a result, that part of the mind just gets starved, starved, starved, so that it feels all alone. What the Buddha is doing here is giving some food to that part of the mind, the part of the mind that wants a happiness that doesn’t have to be tied down to these things. These contemplations will help incline the mind to want … 
  19. Sources of Lasting Happiness
     … And clinging comes from where? It comes from actions of the mind that are unskillful—which means if you can learn to train the mind to be skillful, there’s no suffering weighing the mind down. When you’re not preoccupied with suffering anymore, you find that you’re lighter and you’re a light influence on other people as well. The happiness the … 
  20. Facing Pain Straight On
    When you give the mind an exercise to do—like focusing on the breath, contemplating the virtues of the Buddha, developing goodwill, or even some of practices that are said to be vipassana practice—they’re all actually concentration practices. You tell the mind to do something, you will the mind to do something—that’s the concentration—and then you observe it. That … 
  21. Fires of the Mind
     … So as we meditate, we’re trying to take this burning in the mind that’s flickering all over the place and bring it to a steady burn. Ultimately, you want all the fires to go out. That’s what the name for nibbana is about. But before you can get there, you’ve got to bring the mind to a steady burn. Part … 
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