Search results for: "Mindfulness"

  1. Page 162
  2. A Good Dish of Concentration
     … So try to get your mind still. Where do you get your mind still? Well, you get them still within the aggregates or using aggregates. But you’re trying to use them in a skillful way, rather than carrying them around. I like to think of them as bricks that we ordinarily carry around, but now we’re not going to carry them around … 
  3. Stay
     … But where are they going to come from? They’re going to come from this state of mind where you’re watching over the body as it’s felt from within, and you’re trying to protect it from any thoughts that would be unrelated to the training of the mind. In the beginning, that means any thoughts unrelated to how the breath is … 
  4. When Attacked by Distractions
     … What are the feeling tones and perceptions you’re holding in mind that make this kind of thinking attractive? The same applies to anger, the same applies to whatever thoughts you find addictive: What perceptions do you hold in mind? The Buddha offers a few alternative perceptions, say, for sensual desire, to help you see through its allure. He says it’s like a … 
  5. Right & Right
     … Or to be more accurate, given that we’re living here in the mind with the defilements, we’re in the trenches and we’ve got defilements right there in the trenches with us. So you’ve got to learn how to deal with them in a way that they don’t kill you there in the trenches. So always keep this in mind … 
  6. Raise Your Standards
     … But you first want to make your primary focus getting your own mind in order. Because at the very least, if your mind is in order, you’re not placing a burden on other people, because you’re less weighed down. When you’re less weighed down, if there’s something you can do to help, you do. This is why when the Buddha … 
  7. Stay Tuned
     … So allow your mind to tune in to the lightness of the breath in the same way that you tune a radio to a specific station. This is called tuning in to the level of form. The mind can experience three levels of becoming. There’s the level of sensuality, where you’re focused on your desire for sights, sounds, smells, tastes, or tactile … 
  8. Smart About Lust
     … It’s something inside the mind itself. There’s a thirst, a sense of lack, and then there’s the thought that “Well, I could fill in this lack with thoughts of sensuality. Even if I can’t get what I want, I can fantasize.” Of course, fantasizing leads the mind to think more and more in terms of actually acting on those fantasies … 
  9. Goodwill for Bad People
     … We’re looking for a happiness that doesn’t harm anyone—a point we always have to keep in mind because most pleasures of the world cause somebody some harm. The person who gets intoxicated with consuming the pleasures gets harmed. And then there are the other people who have to give up something for whatever the pleasure is that you’re seeking, because … 
  10. Radiating Goodness
     … After all, the Buddha encourages you to find a quiet place, a secluded place, out in the wilderness or an empty building, where you can get away from other people and really focus on your own mind, and get a sense of what your issues are, as opposed to what the issues that everybody else shouts at you are. That’s one kind of … 
  11. Motivation
     … The good things you’ve done in the past are a sign that you’ve got some of the perfections and some of the merit that’s needed, some of the good qualities of mind are needed for the practice. After all, when you practice the precepts, you’re developing mindfulness, alertness, and ardency. And you’re learning how to bring some wisdom to … 
  12. The Whole Story
     … something that flows out of the mind. We tend to think that other people’s behavior either attracts us or repels us, or the features of certain objects attract us or repel us. But they have other features as well. People have other actions as well. Largely what’s happening is that the mind is out looking for something to get worked up about … 
  13. Different Paths Go Different Places
     … Discernment, patience, persistence, mindfulness, and concentration: All the good qualities of the mind get sold off in most people’s lives. So it’s a question of making a wise, intelligent trade. We see the pleasures that other people are enjoying, but we can’t see their pain. This is why, when looking at other people’s lives, sometimes we think, “Well, that looks … 
  14. Refuge in an Admirable Friend
     … You want to keep that in mind. Keep in mind his wisdom. Keep in mind his compassion. Keep in mind his purity. And notice that he taught you how to develop those qualities in yourself. This is a point that Ajaan Lee liked to make a lot, that when we take refuge in the Buddha, we’re also taking refuge in the Dhamma, we … 
  15. Surveying the World
     … As he said later, if you’re a good teacher, then when people follow your teachings, you’re satisfied but you don’t let that satisfaction overcome your mind. When you teach people and they don’t follow the teachings, of course you’re not going to be satisfied, but by the same token you don’t let dissatisfaction overcome your mind. You teach … 
  16. There is This
     … This is one of the reasons why we get the mind concentrated because as the Buddha said, once the mind is concentrated, you can see the aggregates as they arise, as they’re originated by conditions. You can see events at the sense spheres. You can analyze your sense of the body into aggregates and properties. When the mind is still in the present … 
  17. Dependent Co-arising Right Now
     … Is the breath pleasant or unpleasant? If it’s unpleasant, what’s causing it to be unpleasant? Is there some imbalance in the elements in the body? Or is it an imbalance in activities in the mind? Look at the way you’re talking to yourself. Look at the perceptions you’re holding in mind. Maybe you should try a different perception. When you … 
  18. Judging Your Efforts
     … One quality, ardency, is mentioned under the teachings on right mindfulness. As Ajaan Lee points out in the context of right mindfulness, ardency is the wisdom factor, which is interesting because you sometimes hear that sampajañña, alertness, is the wisdom factor. But that’s not the case: The wisdom lies in wanting and trying to do this well. It’s in learning how to … 
  19. What Focus? What Breath?
     … In the course of figuring these things out, you learn an awful lot of important lessons both about the body and about the mind. In terms of the breath, you have look at what your preconceived notions are, what’s happening here as you breathe. When we say to breathe in with the whole body, often you find that there’s a subconscious idea … 
  20. Attachment to Precepts
    One of the fetters that ties the mind down is something called, in Pali, sīlabbata-parāmāsa. Many times, you see it translated as “attachment to rites and rituals” or “attachment to precepts.” I know not a few people out there who say, “Well, that’s one fetter I’m not attached to. I’m not attached to rites, rituals, or precepts. I just do … 
  21. Inner Negotiating Skills
    We hear so much about how the ego is a bad thing—selfish, narrow-minded, grasping, threatened—that we forget that the concept of ego in Western psychology is actually quite positive. It’s your negotiator inside—between the things you actually want to do and the things that you should want to do. In Western psychology, there’s a real conflict between those … 
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