Search results for: "The Mind"
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- Your Goodness is Your Protection… It’s because of our conviction in the principle of kamma—that our lives are shaped by our actions, and our actions are shaped by our intentions, and our intentions are shaped by the mind—that we realize we’ve got to train the mind. That’s the principle of conviction. And it carries through our outside activities as well, in terms of virtue …
- Admirable Friendship… He was giving each person space so we have the solitude and the quiet that can be conducive to the mind. At the same time, there’s space for giving encouragement. In other words, even though we live together, we try not to get in one another’s way, and that way, the fact that there are quite a number of people here together …
- Goodwill in Action… He says dying is like migrating to another country, and if you suddenly had to go, how much good baggage would you be able to take with you and how much clutter would you take that would weigh you down? If you find anything in the mind that’s going to weigh you down, visualize it as piles of luggage under your arms, on …
- The Acrobat… At the same time, you’re alert to see how things are going with the body—if that’s your frame of reference—and how things are going with the mind in reference to the body. What things arise in the body, what effect they have on things outside arising and passing, and the arising and passing away of things outside in terms of …
- Bless Yourself… That’s the kind of mindfulness that gives you a good solid foundation and gets the mind into concentration. So wherever you go, make sure that you maintain these two qualities: virtue, right view. And the fortunate thing is that nobody can take them away from you. Someone once asked Ajaan Mun, “Can you separate a person’s virtue from his or her mind …
- Life in the Context of the Practice… In other words, discernment is what teaches you to make the most of what little you’ve got and to appreciate what you’ve got, to make it something that’s really good for the mind. So these are some of the forms of wealth you want to gain in life. Not wealth in material things: You want wealth in qualities of the mind …
- An Enduring Cheerfulness… Part of the source of that strength was that I was engaged in an exploration, learning about the breath, learning about the mind. When you’ve been meditating for a long time, you tend to forget how precious this opportunity is, how rare it is, and what a good opportunity it is to be with your mind. You may have decided you don’t …
- Empathetic Joy… Think of some examples and ask yourself, “Why would you not be happy for their happiness?” At some point, you’ll come around to the quality of resentment in the mind. If you’re sitting here breathing easily, and the mind is beginning to settle down, you can ask yourself, “Why would you want to engage in resentment? Someone else’s happiness or good …
- The Duty to Be Positive… Sometimes we think that it’s being realistic, that we should really believe the voices in the mind that say, “I’m a really bad person, I’m a horrible person, and I’m never going to get anywhere with this practice so I might as well give up.” Those are destructive voices and are not really helpful on the path at all. They …
- The Buddha’s Eight Principles… But that would go against the principle of persistence, which is that if there’s something unskillful in the mind, you’ve got to get rid of it. If something skillful is not there yet, you do your best to give rise to it. But remember, contentment is just about material things. Discontent has to do with the realization that there’s still more …
- Gifts of Goodness… Try to make your mind one with the breath, because the mind, when it’s one, is of high value. It’s not like the things of the world, where the greater number you have, the more value you have. Here you have greater value when the mind is one, because the more it follows around its many different thoughts, it’s lowering itself …
- Serial Clinging Is Still Clinging… And look at the mind: It runs all over the place. It’s not so much attached to the objects as it is to the planning, the fantasizing. And even there, the plans and the fantasies may change. Clinging to sensuality doesn’t mean that you hold permanently to one fantasy or one plan. It means you hold on to this or that activity …
- Conviction & Confidence… training the mind. Whether the results come quickly or slowly is not the issue. We’re working on something that’s noble. There’s dignity to what we’re doing. We’re stepping back from our usual concerns, our usual appetites, and looking carefully at the implications of our actions, realizing that if we’re going to act in a way that’s responsible …
- The Buddha Aimed High… Get the mind in a good state of concentration where there’s rapture and bliss that come from simply sitting here being very still, secluded from sensuality. Sensuality is the first type of craving you’ve got to watch out for, because that’s so pervasive. If you can pull the mind out of its fascination with thinking about sensual desires, sensual objects, and …
- Your Committee of Addicts… And these are the different roles that the mind plays. This is where the committee of the mind comes from, taking on these different roles. Some members of the committee can think only of sensual pleasures. Others are very attached to their views about the world. Others are very attached to ideas of what should and shouldn’t be done. This includes people who …
- In a World of Crooked Wheels… It’s based on those two that you can develop right mindfulness, and right mindfulness, of course, is how you get the mind into right concentration. It’s through right concentration that your views, which have been made straight—in other words, you hold to right views—actually become your own discernment. When we start out, we borrow the Buddha’s discernment. But through …
- Antidotes for Narcissism… The actual awareness of the mind comes under sampajañña, alertness.And even that is more focused that simple awareness: You’re alert to what the mind is *doing, *and the results that coming from its doings. So when you reflect on your body, it’s also important to reflect on the bodies of others, to make comparisons—the right comparisons. The same with feelings …
- When Nothing’s Happening… The other question I want to address—similar, in a way—is when the mind gets still, where do you look for the unfabricated? The answer I gave, of course, was that you don’t look for the unfabricated. You look for where your clingings still are. Remember your duty with regard to the four noble truths. You do want to realize the cessation …
- Warm Your Heart… Why are you giving? What do you expect to get out of it? The lowest motivation, of course, is just thinking, “I’m going to get this back with interest.” The highest is, as he says, “It’s an ornament for the mind”: something that makes the mind beautiful. And there are many gradations in between. In terms of the recipient, you want to …
- In Cahoots with Your Defilements… In other words, that’s the mind when sees the danger of the defilements very clearly and doesn’t have to wait for the suffering to come. You see these dangers in other people, you look at your past, and you realize there’s been a lot of suffering going on here, so you’ve got to do something it. Then there’s the …
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