Search results for: "Mindfulness"

  1. Page 164
  2. Truths Noble in the Heart
     … What is suffering, after all? What is stress – or however you want to translate dukkha? And what is the mind doing that’s giving rise to more stress and more suffering over and over again? Many people will want to look into this problem at some point in their lives. But again, it’s when you take this issue as the primary issue in … 
  3. True Protection for the World
     … So this practice of sitting here with your eyes closed training your mind is not a selfish thing. It’s protection for yourself so that you eventually become a refuge for others. We can’t wait until the world gets straightened out before we straighten out our own minds, because the cause is in the mind. The world out there is the realm of … 
  4. Sweat the Small Stuff
     … This is why the Buddha—when he was about to teach his son, Rahula, how to meditate, even before he taught him the steps to breath meditation—told him to focus on the inconstancy of things so as to undercut the conceit, “I am.” In other words, as you look at your own mind, you begin to realize that there are good intentions mixed … 
  5. The End of the World
     … Lokuttara, the word we translate as “transcendent,” actually means, “above the world.” You’ve got to make your mind above the world. Otherwise, you get crushed—think of all those mountains moving in, in the simile the Buddha taught to King Pasenadi. If we were just physical bodies, with the mind just an epiphenomenon of physical processes, it’d be pretty miserable. The mountains … 
  6. Keeping Your Values Alive
     … the fact that there’s suffering and stress, and it’s caused by things that happen in the mind. So you want to learn how to change those causes so that the mind actually gets on the path to the end of suffering. You learn to look at issues in that way: Where is the stress here? What’s causing it? And particularly, what … 
  7. Beginning the Rains
     … You keep your mind calm as you stick with things that are difficult. You keep your mind calm as you let go of things that are difficult to let go of. This is the true role of equanimity in the practice—not that you’re equanimous about whether you’re going to fail or succeed. You’re very much determined that you do want … 
  8. Heedfulness
     … But the Buddha’s more concerned with the life of the goodness of the mind, its skillful qualities. And that’s really much more important. It’s why we’re here. We’re looking to keep the goodness of the mind alive so that it can develop even further to something that goes beyond good and evil, i.e. to the deathless. But the … 
  9. The Desire for Freedom
     … So you’re going to find some peace of mind, but then in that peace of mind, you have to ask yourself, what’s really important in life? When you give up on the baits of the world, okay, what’s left? We see the sincerity of his quest and his confidence that there had to be a way out. And he tried many … 
  10. 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 … 
  11. 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 … 
  12. Meaning & Becoming
     … We can learn how to use our processes of the mind, the mind’s ability to create all kinds of things, and we can create the path out. The Buddha found this path. Many people have followed his instructions and they found the path, too. It’s open to everybody. The Buddha didn’t teach it only for Indians or only for members of … 
  13. Of Essential Worth
    The Buddha was once approached by a brahman who said, “This business of going forth, training the mind, doesn’t really help many people. You train your mind and you’re the only one who benefits.” Whereas the brahmans had many activities and were helpful to many. In those days, some of the brahmans were very wealthy landowners, and this brahman said that by … 
  14. Don’t Underestimate Merit
     … As you work up the levels of motivation, you finally get to the ones where generosity is simply a natural expression of the mind. You say to yourself, “I give simply because it’s good to do this. The mind feels refreshed.” That, too, is a benefit you get from it. So don’t look down on the idea that you’re going to … 
  15. Meaning Through Perfections
     … He saw, by understanding how the mind creates suffering for itself out of its own intentions, how it can change its intentions so that it can develop a path that leads to the end of suffering, reaching the highest happiness possible. That’s what gives meaning to life. So, the question is: What is that path? The path he found on the night of … 
  16. Always Willing to Learn
     … And so, a lot of his talks have to do with building confidence that what’s needed for this practice is a body and a mind. You’ve got a body, you’ve got a mind, you’ve got what it takes. So you have to have that confidence. But the confidence has to be tempered by the fact that you have been doing … 
  17. The Power of Action
     … You’re going to stay with the breath and you’re not going to let your mind wander around all over the place where it likes, just noting this and noting that and not really having a good place to settle down. Having a place to settle down is what allows you to see, “Ah, the mind’s moved,” and you bring it back … 
  18. Clinging-Aggregates in Context
     … To stay focused requires a perception, a mental image of the breath that you keep in mind. And then you talk to yourself about how well it’s working, trying to get the mind to fit snugly with the breath: That’s fabrication. Then you’re aware of all these things. In fact, of the different factors of the path, right concentration is the … 
  19. The World Is Swept Away
     … Once they become part of your mind, a part of your heart, then they go with you wherever you go. No one can take them away from you. There was an incident in the life of Ajaan Mun when someone came to see him and asked him, “Can you separate a person’s virtue from that person’s heart and mind?” In other words … 
  20. Death Is All Around
     … That’s good use of the body, because the mind benefits. Ultimately, you can put the mind in a position where it doesn’t need these things anymore, so it doesn’t need to hold on. That’s when it’s really well-off. If the body goes, it won’t have an impact on the mind. So think of the body as something … 
  21. Kamma & Rebirth
     … But if you did go on the assumption that this is part of a longer story shaped by your actions, and that your actions are shaped by your mind, you’d be sure to put more effort into training the mind to be meticulous and careful. You’d take whatever time and effort is needed to get the mind in good shape. This is … 
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