Search results for: "Mindfulness"

  1. Page 167
  2. 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 … 
  3. 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 … 
  4. 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 … 
  5. 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 … 
  6. Body & Mind from Within
     … This is why, when we meditate, we’re focusing right here, right now on our breath, the body as you experience it from within, the mind as you experience it from within—that part of your experience that’s totally yours. Nobody else can peer in to see what you’re thinking. Even people who can read your mind don’t see how you … 
  7. Using Perceptions
     … As the Buddha said, these are the things that shape our minds. Even concentration is a perception attainment all the way up through the dimension of nothingness. So we have to learn how to use our perceptions and not get deceived by them—remembering that every perception is just a sketch. Think about your body here right now. Could you have a perception that … 
  8. The Buddha’s Narratives & Yours
     … When issues come up in the mind, you try to think of the issue in light of what the Buddha experienced, what he found on the night of his awakening. For example, narratives come up. You’re sitting here meditating, and all of a sudden a story from yesterday or earlier today or last week or last year or early on in your life … 
  9. No Preferences
     … If, when you sit down, your mind is a mess, you don’t say, “Well today is a bad day to meditate, I’m going to wait until some other time.” You learn how to sit with a mind that’s a mess, and begin to see the little threads of the possibility of finding some peace in the midst of the mess. When … 
  10. The Noble Pursuit of Happiness
     … This is something we have to keep in mind, because it’s so easy living in the world now, to think of our practice of meditation as being something small-minded and selfish, when so many people are suffering. But you have to stop and think: What’s harmful about the way we pursue this pleasure? We’re learning how to look after ourselves … 
  11. A Cocoon of Energy
    In one of the very early editions of Keeping the Breath in Mind, Ajaan Lee gave some instructions about sending the breath energy down the spine, both inside the spine and on the outside side of the spine—in other words, outside the skin. I didn’t encounter this version of his instructions until many years after I’d first encountered his method. Sometimes … 
  12. Body as Sensuality, Body as Form
     … That pulls the mind down. Now we’re trying to lift the mind up by relating to the body as we feel it from within: the body as we sense it, the pleasures of form—the breath element filling the body, flowing smoothly; our awareness filling the body, feeling unrestricted. Relating to the body in this way is useful. It gives the mind a … 
  13. The Rewards of Stream Entry
     … As Ajaan Chah used to say, “It’s not that the noises are disturbing us; we tend to disturb the noises.” In other words, the mind makes comments on the noise, and then those comments are the things that disturb the mind. So just let the noise go through you and out the other side. Stay with the sensation of the breathing coming in … 
  14. Admirable Friendship, Inside & Out
     … In other cases, it takes time, which is why you have to develop mindfulness to be a reliable judge so that you can remember what you’ve done. Mindfulness is not just being aware of what’s happening, you know. It’s keeping things in mind—most particularly, keeping in mind that when you do x, you’ve got to look for the results … 
  15. The End of Karma
     … And where do our actions come from? They come from the mind. So focus your mind right now. It’s hard to focus right away at the mind directly, so focus on something really close to the mind. Focus on the breath. Think of the breath not so much as the air coming in and out through the nose, but the flow of energy … 
  16. Unlimited Mind, Limited Resources
     … Because what is comes down to is that although a mind of goodwill may be unlimited, our resources are limited. There are only so many people you can help, only so much strength you have, only so much time you can give. So you have to figure out where that time and strength are best served or best used. That chant we had just … 
  17. Wise Choices
     … You’ve got the mind thinking and aware. Those are your raw materials. If you find it difficult to settle down with the breath, you can focus on other ideas that you find inspiring, things that encourage you to do what’s good, encourage you to do what’s wise. Then, when the mind is ready to settle down, it can stay with the … 
  18. Self-Hatred
    We meditate to put an end to suffering, and specifically to the suffering caused by our minds—craving, ignorance, things that come up from within. Which means that you have to keep watch within, on what’s going on inside. One of the purposes of meditation is to put you in a good place to watch, so that what you see is undistorted. You … 
  19. Fix Your Views
     … That’s where the real problem lies.” The inconstancy of the mind is the problem. The stress caused by the mind is the problem: the mind holding on to things it shouldn’t hold on to. How do you watch the mind? You get it to do something that you think is right and you watch it in action. You get it to commit … 
  20. The Brahmavihāras Aren’t Enough
     … The student follows along in his mind and, after he dies, is reborn in one of the Brahmā realms. Sāriputta goes back to report to the Buddha, and the Buddha chided him: “Why did you leave him with an inferior goal when there was more to be done?” The way they’re depicted in the Pali Canon, Brahmās are not always a desirable group … 
  21. 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 … 
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