Search results for: "The Mind"

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  2. Clinging, Addictions, Obsessions
     … And even when a large part of the mind realizes it’s bad for you, there’s another part that really goes for it and is thoroughly convinced it’s a good thing. You have to ferret that out, and you have to argue with it. Then there are habits and practices. We tend to be very quick to fall into old habitual ways … 
  3. Recollection of the Buddha
     … If you believe that all you are is a body and that your consciousness is just an epiphenomenon, as they call it—a side effect of there being a body—then you can’t really believe that by training the mind you’re going to have any impact on anything at all—because in the materialist view, the only reality is physical reality. Yet … 
  4. Distinctions That Make a Difference
     … But that’s not craving *at *the object; the craving is at your image of the object in the mind, or pictures you’ve seen of it. That’s where the craving is located. You need to make these distinctions if you’re going to understand the allure of the things you hold on to. It’s because we glom things together that, say … 
  5. Peace on Earth
    Peace on earth has to begin right here, right where the body and the mind meet at the breath. Try to develop a sense of harmony here. As you’re focusing on the breath, don’t push it too much but don’t wander away. Give it your undivided attention and see how it responds. If it responds well, stick with it. If not … 
  6. Surveying the World
     … Despite the ups and downs of the world, there’s something of solid value that you can build into the mind that’s not wiped away by the things that wipe away the treasures, the accomplishments, or the powers of the world. You see people abusing the power they have in the world. I remember listening to a lawyer one time who’d argued … 
  7. The Best of a Bad Situation
     … When the mind is reluctant to practice, what can you do to get it back in the mood to practice? If it seems scattered, with lots of frenetic energy, how can you put that frenetic energy to good use? If it seems sluggish, how can you wake it up? Instead of looking at these problems as obstacles, look at them as challenges, as opportunities … 
  8. The Buddha’s Last Word
     … Sometimes you grow by listening, and sometimes you grow by thinking, and sometimes you grow by developing qualities in the mind. Those are the three ways in which discernment is developed. But the “completion” there is that you want to complete all the factors of the path. You want to complete all the good qualities of the mind. The heedfulness is the motivation that … 
  9. The Courage to Set Yourself Free
     … You learn a lot about the mind as you sit for long periods of time. But you’re not just putting up with the pain. You want to comprehend it. That means viewing it from a position where you don’t feel threatened by it. This is why we work with the breath to make it comfortable. Then we can look at the pain … 
  10. Inconstant, Stressful, Not-self
     … If we learn to develop dispassion for these processes, then the mind is released. But you have to do this reflection in stages. You don’t just drop everything and go off and lie down on the ground and hope for everything to end. First you have to develop good, skillful states in the mind. This is why we’re meditating, working on concentration … 
  11. Go Out of Your Way
     … You’re trying to develop all kinds of good qualities in the mind. They start from the outside and go in. One of Ajaan Fuang’s students told me once that he had told her that when I first showed up on his doorstep, he had some misgivings about taking on a Westerner as a disciple. Westerners are known for their bull-headedness, their … 
  12. Goodwill & Gratitude
     … Even though you’re extending goodwill for everyone, those thoughts of goodwill help to clear the mind and prepare it for the meditation. The Buddha taught this to his son. Before you focus on the breath, try goodwill for everyone. That helps to clear up any issues you may have had from the day. And it’s good to stop and think: What does … 
  13. Strength of Conviction
     … that there is a deathless element that can be touched at the mind. It can be found through your own efforts, and it’s more than worth whatever difficulties you may encounter in following the path that goes there. So it’s good to think of those huge dimensions of space and time that the Buddha awakened to in the first and second knowledge … 
  14. Exploring Contentment
     … He’d try to figure out what was causing that suffering and what qualities he would have to develop in order to see even deeper into the mind. That was something he was always working on. We see this throughout the story of his life. He gained really high levels of concentration from his study with his two teachers, but he realized that those … 
  15. Self Determination
     … You practice generosity, you practice virtue, and especially you practice meditation, developing qualities of the mind where you take charge of your own mind for the sake of your long-term welfare and happiness. It’s one of those rare cases where you really do get to practice self-determination. Or in the Buddha’s terms, you direct yourself rightly. You choose your direction … 
  16. Two Kinds of Seclusion
     … The Buddha talked about the customs of the noble ones, in which the highest value is placed on developing skillful qualities of the mind and abandoning the unskillful ones. That’s the bottom line in the customs of the noble ones. In the customs of other counties, they have other values which may or may not be healthy for the mind—oftentimes not. They … 
  17. Motivation
     … Sometimes the Buddha encourages developing a sense of heedfulness, realizing that if you don’t train the mind, you’re in big trouble. There are lots of passages in the Canon where the Buddha has you ask yourself, “Are you ready? Do you realize the dangers that you might have to face?” That’s the first way of sparking desire: realizing that if you … 
  18. From Compunction to Release
     … The rewards may not be coming right away, but you’re convinced in the principle that if you train the mind, you’ll be much less likely to cause yourself suffering. So here you are, training the mind. And you’re training it in a way that tries to give rise to a sense of well-being. When you find that you can breathe … 
  19. The Dhamma Without Price
     … We do that by focusing on our practice, training the mind in an institution that places the training of the mind as its bottom line. As for the economics of buying and selling, that gets pushed off to the side. The fact that the Dhamma is supported by gifts is what keeps it pure, keeps it in line with its original principles, and keeps … 
  20. The Value of Refuge
     … a sense of happiness that didn’t depend on sights, sounds, smells, tastes, or tactile sensations—a happiness that started within the mind and then spread through the body. The happiness of form; the pleasure of form. There was pleasure; there was rapture. So he asked himself, could this be the way? And the answer that came to him was Yes. So he asked … 
  21. Take Time to Evaluate Your Life
     … You evaluate the object of your meditation, in this case the breath, so that the mind can be really snug with it, so that it’s not likely to want to wander off. One of the meanings of evaluation is that you evaluate the breath as it’s coming in, going out. How does it feel? Could you improve it? And can you improve … 
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