Search results for: "Mindfulness"

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  2. Damming & Diverting
    A common image in the teachings of the forest ajaans is that the mind goes flowing out. In other words, greed, aversion, and delusion don’t start from things outside. It’s not the case that we’re just sitting here perfectly fine—passive and placid—and then something comes along and stirs us up. All too often we’re out there looking for … 
  3. Fighting Attitude
    The fourth frame of reference for meditation, or the fourth foundation of mindfulness is dhammas, which can mean objects of the mind or mental qualities. And it’s interesting that of the various foundations of mindfulness, as described in the Satipatthana Sutta, this is the one that recommends the most active interaction with what’s going on in the mind. For example, if hindrances … 
  4. Keeping the Buddha in Mind
     … And right mindfulness is there to remember how to do that. In other words, you develop right view, and then right mindfulness keeps it in mind to give direction to your efforts. This is one of the reasons why the Buddha has you focus on the breath, and develop mindfulness around the breath. It’s like a string around your finger. Every time you … 
  5. Holding On to the Path
     … In the third set, when your focus is on the mind, you sensitize yourself to the mind, you begin to notice when the mind needs gladdening, when it needs stabilizing, then you find ways of using your perceptions, using the breath to gladden and stabilize the mind. This is breath meditation over time, as you gain more and more skill in reading what the … 
  6. The Constancy of the Body
    The mind’s a very inconstant thing: repeatedly jumping around, changing its mind; thinking this way then thinking that way; making up its mind to do something then dropping it and running off with something else. If it were a friend, you probably would have given up on that friend a long time ago. But here you are, stuck with it. So you need … 
  7. Doing the Practice
     … But we have the potential to find true happiness through our actions, and particularly the actions of the mind, because the mind is what lies behind everything we say and think and do. We have to train the mind so that it’s skilled in giving the orders, so that it can see what’s the skillful action in any particular set of circumstances … 
  8. Big Desire, Detailed Focus
     … So when you’re being mindful of the breath, it means you keep the breath in mind, and you remember to keep the breath in mind each time you breathe in, each time you breathe out. If anything comes up in the mind that’s going to pull you away, you recognize that “Ah, this is a hindrance.” Thoughts that in the course of … 
  9. Home Schooling Your Inner Children
     … Your mind needs training. You’re going to be better off with a trained mind. After all, as the Buddha said, a trained mind is what brings happiness. You can have everything else in the world going really well for you, but if your mind is a mess, you can create all sorts of suffering. In fact, people with untrained minds who gain wealth … 
  10. Even Common Animals Can Be Trained
    There’s a controversial passage in the Canon where the Buddha says that the mind is luminous. It’s like the Sun, which can be darkened by passing clouds, but the Sun itself is not dark. In the same way, the mind is darkened by passing defilements, but the defilements are not part of the nature of the mind. Now, some people interpret this … 
  11. Five Steps to Insight
    When you try to get the mind to settle down, you’re doing two things. One is to keep the object of your meditation in mind. In this case, it’s the breath. Each time you breathe in, try to remember—this is where you want to be. The second thing is putting aside any interest in things outside. Thoughts may come up about … 
  12. Good at Thinking
     … And then think about ways that you could get the mind to settle down. Again, this is another useful use of thinking. For instance, you can keep the breath in mind. Just keep reminding yourself, “Stay with the breath. Be sensitive to the breath.” That kind of thinking is called mindfulness, and it’s very useful. You want to couple it with alertness, which … 
  13. A Refuge from Karma
     … If you make your mind unlimited here in the present moment, then no matter how bad the karma is from the past, it doesn’t have to have an impact on the mind. In other words, you may be experiencing the physical results of past actions that were unskillful, but the mind doesn’t have to suffer from them. As you enlarge your mind … 
  14. The Right Time at the Right Place
    You want to observe the mind in the present moment. So, what do you have to keep you anchored here? You’ve got the breath. So take a couple of good, long, deep in-and-out breaths. Notice where you feel the breathing in the body, settle your awareness there, and watch it to see if it’s comfortable. If long breathing feels good … 
  15. To Gladden the Mind
     … Just take the time to make that question an important question in your mind. And look very carefully. This is one of the reasons why we practice meditation: to get the mind to be mindful and alert enough so that it can gauge what’s going on in the mind, exercising its powers of judgment in a really useful way. You’ll find, as … 
  16. Bases for Success
     … Is the mind settling down? If it’s not settling down, where is the problem? Is the problem with the breath or with the mind? Sometimes you direct your thoughts straight at the breath; sometimes you have to focus back on the mind. Then you evaluate what’s going on. Is the mind ready to settle down? If it’s too anxious, what can … 
  17. Leaving Meditation
     … Where does the mind go when you loosen up the leash a little bit, when you let it out of the pen? What things does it go running to? Okay, those are big issues. Learn to notice how the mind engages them, and how they engage the mind. You’ll start seeing how the mind is not simply the victim of outside events, but … 
  18. Unentangled Compassion
     … And as for the mind, it requires three qualities. Mindfulness, which in this case means keeping the breath in mind. Alertness, which means watching what’s actually happening both with the breath and with the mind. In other words, you know when the breath is coming in; you know when it’s going out. You know whether it’s comfortable or not. At the … 
  19. On Not Being a Victim
    The mind has two basic functions. One is that it registers data coming in through the eyes, ears, nose, tongue, body, and intellect. And the other is that it wills things, tries to exert an influence on things outside. You might think of these as the passive and the active functions of the mind or the reactive and proactive functions, because even as the … 
  20. To See What You’re Doing
     … And mindfulness, the ability to keep something in mind. Sometimes mindfulness is translated as choiceless awareness or nonjudgmental awareness. That’s based on a particular technique of meditation that was developed in the early part of the 20th century. The Buddha used the word mindfulness to mean to mean something else: basically, the ability to keep something in mind. Here, you’re keeping in … 
  21. A Post for the Mind
    To be mindful of the body, you can focus on the breath. The Buddha compares it to a post for tying down the mind. In one case, he compares it to a post to which they tie an elephant. They’ve gotten the elephant out of the forest, out of the jungle, and they’re bringing him into the city to train him. And … 
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