Search results for: "Mindfulness"

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  2. Mindfulness: The Whole Formula
    There’s a long sutta on the topic of mindfulness called the Satipaṭṭhāna Sutta. Many people assume that, because it’s so long, it’s a full description of mindfulness practice. The Buddha starts out with a statement of the full formula—what it means to establish mindfulness: You focus on the body in and of itself, ardent, alert, mindful, putting aside greed and … 
  3. A Safe Harbor
     … Mindfulness means keeping something in mind. In this case, we’re keeping the breath in mind, keeping in the body in and of itself in mind—“in and of itself” in the sense that we’re not concerned about how the body looks to other people or how strong it is, whether we like our bodies or not. Just the body as it simply … 
  4. The Skill of Restraint
     … These three aspects of sensory input are what the mind is feeding on all the time. The basic skill in learning new ways to cook this food is to focus on the breath and get the mind centered inside. You’re actually changing the level of the mind when it’s inside the body in this way. Instead of being on the sensual level … 
  5. Healing Skills
    When you sit down to meditate, you want to get the body into position and your mind into position. For the body, place your hands in your lap, your right hand on top of your left. Straighten your spine so that it’s comfortably straight. You don’t have to be ramrod straight like a soldier, but straight enough so that you’re not … 
  6. Cleanliness is Next to Mindfulness
    Cleanliness is Next to Mindfulness February 10, 2006 There’s a famous poem in Thailand about the amorous adventures of two men trying to outdo each other in terms of the number of women they can sleep with. It’s pretty light entertainment, but one of its most interesting passages is when one of the men is entering the apartments of a woman he … 
  7. 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 … 
  8. 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 … 
  9. 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 … 
  10. 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 … 
  11. 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 … 
  12. Two Things to Keep in Mind
    One of the purposes of the chants that we do every evening is to take our minds out of the context of the world: the issues of daily life, the people we’ve been interacting with, the different narratives that are entwined in the day. You want to get yourself unentangled from those things, because otherwise you carry them into the meditation, and the … 
  13. 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 … 
  14. 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 … 
  15. 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 … 
  16. 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 … 
  17. 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 … 
  18. 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 … 
  19. 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 … 
  20. 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 … 
  21. 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 … 
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