Search results for: "Mindfulness"

  1. Page 170
  2. Discerning the Middle Way
    We should always keep in mind that the Buddha’s first description of the path that he taught was the middle way between two extremes. Because it’s a middle way, it requires discernment. In fact, finding where exactly the middle lies is what exercises our discernment. If the path were simply a matter of pushing and pushing and pushing all the time or … 
  3. Practicing for Dispassion
     … We do it all the time in the mind. The thing is, when we do it in the mind, it doesn’t stop there. It’s not just an act in the imagination. It can lead us to act and to being reborn on all kinds of different levels. Think about the knowledges the Buddha gained on the night of his awakening. The first … 
  4. A Generosity of Spirit
     … But you realize that the mind becomes lighter as a result. It’s like the sandbags that hold down hot-air balloons. You give away the things that you’re holding onto, you cut off the sandbags, and the balloon can go higher and higher. The mind becomes more expansive, and that becomes the mind that’s in line with unlimited goodwill, unlimited compassion … 
  5. Happiness is a Skill
     … To one extent you do accept these things, but to another extent you can say, “The things that my mind does around that to make me suffer, I can’t accept those. I’ve got to change those.” That’s what we’re doing as we practice meditation: We’re changing our minds. It’s not simply a process of relaxing and being okay … 
  6. Visakha Puja – True Homage
     … Be very heedful with the mind, because it might want to wander away from the breath. Be ardent, really paying very close attention to what you’re doing. And be resolute: Once you’ve got the mind firmly planted in the breath, keep it there. This way, we practice the Dhamma in accordance with the Dhamma. It’s an important phrase. Throughout the forest … 
  7. Focus on Your Skill
     … It was by focusing on this skill that the Buddha was able to avoid a lot of issues that would pull the mind off into wrong view no matter which side you took. There were a lot of questions that he wouldn’t answer. “Is the world a oneness?” “Well, no,” he said. “A multiplicity?” “Well, no.” “Is there a self? Is there no … 
  8. Actor & Experiencer
     … The same with good qualities in the mind: Your sensitivity may not be what it could be, your understanding of the process of meditation may not be what it could be, but you take what you’ve got and you apply it. And you learn from applying it. As you do this, you begin to see that there are two sides to the mind … 
  9. Not the Predictable Thing
     … In other words, if your state of mind at death was really good, it could compensate for a lot of bad things you’d done. If your state of mind at death was bad, it could delay the results of past good kamma—which meant that the state of your mind in the present moment doesn’t have to be shaped by the past … 
  10. Mistakes
     … After all, the mind doesn’t have a hand that can grasp onto things. But it does have intentions, the intentions lead to actions, and we have certain ways of acting that we do over and over and over again. They become habitual. And the Buddha’s pointing out that we do these things in ignorance, and because we’re in ignorance, we cause … 
  11. Patience & Sensitivity
    The ajaans often make the point that when you begin meditating, you first have to take a survey of your body and mind: How are things right now? Before you focus on the breath and get started in what you plan to do for the evening, see what raw materials you have: what state is the body in; what state is the mind in … 
  12. Enlarged Awareness
     … It changes the balance of power in the mind. Things that used to seem large and overwhelming, when placed within this frame of awareness, seem a lot smaller, less threatening. And you can carry this enlarged frame wherever you go. It’s a matter of mindfulness, keeping it in mind all the time. As you do this, you begin to see the other things … 
  13. The World of the Noble Truths
     … And these becomings the Buddha talks about can happen in the mind. The world outside that we know is also a state of becoming. We’re in it because of becomings in the mind. We take on many different becomings in the mind in the course of the day. You focus on wanting something and then you take on an identity within the world … 
  14. The Buddha’s Buffet
     … You’ve got a peace of mind that no amount of money can buy. The third quality the Buddha recommends is generosity. Realize that giving a gift is a trade. By giving any excess wealth away, you develop good qualities in the mind. You develop a more expansive mind, a more generous mind, a more spacious mind, one that really does develop goodwill for … 
  15. Strength of Conviction: 1
     … Does it make sense? Does it seem like it’s going to be a good thing? What part of the mind is attracted to it? And if it’s the part of the mind that you feel is honorable and trustworthy, then you follow through. This, the Buddha said, is where you give rise to the desire to practice. And then you try it … 
  16. Samvega
     … Why the hell do I have to sit here with this pain? Why can’t we be more relaxed about it?”—all these comments the mind makes up: fear that you’re going to harm yourself, cutting off the circulation to your legs; you’re going to get numb and after you get numb you’re going to get paralyzed. The mind has all … 
  17. Happy About Kamma
     … This is why we train the mind. This is why training the mind involves sitting here with your eyes closed, watching the movements of the mind. It’s so that you can understand what you’re doing—first by seeing clearly what you’re doing. If you see that you’re making some unskillful choices, you can unmake them, because there is that element … 
  18. Observant & Ingenious
     … You’re not just here to confirm what the Buddha said, “Yes, everything is inconstant, stressful, not-self.” You’re here to develop your mind, to get your mind to settle down. When you get your mind to settle down, you get to see these things for yourself, instead of just following by rote. It’s easy enough to look at your mind as … 
  19. Right View as Tool
     … In other words, wherever the mind is pained, wherever the mind is weighed down with stress, you turn to look to see: Where is the clinging? It’s something you’re doing. That’s something you want to comprehend, and to comprehend it you need to develop right concentration. Otherwise, the mind won’t be stable enough, strong enough to comprehend the suffering. The … 
  20. Pleasure & Pain
     … As you begin to take apart all these various strands of fabrication in the mind, you’re going to run across something that’s unfabricated, at the point where the mind has no intentions at all to weave things together. When that happens, it’s very dramatic. Things open up in a totally new way. That’s one of the main benefits that come … 
  21. Twigs & Branches
     … As the issue of how to make the breath stay with the mind and how to make the mind stay with the breath gets more resolved, then you can use your powers of evaluation to look at other things. You contemplate anything that you might be holding onto that’s getting in the way of the concentration—such as thoughts that ensnare the mind … 
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