Search results for: "Mindfulness"

  1. Page 172
  2. A Victory that Matters
     … What in the mind fights that by saying that other things you’d rather do are more important? The part of the mind that tosses up all kinds of obstacles. You could go along with the obstacles and block your path, or you can take the Buddha’s approach by looking at how suffering feels from the inside and how all the processes that … 
  3. Dedicating Merit
     … So the example of one person can be inspiring to other people, reminding them that there are aspects of the human mind, qualities of the human mind, dimensions and capabilities of the human mind, that are a lot more than we tend to think. When these possibilities are opened up to us, that’s a great gift. So if you can act as a … 
  4. Karma & the Sublime Attitudes
     … You’re trying to develop your powers of mindfulness, your powers of alertness, your concentration, because these powers will allow you to develop your discernment. The discernment is what frees the mind—frees it from all the restrictions it places on itself, all the unnecessary burdens and suffering it places on itself. So the results of staying here much longer-lasting, much more solid … 
  5. Fear & Uncertainty
     … It’s to look for something more secure inside the mind. The way you starve the hindrance of uncertainty is to look in the mind and see what’s skillful and what’s not skillful there inside. And as it so happens, that’s the same way you provide food for analysis of qualities as a factor for awakening, which is the discernment factor … 
  6. Noble Standards
     … It closes the mind to the idea that maybe there are things in the human mind that are more than we can have anticipated. I remember, in encountering Ajaan Fuang, what was so radical about the experience was the sense that he did have some psychic knowledge that I had never thought possible before. It opened my mind: Maybe there’s more out there … 
  7. The Story behind Impatience
     … You’ve learned something about the mind right there. The act of bringing it back strengthens your original intention, strengthens your resolve, and the fact that you’re able to catch the mind as it’s wandering off strengthens your mindfulness and alertness. So whether things are progressing at the rate you’d like to see in your ideal narrative, that’s not the … 
  8. Mud Houses
     … Just in getting the mind to right concentration, you begin to see there are these activities that you do. As you go into deeper stages of concentration, you begin to realize that there are more refined versions of them. You can let go of the directed thought and evaluation, and the mind feels less burdened. You can let go of the feeling of pleasure … 
  9. Go Out of Your Way
     … If you can be clean outside, it’s a lot easier to clean up your mind inside as well. You might say that cleanliness is next to mindfulness. And your volunteer spirit is important. Ajaan Fuang would often make the comment that nobody hired us to be here. Nobody hired us to practice. We’re here of our own free will. So we’re … 
  10. Recovery Skills
    Worry is one of the hindrances that gets in the way of the mind’s settling down. And so we have to learn how to deal with it so that it doesn’t take over. One way of trying to deal with it is to tell yourself things will all work out in the end. But that’s not a very effective approach because … 
  11. Exploring Contentment
     … Not being content with where he was in the practice meant that as long as there was still any suffering or any cause of suffering in his mind, he wouldn’t allow the practice just to sit there. 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 … 
  12. Broaden Your Range of Choices
     … It’s as if your lizard brain is sending the words to the rest of your mind, and then the rest of your mind uses them to create a dialogue, or a conversation or chaos—depending on the quality of the thinking. But you have to learn how to question those perceptions. One of the reasons why the Buddha gives such vivid analogies in … 
  13. Noble Wealth
     … You’re doing it because it develops good qualities in the mind. You develop the mindfulness that’s going to help you remember the lessons you’ve learned, and you develop the discernment to see things clearly—in particular, to see what you’re doing right now that’s shaping your experience. Because those instructions for breath meditation involve bodily fabrication, verbal fabrication, mental … 
  14. Don’t Hang Around Your Corpse
     … This is where the contemplation turns into a focus on the mind. Why does the mind play these tricks on itself? Something that looks really attractive in one context becomes unattractive in another context, and then back to attractive again in still another. What’s going on? The mind wants this to be attractive. For what purpose? Keep digging into those questions and you … 
  15. The Middle Way
     … Now, the author said that this was following the practice of contemplation of feelings in the establishing of mindfulness. But the Buddha himself didn’t teach it that way. In his instructions on breath meditation, which are supposed to be a practical application of the four establishings of mindfulness, right there in the section on feelings, you train yourself to breathe in and breathe … 
  16. Goodwill
     … When people see that we’re happier than we were before, they’ll be interested: “How did you do this? What kind of food are you eating? What kind of exercise are you doing?” You can respond, “It’s not exercise, it’s not so much the food, it’s training the mind.” Some people will say, “Oh,” and that’ll be the end … 
  17. A Radiant Practice
     … In other words, the suffering that weighs down the mind is the suffering that we create for ourselves. The happiness that most uplifts the mind is the goodness we do. That’s merit. You’re looking for happiness in a way that causes no suffering to anyone at all. It’s something you create from within, so its effects go within. And as with … 
  18. Respect for the Precepts
     … After all, if you’re going to be mindful and alert, you have to be very attentive to your actions and their results. Holding strictly to the precepts is a very good way of getting practice in that kind of mindfulness and alertness. In fact, as the Buddha said, one of the bases for establishing mindfulness is that your precepts are pure. You’ve … 
  19. Born for the Perfections
     … Inside the territory is the territory of right mindfulness; outside is the territory of the five strings of sensuality. So mindfulness is very closely related to renunciation. And then, of course, with first jhana, you’re secluded from sensuality and you find a sense of well-being inside. You work up to the fourth jhana where you have equanimity. So the perfections cover the … 
  20. 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 … 
  21. Dedicating Goodness, Spreading Goodwill
     … And then finally the motivation gets to the level where it’s simply a natural expression of the mind, the mind doesn’t grab onto things. You see that this item would be good in the hands of that person and you’re happy to give. In terms of the items, you want to make sure you haven’t stolen anything to give, and … 
  22. Load next page...