Search results for: "The Mind"

  1. Page 174
  2. Practicing Meditation to Perform at Death
     … You get these pleasures you never had before, and part of the mind says, “Well, let me enjoy them for a while and then I’ll practice.” But then you forget. So, it’s good to reflect on these drawbacks, to keep the mind from just grabbing at whatever, and to get it to look for something better. This is why we practice for … 
  3. True Friends
     … And don’t be surprised if it falls off, because the mind has a habit of wandering. We’re trying to teach it a new habit, and it’s going to take time. So have some patience, but also be persistent. Just keep coming back, coming back, coming back. This is a skill that you’re going to need: getting some control over your … 
  4. A Meritorious Heart
     … And the mind improves by giving, too. Similarly with the precepts: You realize that your actions have power. You have the power to help. You have the power to harm. So you see that in any way where your actions could be harmful, you learn how to hold back, you learn how to say no, even though you may feel that “This is what … 
  5. What It All Comes From
     … You’ve got to get the mind really still so that you can see these things clearly. After all, how do you think the Buddha discovered these things? He didn’t have any texts to read and argue about. He just had his own mind and his ability to observe his actions, to observe the desires on which they were based. He developed really … 
  6. Remembering Ajaan Lee
     … How can you get the mind and the breath to stay together? I remember when I first learned his method of meditation, I found it really liberating. I’d been meditating in a way where you were supposed to stay focused just on one spot, the tip of the nose. You were supposed to let the breath do whatever it’s going to do … 
  7. Truths of the Will
     … That requires developing a lot of important qualities in the mind, things you have to will into being. You look at your life and it doesn’t seem like there’s much opportunity to put an end to suffering, but again you’re looking at the things that an observer would look at. The end of suffering is a truth of the will, and … 
  8. The Six Properties
     … Tranquility is basically an answer to the questions, “How do I get the mind to settle down? How do I get it to stay?” Insight answers the questions, “How do we view fabrications? How do we see things in terms of fabrication, and then what do we do with them?” If you look at the Buddha’s instructions on breath meditation, he combines the … 
  9. Take Heart
     … On the one hand, you don’t underestimate the dangers that are there if you don’t train the mind. But at the same time, you also don’t underestimate the good you’ve done and the good that can be done. Always have confidence in that, because that is the message of the Buddha’s awakening: The goodness we do is not wasted … 
  10. Free from Animosity
     … We draw it into the mind, where it reverberates again and again and again. That’s the suffering. We feed on our suffering. That’s what’s so ironic in the way that the Buddha sees suffering: The things that we feed on, the things that we like, the things we hold on to, are the things that are causing us to suffer. And … 
  11. Better to Give than to Consume
     … Once the mind can see that renunciation would be a good thing, then it’s ready for the four noble truths. In many ways, renunciation is a continuation of the principle of generosity. You learn that you have to give something away or give it up in order to get something of greater value in return. So instead of encouraging us to come to … 
  12. The Karma Snake
     … So when a thought comes up in the mind, you have to ask yourself, “To what extent am I engaging in that thought now, and to what extent is that thought simply just the reverberation of something that I did in the past?” Especially when you find your mind overwhelmed with all kinds of thoughts coming in, it’s good to remember that you … 
  13. Compassionate Duties
     … This means that if you notice that there are skillful qualities that have not arisen in the mind yet, you’re mindful to try to give rise to them. When they are there, you’re mindful to try to make sure they don’t pass away. Here again, you’re not just watching things coming and going, you’re trying to make skillful mind … 
  14. Developing the Path
     … You have to make the mind stand still, solid and unshakable, if you want to see the truth. As for giving an account of where your knowledge comes from, it’s very important that you know, when you believe something, that you have to be true to yourself and ask, “On the basis of what do I believe this?” There are some really strong … 
  15. In Earnest
     … This is why the Buddha said to feed the mind in a different way, a way that gets it so strong that eventually you don’t have to feed anymore. The five strengths—conviction, persistence, mindfulness, concentration, discernment—are healthy food for the mind, food that teaches it to be more and more independent, less and less reliant on its old kinds of feeding … 
  16. Listening to the Practice
     … What attitude precisely is needed in this particular point, in this particular place—this particular state of the breath, state of the mind, state of the body, state of the world around you? The practice of the Dhamma is very situational—not in the sense that everything is relative but in the sense of realizing that the particular technique, the particular approach that’s … 
  17. Victory
     … The suffering that weighs down the mind is not so much the suffering caused by the world, or the things that happen in the world. It’s what you do with the input that comes in from the world as you experience it and as you relate to yourself and have your internal conversations and your own internal messages and plans, programs, and aspirations … 
  18. Return of Wisdom for Dummies
     … But if you realize that you do have choice and there are gradations of happiness that can come from your choice, then you begin to see the need for training the mind so that it can choose things more and more wisely. There’s another realization that you see when you look at your actions, which is that some of your actions are things … 
  19. Cheerfully Ardent
     … The Buddha said that one of the first things you do with the mind, once you find what state it’s in, is to try and gladden it. You can be glad that you’re here practicing. You can be glad that you’re part of a community that’s practicing. You’re glad that there’s support for this community. You’re glad … 
  20. The Culture of the Practice
     … You try to develop the quality of the mind where you can see that you have something more than you need and you’re happy to give it to others. You think about their needs as well. This expands your mind—and your heart. It’s the basis for the whole culture we have here. The economy here at the monastery is an economy … 
  21. Putting Aside the World
     … So instead of thinking of the world out there, just tell yourself every time a memory comes up: “That’s just a memory coming through the mind,” or just a worry about the future, or whatever it is. Remind yourself that for right now, you’re not responsible. Meditating is a larger way of being responsible, because it allows you to strengthen yourself. If … 
  22. Load next page...