Search results for: "Mindfulness"

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  2. Pissing on Palaces
     … what you’re doing in your mind. This is important because what you do in the mind then becomes the basis for what you say, what you do, what you think. So that’s one way to tune into the Dhamma. When you see or hear anything that helps to support that, you know you’re seeing and listening to the Dhamma. As for … 
  3. Two Kinds of Defilements
     … We need the strength to dig around, we need the stillness so we can see subtle things happening in the mind—the things you can see only when you pose questions in a mind that’s still. And it’s not the case that, once you pose the question, the answer immediately comes. You have to think about it and test it, dig a … 
  4. Beyond Gratitude
     … The question is, how you take that concentration and string it into longer periods of concentration? This is where mindfulness comes in: the ability to keep remembering. You’ve made up your mind you’re going to stay with the breath, well, you’ve got to keep remembering that. That’s the thread that holds everything together. And you want to make the breath … 
  5. Skillful Thinking
     … what do you have to do to stay in the present? Sometimes the mind just refuses to settle down. So you find other topics aside from the breath in the present moment to focus on. If you’re really having trouble focusing on the present, think of the Buddha, the Dhamma, and the Sangha. Those topics help foster conviction in the path and in … 
  6. Comfort Dhamma
     … The mind fits with the breath; the breath fits with the body. Everything fits together. You need this sense of comfort because a lot of the discernment teachings are going to be like medicine. They may be a little harsh and hard to take. But they’re a lot easier to take if you’ve got a sense of well-being going in the … 
  7. High-Level Dhamma
     … Sometimes they had been reading about very high level Dhamma, and they would sit and look at their minds where they were, and they weren’t quite where the books said they should be. Either they’d get depressed or else they’d start trying to squeeze their minds into the direction they had learned from the books, which was basically just perceptions based … 
  8. Happiness Comes from Inner Strength
     … And the taking often develops qualities of mind that are really uncomfortable, especially if we see that when we take something, somebody else has to lose. This is why the Buddha recommended the second kind of happiness, the happiness that comes from developing our inner resources. You may ask yourself, “What kind of resources do you have?” There’s more there than you might … 
  9. Encouragement
     … Once you’ve made up your mind to direct your thoughts to the breath and to evaluate the breath, it’s not the case that you’ll always be directing them there, or that all thoughts would go in that direction. So, you want to learn how to evaluate when something comes up in the mind: Is it Dhamma, or is it not? Among … 
  10. Lessons from the Buddha’s Awakening
     … We have to keep in mind that the Buddha told us very little about his awakening. He emphasized the three main knowledges: knowledge of his past lifetimes, knowledge of how beings are born after they die in line with their karma, and then knowledge of how to put an end to effluents—in other words, how to get rid of the defilements of the … 
  11. The Duty to Understand
     … You may have a nice luminous state of mind, but don’t be content with that. Ajaan Maha Boowa makes the point that the luminous mind is ignorance. If you simply accept it as your goal, well, there you are: You’re stuck. You shouldn’t rest content even with that. But this doesn’t mean that you drop things right away as you … 
  12. Resolute Good Humor
     … In the same way, the mind, when it’s put under a lot of pressure, just tunes out. It goes into a state of non-perception. That’s not awakening. That’s just blanking out. You need to know how to pace your mind, because we’re not here to explode. We’re not here to blank out. We’re here to wake up … 
  13. Victory
     … You see that something’s really strong in the mind and you say, “If I even try to do a little battle with it, I’m going to lose anyhow, so I might as well give up.” That’s your defilements speaking. That’s their fifth column inside your mind. So, at the very least, try to fight these things. Recognize them as the … 
  14. Fear of Mistakes
     … You direct your thoughts to the breath and evaluate the breath, evaluate the mind in relationship to the breath: Is the breath comfortable? How do you know if it’s comfortable? Well, you test it. Try different ways of breathing, and then you can decide which one is best for giving the mind a good place to stay. Once you’ve got comfortable breathing … 
  15. At Home with the Breath
    One of the Buddha’s terms for concentration is vihāra-dhamma, a home for the mind. It’s like that definition of home in the Robert Frost poem: “Home is the place where, when you go there, they have to take you in.” The breath is the object; it’s the primary vihāra-dhamma. When the mind settles there, the breath has to take … 
  16. Truths of the Will
     … Look at all your activities as opportunities to develop good qualities in your mind, because those of the things that last. The Buddha calls them noble treasures because when you develop good qualities in the mind they stay with you, not only in this lifetime but on into future lifetimes. What are the perfections? Generosity, virtue, renunciation, discernment, energy, tolerance or endurance, truth, determination … 
  17. Focal Points
     … The post here is mindfulness of the body. And for the mindfulness of the body to be strong, there has to be a sense of well-being, a sense of nourishment that comes from staying here. So try to find your sensitive spot, or your sensitive spots, and learn how to use your steady attention together with the breath energy to satisfy the needs … 
  18. Shame & Compunction
     … The Buddha teaches us how to find refuge, how to find safety through developing good qualities in the mind. That’s another meaning of the word dhamma. There’s the Dhamma of the teachings, but also the dhamma of the qualities you build into the mind, and those are your real protection. The teachings point the way to the reality that you want to … 
  19. Starting from Within
     … Right here at the breath is where the body and the mind meet. Your most direct experience of the body is actually breath sensations, the feeling of energy that flows throughout the whole body. So if you want to understand what you’ve got inside yourself here, both inside the body and the mind, the breath is a good place to start. Be aware … 
  20. Realizing Cessation
     … All dhammas have the mind as their forerunner, and they’re achieved through the mind. In other words, the mind is proactive. It’s because we sense this truth, even though we may not fully know it, that we give so much credence to our cravings, because we know it’s through our desires that we can get things done. Now, the question is … 
  21. Get Real
     … Ajaan Suwat once noted that there’s a paradox in what we’re trying to develop as we get the mind to settle down. On the one hand, the texts talk about making the mind soft and malleable. On the other hand, they talk about making it strong — strong in the sense that you’re not going to get waylaid by other thoughts. You … 
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