Search results for: "The Mind"

  1. Page 179
  2. A Refuge Bigger than the World
     … That doesn’t mean we don’t do our best to help them while we can, but there has to be part of the mind that’s held in reserve, knowing that anybody who’s born is bound to grow ill, bound to age, bound to die. Any civilization that arises is bound to fall. Maybe we can’t help the world as a … 
  3. The Right Touch
     … So, he realized on his own: “This can’t be right.” He said, “If down isn’t going to help, what about ‘up, up, up, up, up, up’?” Then he found the point of “just right,” trying to get the mind to settle in. As you use your powers of observation, you become more sensitive. He commented one time on how the commentaries say … 
  4. The Wisdom of Ardency
     … the willingness to look at the events coming up in the mind and to step back from them just enough to notice, “Where do these things lead? Are they skillful, or are they unskillful?” That’s where wisdom can begin. Ardency, of course, is very closely related to the factor that comes before right mindfulness, which is right effort. Right effort builds on right … 
  5. Being a Buddhist
     … Then he defined that as practicing the establishment of mindfulness, which is basically how you get the mind into concentration: That’s when you really do become your own refuge on that second level, the level of practice, the level of internalizing. It’s only when you find your first taste of the deathless that you really are safe: That would be the level … 
  6. 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 … 
  7. Goodwill for Snakes
     … In Thailand they talk a lot about the currents of the mind. And you always want to be sending out good currents, because if you send out bad currents, such as ill-will toward others, they’ll pick it up. Animals in particular are very sensitive to this kind of thing. So goodwill is your protection. In the Canon they talk about how people … 
  8. Born for the Perfections
     … They finally get channeled into the mind. And when you think in that way, then you’re practicing what Ajaan Fuang would call a timeless practice. For most of us, our days get divided up into times. There’s the time to work. There’s the time to get together for the Q&A. There’s the time for this, the time for that … 
  9. Whatever It Takes
     … All these little things are part of training the mind. You could focus on finding imperfections in the environment here. “How can anyone be expected to meditate when things are like this, or are like that?” That’s a kind of pride that gets in the way of your meditation. Say, “If my concentration isn’t really good, I have to learn how to … 
  10. Beginning the Rains
     … And be prepared for the part of the mind that will whine and complain. You’ve got to see relinquishment not as deprivation, but as a trade up. You’re letting go of something that’s keeping you down. You’re not letting go of something that you really need. As meditators, as monks, we should try to travel lightly. When you’re going … 
  11. A Good-Natured Attitude
     … So as we practice, we have to learn to master the step of stepping back and looking at ourselves, not believing everything the mind tells itself. And one good way of developing this ability is to develop a sense of humor about yourself. They don’t talk about humor much in the Canon. In fact, I can’t think of any place where they … 
  12. Always Willing to Learn
     … Sometimes we do well in the practice, and the mind comes to a stop. The Buddha talks about cases where people get into the first jhāna and they get proud: They’ve got the first jhāna; other people around them don’t have the first jhāna. As the Buddha said, that destroys it right there. So you have to learn how to take joy … 
  13. A Good Narrative
     … When you train the mind, it really does accomplish something. But often we find it hard to keep up the effort. This is why pasada needs samvega, and samvega needs pasada. Without pasada, the samvega gets depressing. Without samvega, pasada starts getting Pollyanna-ish, and you start getting complacent. This is why the Buddha said that the way to the deathless is to contemplate … 
  14. Right Resolve
     … In this way you satisfy your immediate need for pleasure at the same time that you’re developing clarity in the mind. When our pleasure depends on harming other beings, we tend to have big blind spots around the harm we’re doing. We can think of all sorts of ways to justify the harm we cause to other beings or to other people … 
  15. Step Back
     … Often you’ll find that they’re things you believe in really intently, and part of the mind will resist the questioning. It says, “Well, of course this is the way things have to be; this is the way you have to look at it.” So you have to question the “of course” ideas, question your “of course” assumptions, starting as a thought experiment … 
  16. Breathe Easy
     … That way, the mind is less burdened, and it’s more able to deal with whatever the outside difficulties or inside difficulties are, because it has this constant source of food coming from the breath. Ajaan Fuang would comment on this often, on how the ability to breathe easy is a source of nourishment. You can have all the physical food you might want … 
  17. The Language of the Heart (2)
     … And the Dhamma’s talking directly about intimate aspects of the mind, intimate aspects of the heart. There were times when I’d describe a meditation experience to Ajaan Fuang and he’d explain it to me in different terms. Sometimes I’d be resistant. I’d say to myself, “Well, no, it actually seems this way to me.” I didn’t actually say … 
  18. Selfing & Not-selfing
     … Suppression is when you admit—freely admit—that, yes, there are unskillful things in the mind, but you’ve got to say No to them. And you can. The Buddha calls that restraint. Then you have to practice sublimation. In other words, you find other ways of channeling your desire for happiness in directions that are actually more skillful. The Buddha doesn’t have … 
  19. Self Esteem
     … So when you see the mind refusing to look at mistakes you’ve made in the past, you have to ask yourself, “What’s being threatened by the idea of looking at those mistakes?” Often you find that it’s your sense of self esteem, your sense of, “I’m basically a good person, I wouldn’t want to hurt people.” You don’t … 
  20. Sensitivity Through Generosity
     … That kind of sensitivity then gets turned into your own sensitivity to yourself – what the mind is doing, what it needs, and where and when it needs it. Because the most satisfying acts of generosity are the ones that are unexpected. You see an unexpected gap, and you’ve discovered in an unexpected way that you’ve got the means to fill in that … 
  21. To Disturb Your Complacency
     … are, what are you doing in relationship to them that’s making you suffer? In other words, he would have you take an inquisitive attitude toward what’s going on in the mind. After all, that’s how he found awakening, and that’s how we can all find awakening, too. If we’re not inquisitive, if we just sit there and say, “Well … 
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