Search results for: "The Mind"
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- Ignorance… But once you realize that there’s suffering, you look for what you’re doing that’s causing the suffering, what else arises in the mind at the same time as that suffering or stress. In particular, you look for where the craving is, what kind of craving it is – it can be sensual craving, craving for a state of becoming, or craving to …
- The Basic Pattern… The Pali word for meditation, bhavana, means “to develop”—to develop good qualities in the mind. And it’s important to look at the qualities that the Buddha’s recommending that his son develop. The discourse starts with a passage on truthfulness. You get the feeling that his son, Rahula, probably lied during the day. When the Buddha comes to see him that evening …
- Strategic Thinking… That’s called verbal fabrication, because that’s how we create sentences in the mind. Finally, feelings of pleasure develop around that, and we maintain that perception of breath: Feelings and perceptions are mental fabrication. So you’ve got all forms of fabrication right here, where you can learn how to manipulate them skillfully. Once you learn how to manipulate them skillfully while sitting …
- Unburdensome, Part 2… So in this case, when you see the stress and suffering you’re causing, that’s when the mind will be open to listen to what the Buddha has to say about how to put an end to it. And he’s saying to look at the areas where you’re most attached, the areas where you can have the most justification for your …
- Afraid of Inner Pleasure… This is *the *basic message of the four noble truths, that the suffering we experience in the world, the suffering that really weighs down the mind, comes from inside. People can be cruel outside; people can do horrible things outside. And they do. But it’s how you respond, how you process that: That’s what makes you suffer. This is why we hear …
- Equanimity as a Skill… You accept the way things function in terms of your actions and then you train the mind to use that principle of cause and effect to create a path. Equanimity is part of that path, but it’s not the whole path—and it’s not the goal. Recently I heard of a monk trained in the forest tradition saying that equanimity was the …
- How to Read the Dhamma… It’s an illustration of the causal principle that he finally realized lay at the center of the issue of training the mind, which is that some causes arise together with their effects and disappear together with their effects. In other cases, the effects come after the cause and disappear after the cause has disappeared. This means that your actions do exert influences over …
- Look After Yourself with Ease… But I had to tell him, “Look, this is natural, it’s part of being a human being, the body is a burden.” “But the mind doesn’t have to be a burden.” In that case, I was able to talk to him, which made the whole experience a lot less burdensome for me. But you see cases where people are so sick, so …
- Worldly Effort… They say not only does it bring peace to the mind right here and now, but if you die, if you’ve attained any of the levels of jhana, that’s where you go—the Brahma worlds corresponding to the jhānas, and you stay there. They talk in the Canon about Brahmās who think that their worlds are totally eternal, that once you get …
- The Armored Car… You’re simply reinforcing old ruts, old bad habits, in the mind. The more you give in, give in, give in to your defilements, the harder it becomes to follow the path. So you really do have to make that effort. It may seem as if you’re making it hard for yourself now, but even if it is hard now, it’s going …
- The True Dhamma Has Disappeared… When you get the mind really still and you think that everything is totally still and there’s nothing going on in there, watch, look, be very careful, be very discerning. You think you’ve gone beyond time and space? Well, look around. Is there any inconstancy in that state of mind? Any little blips here or there? If there’s a blip, what …
- Dhamma for Laypeople… Just one week of this and it’s going to get rid of your lust.” A lot of these teachings go against the grain, but they’re skills we need to develop repeatedly because the mind tends to go so heavily in the other direction. This is why we have to practice again and again. Meditation is like learning a second language. Our first …
- The Brahmavihāras Aren’t Enough… There comes a point where you have to start analyzing what’s going on in the mind. This is the message in another sutta where a man comes to see Ven. Ānanda and asks him, “What is the door to the deathless?” Ānanda gives him eleven doors, saying that you can focus on any the four jhānas, the four brahmavihāras, or the first three …
- Strength from the Basics… You train the mind to focus just on one thing, the breath. How many thousands and thousands of people have been focusing on the breath? Millions of people have been focusing on the breath over the past centuries, and you’re willing to follow their example. This is where the Sangha comes in as another example. This is for people who are willing to …
- Not-self… Yesterday someone asked me, “How can you say that we identify with things that we think we control when we find ourselves identifying with fear?” Well, you’re identifying with whatever the mind comes up with. In the process of identifying with that, then whatever it comes up with, you’re going to be stuck with. If you try to destroy that identity, you …
- Not-self for the Sake of Happiness… It’s only when you accept the Buddha’s analysis of how true happiness is found, and what true suffering is, that the not-self teaching will make sense—and will have power within the mind. This is one of the reasons why the Buddha is so adamant about focusing on the negative side of worldly pleasures to let you realize that what you …
- Faith… You’ve got to get the mind together and you’ve got to be convinced that this is really worth doing. In spite of how slow it may seem, or in spite of the setbacks you may run into, remember the teaching on karma: Karma is complex. So have some faith in that teaching. Look at the people who have had faith in that …
- The Happiness & Suffering of Others… watching the mind directly as we’re meditating, and then watching other people as we deal with them. It helps if you have a foundation of strength inside as you’re watching others, so you don’t feel quite so threatened. But it’s the observation that allows you to understand where other people are coming from—so that you’re not dealing with …
- A Confident Ego… It doesn’t harm you, doesn’t cloud the mind, doesn’t harm anybody else. You’re sitting here just breathing, but you’re able to find pleasure in that. And if you develop that skill, it becomes an important tool in your arsenal when you’re dealing with obstreperous emotions—the ones that constantly want to be fed, that want their pleasures right …
- Right View about Right View… In which ways is it going to have a bad effect on my mind?” That’s what you always want to look at: “What is the effect that this has on the mind?” If you see that it gives rise to passion, well, you treat it the same way you treat any pleasure or pain: “How does it relate to the duties of the …
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