Search results for: "The Mind"

  1. Page 183
  2. The Pleasure of Concentration
     … trying to develop the potentials we have for pleasure within the body, within the mind, here in the present moment. We work with the breath because of all the elements in the body, all the properties in the body, that’s the easiest to manipulate. You can think of breathing in long, and the body will breathe in long. You can think short, and … 
  3. Goodwill as Right View
     … That gets the mind in the right frame to sit down and meditate and not get entangled with a lot of the loose ends from the events of the day. Then when you come out of meditation, devote some time to goodwill again, this time for the sake of others. Your mind has greater strength when you’re coming out of concentration, and whatever … 
  4. Brahmaviharas & Noble Truths
     … Freedom comes when you can look at the mind as it fabricates things, and then step back from its fabrications. We do that as we develop the path, because right view, which is part of the path, encourages us to step back even from the path when it’s completely developed. As the Buddha said, of all the dhammas of the world that are … 
  5. Metta Means Goodwill
     … so you do everything you can to protect this attitude. So, as the Buddha says toward the end of the sutta, you should stay determined to practice this form of mindfulness: the mindfulness of keeping in mind your wish that all beings be happy, to make sure that it always informs the motivation for everything you do. Finally there’s another passage where the … 
  6. Respect as a Sign of Intelligence
     … You also realize in your own quest for true happiness that it’s going to require good qualities of the mind. It’s not something you get by being greedy or by mistreating other people. Now, there are pleasures you can get that way, but they don’t last. The lasting ones are the ones that come from being good: good in your generosity … 
  7. The Value of Effort
     … Otherwise, when you tell yourself to let go, the mind surreptitiously turns around and hangs on to something else. Remember this as you face some of the difficulties that come up in the practice—that they really are worth working through; they really are worth battling. This is why the Buddha used the image of the soldiers so many times in his teachings. And … 
  8. Reflecting on Karma
     … So as soon as you sense the mind is wandering off just a little bit, be right there, right there, right there. That’s what it means to be heedful and confident, putting aside greed and distress with reference to the world—in other words, being equanimous about the world as you focus on where you really can make a difference. Throughout the Buddha … 
  9. The Blood You’ve Shed
     … And the more the mind insists on trying to find closure, the more it weighs itself down and keeps itself entangled in that ongoing wandering on. So when we think about the whole issue of past lives, it’s good to think of it as a general principle, without getting into the details. It’s useful because it’s one way of getting out … 
  10. Finding Extra Energy
     … The Buddha said that with some of the causes of suffering in the mind, all you have to do is just watch them, and they go away. With others, you have to exert what he calls a fabrication. You have to look at the way you’re breathing around the issue. You have to look at the way you’re thinking about it, how … 
  11. The Path of Action
     … The basic value was the training of the mind. And what needed to be done in any particular situation depended a lot on his sensitivity to the situation. So these are the kind of skills we should try to develop among ourselves. Because they all form part of the path—in particular, right effort. We discussed this point today. There’s a teaching you … 
  12. Persistence
     … Just sit there and let the mind be like a big open sky with clouds floating in and floating out, without your doing anything at all, and that’s the unconditioned. But that’s not the unconditioned, and that wasn’t the Buddha’s approach. He said that you have to understand where effort is best applied. It’s like trying to get milk … 
  13. The Buddha’s Metaphysics
     … You see the allure — why the mind went for it — and you can also see the drawbacks. You get to the point where the drawbacks, in your eyes, so outweigh the allure that the allure no longer has any appeal. Then you can escape through dispassion. This also means is that if you go back to try to find where the bad habit began … 
  14. Resourceful
     … This is what the mindfulness is all about: to remember what we’re here for. We’re not here to entertain ourselves, we’re not here to play around. You play, but within the rules. Like any game, you have to know the rules if you’re going to get good at it. The rules here being: If you want to put an end … 
  15. Comfortable as an Outsider
     … You can be aware of the whole body with a sense of well-being throughout the whole body, calming the effect of the breath on the mind, calming your perceptions. These are things you can do. So when you find yourself getting discouraged or getting pulled into the questions of the world, remind yourself: What are the questions the Buddha would have you ask … 
  16. Wise about Happiness
     … When the Buddha talks about mindfulness as a governing principle, it means remembering to give rise to good qualities that are not there yet and to prevent them from falling away, so that the mind can get into concentration and taste a happiness that’s on a higher level. More lasting. More solid. Which can then form the basis for the rest of the … 
  17. Guilt & Shame
     … Whereas if you don’t have an expansive mindset, haven’t developed the mind in virtue and discernment, and you haven’t learned how not to be overcome by pleasure or pain, then your mind is like a small cup of water. You throw that large crystal of salt in, and you can’t drink the water. It’s too salty. So regardless of … 
  18. Alone & Together
     … and more connected. All you have to do is pick up your phone and you can be in conversation with anybody, anywhere. So there’s more and more of a bombardment. The mind gets more and more dependent on it; it feeds on that. That’s one thing you’ve got to cut down on. Tell yourself there’s a time and place for … 
  19. The Brightness of the World
     … When you’re able to let go of things outside—things that you don’t really need, things that you can share with others—it helps you to start reflecting on things inside the mind: the defilements you tend to hold on to—or your unwillingness to forgive someone. The best way to overcome stinginess, as the Buddha said, is to give a gift … 
  20. Lessons from the Buddha’s Awakening
     … 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 mind that keep you bound to this process of samsara. It was the result of that last knowledge that he, the Buddha … 
  21. The Six Properties
     … They not only give the mind a good place to settle down in the stillness of concentration, but they also help you gain insight into the way perception shapes your experience of the body, shapes your perception of what’s going on here in the present moment, seeing how fabricated it all is. You’ve got potentials coming in from past kamma, but you … 
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