Search results for: "Mindfulness"

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  2. Staying in Position
     … Keeping the mind in position means that whatever else comes up in the mind, you don’t go after it. When a thought comes passing in, just let it go passing on. You don’t have to chase it down. You don’t have to complete it. All too often, a half-finished thought arises in the mind, and for some reason we feel … 
  3. How to Read Yourself
    One of the most necessary skills you have to develop as a meditator is learning how to read your own mind. Where is it right now? What shape is it in? What does it need? In Pali, this is called attaññu, having a sense of yourself. Often we’re pretty bad at it. When things are going well, we get complacent. We think nothing … 
  4. The Buddha Defines Wisdom
     … As for the ability to control the ways of the mind and to get the mind into jhana, those both come from two very simple principles. One is the realization that the mind needs to be trained. You can’t just sit there and watch it coming and going, thinking this, thinking that, and then thinking that wisdom lies in \ allowing the mind to … 
  5. Facing Danger & Hardship
     … But still, it’s largely a matter of training your mind. And Sariputta talks about four qualities that are worth training in. You try to develop your mindfulness and keep it relentless. In other words, always keep in mind the Buddha’s teachings on how to deal with hardships. Second, try to make your concentration well-established. Third, develop tranquility, and fourth, put forth … 
  6. Responsible for Your Actions
     … It’s like sorting through the committee of your mind and figuring out who should actually have the right to vote and who should not. To do this, you have to be mindful to keep that perspective in mind, that you want to look at your thoughts not simply in terms of what you like or don’t like but where they come from … 
  7. Mindfulness the Gatekeeper
    The Buddha’s instructions for getting the mind into concentration are in his descriptions of right mindfulness. For example, the body: You keep focused on the body in and of itself—ardent, alert, and mindful—putting aside greed and distress with reference to the world. The “body in itself” here means the body simply as its sitting here right now. You don’t think … 
  8. May I Look After Myself with Ease
     … We have to take very good care of the mind because it’s going to be our refuge. When the Buddha says, “The self is its own refuge,” he’s referring primarily to the mind. We have to create good qualities of the mind so that the mind doesn’t get frazzled and frayed, doesn’t become its own worst enemy. You want the … 
  9. Asalha Puja – Completeness
     … If you see a situation calls for a certain kind of action that would help alleviate suffering in the mind, you go in that direction. That’s how you achieve completeness in the mind. Otherwise, the mind is always going to be lacking. It’s always going to be hungry. When the mind is hungry, you can’t trust it. It’s going to … 
  10. Make a Difference
     … That’s when you get the mind into the second jhana. You’ve done your work in adjusting the mind, you’ve done your work in adjusting the breath, and they fit. All you need to keep the mind with the breath is just the perception of breath, or the perception of oneness with the breath. This is like going even beyond being a … 
  11. Stay
     … giving the mind a firm post fixed to the ground so that you can see the movements of the mind. In other words, when the mind moves, it usually can’t see its own movements. But if you give it something nearby to focus on, then you begin to get a sense of when the mind is present and when it’s going off … 
  12. Think of the Consequences
     … The mind lies to itself. Ajaan Chah once had an interesting statement. He said that watching the mind means trying to catch the mind lying to itself. It’s not just a matter of watching things come and go and being okay with their coming and going. You have to be able to see where the mind is lying, because that’s what the … 
  13. Feeding on the Breath
    Feeding on the Breath July 25, 2012 The mind’s basic habit is that it’s constantly feeding. Just as the body feeds on physical food, the mind feeds on sensory contact, its awareness of things at the senses—sights, sounds, smells, tastes, tactile sensations, and ideas—and its intentions with regard to these things. It’s always trying to fix its food. So … 
  14. Lessons from Generosity & Virtue
    When you make up your mind to stay with the breath, one of the first things you learn is that your mind probably isn’t as made up as you thought it was. There are many minds in there, many ideas of what you could be doing with this next hour. So when you have that original intention to stay there, you’ve got … 
  15. Don’t Worry, Be Focused
    Don’t Worry, Be Focused December 27, 2011 In several passages in the Canon, the Buddha says that the main thing to keep in mind if you suddenly find yourself approaching death is not to worry. Now, he’s not saying don’t worry about the state of your mind; or don’t worry, everything is going to be okay; or don’t worry … 
  16. Training Heart & Mind
     … You’re trying to develop the mind, develop the heart—because the Pali word for mind, *citta, *also means heart. You’re working on qualities of heart and mind, and you start with a very simple exercise, staying with the breath. Watch the breath as it comes in; watch it as it goes out. You can focus on any part of the body where … 
  17. Learning by Doing
     … In the meantime, try to get to know this process of getting the mind into concentration, keeping it in concentration—because that’s how you come to understand the mind. Some people think that you get the mind quiet first and then you do vispassana, which requires that you switch to another topic entirely. But that’s not how the Buddha taught, and that … 
  18. Doing Aggregates
     … Work with the breath to make it comfortable so that the mind likes to come back, and be on the lookout for when the mind is ready to go off. Notice how it does it. When you can begin to anticipate that the mind is about to look for something else, that’s when you begin to see the workings of the mind. In … 
  19. Beneficial Thinking
    The mind isn’t something that you can push around roughly. If you want it to stay in place, you have to make it want to stay in place. Which is why, in the beginning of concentration, you don’t just order the mind not to think. You know it’s going to think. It has to have its reasons for doing things. So … 
  20. Different Minds, Different Bodies
    Each time you meditate, remember you’re bringing a different mind to the session. It may not be the same mind you brought to your last session. And you’re bringing in a different body, too. In other words, the state of the mind and the state of the body can change over time, sometimes quite radically in the course of a few hours … 
  21. An End to Suffering
     … This gives the mind at least something of a foundation. You’ve got at least a scrap of a place to stand. It’s better than having no place to stand at all and just being swept away by the currents of the mind. So work on that. And then hold onto whatever sense of presence of mind, whatever sense of mindfulness you can … 
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