Search results for: "Mindfulness"

  1. Page 190
  2. The Kathina
     … But we have some time now to stop and settle our minds after all the activity of the day. It’s all about a piece of cloth, but of course it’s about more than just a piece of cloth. It’s about cooperation: getting the donations together, hosting the event, cleaning up, taking the cloth and making it into a robe. All these … 
  3. Anumodana
     … It’s because basically you feel bad about enjoying things, but if you feel bad about enjoying things yourself, then how are you going to feel good about other people enjoying things? How are you going to want to make other people have joy? The mind just shrivels up, the heart shrivels up, with an attitude like that. So to nourish the heart, it … 
  4. Customs of the Noble Ones
     … And you’re fascinated by the puzzle, because what could be more fascinating than the way the mind lies to itself, and then searching it out and uncovering the lies? This is your own mind, and it’s been deceiving you. So you want to be able to look through the deceits, trace them down. And take some joy in this. There is joy … 
  5. Trust Your Desire for Happiness
     … After all, the mind does have a tendency to wander off to the past, wander off to the future, without being conscious of what it’s doing. The wandering itself is not bad. You have to think about the past and about the future at times. If you didn’t, you wouldn’t be able to make sense of anything. But it’s important … 
  6. Goodness & Goodwill
     … Some people may appear in your mind, like a political figure or someone else in your own personal life. Ask yourself, “What do you gain from having ill will for that person?” We don’t usually like to think of ourselves as having ill will for anybody. But if we think about someone doing something bad and we hope that they’ll get punished … 
  7. Borrowed Goods
     … You’re holding a perception in mind. When the breath comes in, *how *does it come in? What are the routes in the body? And when you think about the breath energy, how does it relate to the in-and-out breath? How many levels of breath energy are there in the body? Ajaan Lee has many different analyses of the different levels. How … 
  8. Free from Animosity
     … We draw it into the mind, where it reverberates again and again and again. That’s the suffering. We feed on our suffering. That’s what’s so ironic in the way that the Buddha sees suffering: The things that we feed on, the things that we like, the things we hold on to, are the things that are causing us to suffer. And … 
  9. The Real World
     … They train the mind in the right direction. And there’s happiness at the same time. When you dedicate merit, you’re hoping to share that happiness with others. Of course, happiness isn’t something you can take out of your heart and put into someone else’s heart. But often just the thought that you’re thinking of them makes them happy when … 
  10. Goodwill as a Strength
     … And it’s important that we keep that in mind. We live in troubled times, with a lot of injustice going on around us, a lot of danger, a lot of really misguided people. And we have to remember that in our dealings with those people, no matter how bad they get, we have to maintain our goodwill. And that’s our strength. Because … 
  11. The Psychology of Self
     … In other words, think of their happiness, think of what would cause them true happiness, and work for that, keep that in mind. After all, if your happiness depends on their suffering or their doing unskillful things, they’re not going to stand for it. They’re going to resent it and try to do what they can to destroy your happiness. So for … 
  12. A Sense of Humor
     … This is something you want to keep in mind as you practice. Are you able to laugh at yourself? The ability to laugh at yourself implies some distance, the ability to step back and look at yourself from an outside perspective. The Greeks have a saying: “It’s the gods who laugh.” In other words, lots of stories from a human perspective are pretty … 
  13. Ego
     … It’s the Buddhist strategy for sublimation, to give the mind a sense of wellbeing that’s blameless, that’s reliable. In the beginning, it’s not all that reliable, but over time you can turn it into a skill. Then, once it’s a skill, you can tap into it whenever you need it. When you think about the ease and wellbeing that … 
  14. The Beginnings of Wisdom
     … It’s important to keep that point in mind, especially when we listen to the teachings on inconstancy or impermanence. Remember that the desire for long-term happiness provides the framework for understanding how to use the teachings on inconstancy, because a lot of people get it the other way around. They say that wisdom starts with seeing how everything is inconstant. Then, from … 
  15. A Good Buddhist Ego
     … You get the mind into concentration and you don’t think about the fact that you’re doing the concentration, it’s just a process that you’ve mastered so smoothly by that point it becomes almost automatic. Your sense of self is not called into question. There’s nothing to obstruct what you want to do. It’s when you meet up with … 
  16. Feed the Hungry Mind
    If you’ve ever read any Western philosophy and then some ancient Indian philosophy, you notice that they’re operating on very different models. Western philosophy is mainly concerned with how the world looks to your sense of sight. Input comes in through the eyes, and then you have to do some building and some constructing to make sense out of it. But the … 
  17. A Decent Education
     … Get so that pain holds no mysteries for you, holds no fear, because you understand not only the sensation of pain but also how the mind can latch onto it and create problems around it. Then you learn to abstain from those ways of latching on. It’s like knowing that when you stick your finger into a flame it’s going to burn … 
  18. Opting Out
     … So, as we meditate here, keep that in mind: We’re nobody’s servant, and this is an act of independence. You’re learning to be independent of your defilements, independent of any clinging to anything in the world. When you take the precepts, they’re not taken with the idea, “I’ll do this only when it’s convenient. I’ll refrain from … 
  19. Choosing a Teacher
     … The sutta doesn’t define what “dealings” are meant in this context, but two things come to mind. One is simply trade, making exchanges. Does the person make fair exchanges, or does he try to take advantage of the other side? The other issue concerns arguments. If you have a debate with someone, you get a sense pretty quickly as to whether they’re … 
  20. You Can Do It
     … Whenever doubts come up in the mind, remind yourself: You’re a human being. What do you need beyond being a human being in order to mediate? You need some persistence and you need some truthfulness, so you stick with it. These are two qualities that are emphasized over and over in the forest tradition: that if you stick with this quest for true … 
  21. Compassion for People on Fire
     … It lifts the mind. You’re looking for a happiness in a place where you don’t have to fight anybody else off. No one’s going to come in and try to push you out of the way to watch your breath. It’s yours. And it does have a great potential. As the Buddha said, we have the potential for pleasure in … 
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