Search results for: "Mindfulness"

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  2. Craving & Clinging
     … Sending the mind outside, he said, was the cause of suffering. Suffering was the result of sending the mind outside. The mind seeing the mind is the path, and the result of the mind seeing itself was the cessation of suffering. His explanation fits in with a theme that you see again and again in the teachings of the forest ajaans: that the mind … 
  3. Why Now
     … Are you really with the breath? Are you really sensitive to the breath? In other words, are you ardent in your practice? These are the three qualities that the Buddha said go into mindfulness. And then, from mindfulness they lead the mind into concentration. You’re mindful, i.e., you keep something in mind. In this case, you keep in mind the fact that … 
  4. Breath Meditation: The Third Tetrad
     … Then you try to calm that impact so that the mind grows more solid and still. Those two tetrads give you the background for dealing with the third tetrad, which is being sensitive to the state of your mind. It starts with that instruction: Breathe in sensitive to the mind. Breathe out sensitive to the mind. Where’s your mind right now? What state … 
  5. Toughen & Tenderize the Mind
    There’s a paradox in the way the Buddha talks about a trained mind. On the one hand, the trained mind is sensitive—in his words, malleable, tender. And, on the other hand, it’s unshakeable. It’s strong. Tough. So how do those two qualities go together? They’re both desirable. On the one hand, you want the mind to be sensitive to … 
  6. Working Ourselves Free
     … You see how mindfulness lapses, how the mind throws up little walls of ignorance so that it can do things without acknowledging them. That’s a lot of the problem right there: these barriers the mind sets up inside itself, like little screens to hide things from itself. It’s a peculiar habit we have. One part of the mind is lying to another … 
  7. Mindfulness Like a Dam
    Mindfulness Like a Dam August 10, 2017 Upasika Kee has an analogy where she compares mindfulness to a dam across a river. This goes against our usual picture of mindfulness as an open, allowing state of mind that allows everything to flow. But her understanding of mindfulness is closer to what the Buddha talked about. It’s a way of exercising restraint over the … 
  8. The Heightened Mind
     … So when you think of heightening your mind, as I said, the main meaning has to do with getting the mind into concentration, but you can heighten it further by developing your discernment. Ajaan Fuang would often say that when the mind is in concentration and has settled in for a while, you lift your mind above your mind. In other words, you realize … 
  9. Strength of Mind
     … Where do your actions come from? They come from the mind. So you’ve got to train the mind so that your actions will be skillful. That means we’re doing good groundwork here. You remember to stay with the mind, that’s mindfulness. You’re alert to what the breath is doing, you’re alert to what the mind is doing. That’s … 
  10. Clear of Defilement
     … The mind that used to be so clear is beginning to get a little murky.” And try to regard the clear state of mind as normalcy in the mind. Upasika Kee talks a lot about this: getting the mind into a state of normalcy. Some people misunderstand it. They say, “Oh, she’s talking about just an ordinary old state of mind.” But she … 
  11. Mindful Judgment
    We meditate because the mind needs to be developed, or the good qualities in the mind need to be developed. The word for meditation in Pali, bhavana, means literally that: development, bringing things into being, or taking what’s already there and strengthening it. Mindfulness, alertness, concentration, discernment: These are all things we have to some extent, and what we’re doing is learning … 
  12. The Radiant Mind
    The Radiant Mind March 22, 2023 This mind is radiant, the Buddha said, but it’s darkened by passing defilements. So exactly where does that radiance lie? He’s not saying that the mind is innately pure. Ajaan Maha Boowa makes this point very clear. If the mind were innately pure, then how did it get defiled? And if a pure mind can be … 
  13. Taking Your Own Medicine
    Meditation is like medicine for the mind. The mind gets a chance to rest, recover from its illnesses, recover from whatever damage that’s been done to it, just by allowing it to stay with the breath. There’s a passage where the Buddha said there’s no happiness other than peace. There’s no health for the mind, either, unless it has a … 
  14. Doing Nothing
     … One day, Ajaan Mun asked him how his practice was going, and Ajaan Suwat had to admit that his mind was all over the place. He felt very embarrassed, but Ajaan Mun said, “Well, at least you know your mind is all over the place. You know it’s wandering around. That much is a step in training mindfulness: knowing the distracted mind as … 
  15. Training the Whole Mind
    Training the Whole Mind June, 2001 When we train the mind, it’s not just a question of using a meditation technique to bludgeon the mind into the present moment. If that’s our approach, the mind is going to start rebelling, finding ways of slipping around our defenses, because there are times when the meditation technique is right for the situation and times … 
  16. Change Your Mind
    There’s a passage where the Buddha talks about taking mindfulness as a governing principle in your practice. What’s interesting about the passage is that he talks about being mindful to give rise to skillful states, and to protect the skillful states that you’ve already given risen to. Instead of just watching things arise and pass away, you’re trying to give … 
  17. Lessons from Stilling the Mind
     … As I said earlier today, if you’re going to watch your mind, the best mind to watch is a good mind—in other words, a mind that’s been doing good things, being generous, being virtuous, extending thoughts of goodwill to everybody. That kind of mind is easy to watch. You’re happy to watch it. Then you start taking it apart, so … 
  18. Breath Meditation, Step by Step
     … The reason we spread thoughts of goodwill is to provide a comfortable place for the mind, comfortable thoughts for the mind. The next step in bringing the mind into position is to make it comfortable with the body, because that’s what you’ve got sitting here right now. And it’s a long tradition in the Buddha’s teachings that the mind can … 
  19. Learning Through Healing
    The mind has its illnesses—and I’m not talking about the kind of things that put you in a mental hospital. It has its greed, aversion, delusion. It wears itself out with these things. And so we come here for the Buddha’s treatment. As we’re sitting here meditating, the first part of the treatment is to get the mind to settle … 
  20. Mindfulness of Breathing: Four in One
     … It’s when things are not going well—in other words, the mind isn’t staying with the breath or there’s no feeling of pleasure—that’s when it’s good to analyze things. This is why, in the factors for awakening—the qualities that help turn mindfulness into concentration—analysis of qualities comes right after mindfulness. As you’re mindful of the … 
  21. The Heightened Mind
     … So, it’s important to keep that perspective in mind. As you practice mindfulness in daily life, that should be one of the things you’re mindful of—the larger perspective, the heightened perspective. After all, we’re working on the heightened mind. Adhicitte ca ayogo: Devotion to the heightened mind. *Etam buddhana sasanam: *That’s the teaching of the Buddha’s. As you … 
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