Search results for: "The Mind"

  1. Page 23
  2. Specifics
     … There is a part of the mind that doesn’t want to be angry, a part of the mind that doesn’t want to lust, yet it gets stunted because it’s given only a little corner of the mind in which to hide. So when one type of desire comes up, ask yourself: What about the desire for the opposite thing, the desire … 
  3. Three Virtues for the Mind
    When we think about the precepts, we tend to think about the five precepts dealing with actions of the body and the words we say, but there’s also a list of precepts for the mind. It involves three things: avoiding excessive greed, avoiding ill will, and developing right view. This is part of what we’re doing as we meditate: developing these virtues … 
  4. WYSIWYG
     … There are so many intentions lurking around in the mind that shape what we’re doing, shape what we’re thinking. And we are responsible for them, even though we may only be vaguely aware of them. There’s a passage where the Buddha says that the fabrications in the mind have a karmic impact whether you do them of your own accord or … 
  5. The Skill of Renunciation
     … You’re trying to learn a skill, the skill of giving the mind a good place to stay, a good foundation inside. You can think about other things any other time of the day, but for right now you want to give the mind some time for itself. That’s because the sufferings that weigh down the mind, the stresses that weigh down the … 
  6. Your Tranquility & Your Insight
     … How to regard fabrications? How to investigate them? How to see them with insight? Regarding them as fabrications basically means seeing them as events in the mind. Doubts come into the mind, restless thoughts come into the mind, lustful thoughts come into the mind, and we tend to just jump into them. They become little becomings. A thought-world appears, there’s something you … 
  7. Investing in Noble Wealth
     … the qualities you’ve built into the mind. This is why we spend so much time working with the mind. Because the effort expended here, the time and effort invested here, are time and effort well-spent. If you’re not developing good qualities of the mind, you’re developing bad qualities. We don’t like to think about that. We think of the … 
  8. Becoming Consummate
     … You have to be wary about what the mind cooks up. You can’t believe everything that comes into your own mind, because there are skillful qualities and unskillful qualities, the qualities the Buddha calls asavas, fermentations or effluents, things that come flowing out of the mind: sensual desire, becoming—these little worlds that the mind creates for itself and then inhabits—views, and … 
  9. The Missing Fabrication
     … When the Buddha talks about gladdening the mind, sometimes you have to talk to it. When he talks about concentrating the mind, you talk to it. In both cases, you talk to it until you’ve achieved what you want. The mind feels refreshed. The mind feels steady. Then you can stop the talking. But you don’t simply calm verbal fabrication for the … 
  10. Strength of Concentration
     … How do you first bring the mind to singleness? The Buddha’s definition is warning us that the purpose of concentration is not to build up powers. They do happen to some people; they don’t happen to others. But if you make your purpose building up certain powers, then, as you get the mind concentrated, if the mind is not already well-settled … 
  11. Wide-open Awareness
     … But when you stay with the breath, the mind has a foundation. You begin to notice that when certain kinds of thoughts come into the mind they cause a tensing up. They really do cause parts of the mind to shut off from other parts of the mind. That allows for the mind’s tendency to deceive itself. It’s like when you were … 
  12. Luminous
    There’s a passage where the Buddha says that the reason why we can train the mind is because it’s luminous. Now, luminous here doesn’t mean that it’s pure. If it were already pure, there’d be no need to train it. We can train it because it can observe itself. It can see what it’s doing, reflect on what … 
  13. Sensuality Is a Fetter
     … The Buddha went on to say that all those varieties of animals come from the mind. You could be any of those animals; you probably have been many of those animals. Yet the Buddha said even that great variety is smaller than the variety of the mind itself. For a lot of us, sensuality is how we exercise our freedom to think, our freedom … 
  14. Balancing Tranquility & Insight
     … One is getting the mind to be still, and the other is giving rise to insight. And for them, these are very sharply divided. In order to get the mind still, you simply just force it to stay with one thing and don’t allow it to think at all. Then when it’s rested, then you allow it to do some thinking. Give … 
  15. Conviction in Charge
     … You have to keep in mind the fact that you have to be very picky about what you choose to follow in the mind. When you choose the right voices, the mind can settle down: Choose the voices that say that it’s good to have the mind still. It’s good to have the mind solid and unperturbed. Because there are other voices … 
  16. Strength for Stillness
     … When the mind finally does stay with the breath and it seems like it’s settling down, then you’re more like a musician. There’s less need to persuade the mind to actually stay here. The use of your memory and your will gets a lot more fine-tuned: Just remembering enough to keep the mind with the breath and willing it just … 
  17. People Suffer from Their Thinking
     … It’s not a matter of forcing the mind to stay with the breath no matter what. If you put too much force on the mind like that, it’s going to rebel. It’s like trying to hold a beach ball under water. As soon as your grip loosens up a bit, the ball goes shooting up out of the water. What you … 
  18. A Home for the Mind
     … It’s not the case that when you get the mind to become still you’re just stuck in concentration and can’t gain any discernment. In the process of bringing the mind to concentration, you learn something about the mind; in the process of protecting that state of stillness, you’re going to learn a lot about the mind as well. You begin … 
  19. Guardian Meditations
     … When you bring up these topics, what reaction is there in the mind? Which part of the mind fights against that particular topic? You want to look into that, because that may be part of the problem why the mind can’t settle down. When you can convince yourself that, Yes, you really do agree with the Buddha on these topics, that gives you … 
  20. Judging Mindfulness & Concentration
     … That’s how you get the mind to settle down. You’ve got to be alert both to the thoughts that are related to the breath and to any tendency to wander off. Bring the mind right back. Bring the mind right back. And when you come back, reward the mind. Breathe in a way that feels really good, really satisfying. As I’ve … 
  21. On Not Twisting the Cow’s Horn
     … We want to see the subtle things because the subtle things are what drive the mind. If you don’t dig them out, they’re going to stay there and keep driving the mind. We’re not here just to accept the fact that they’re driving the mind. We want to put an end to it because these subtle things can grow into … 
  22. Load next page...