Search results for: "Mindfulness"

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  2. Look Around as You Follow the Trail
     … Then you build on that as you see the qualities of the mind that get developed as you stay here. Let your mindfulness, your alertness, your ardency engage in directed thought and evaluation around the breath, so that the mind can get centered and concentrated on the breath. As you do that, you start seeing things in the mind, different activities of the mind … 
  3. Refuge
    Breathe in a way that the mind can settle down with. In the very beginning, this may mean taking good long, deep in-and-out breaths, to clear out all your energy channels and to make sure that the breath is perfectly obvious here in the present moment. As you settle in, allow the breath to get more subtle. You’ve got to create … 
  4. Mindfulness & Effort
    Pose the question in your mind, “What kind of breathing would feel good right now? What kind of breathing would feel nourishing?” And see how the body responds. If it doesn’t respond in any particular way, you can try adjusting the breath to see what kind of results you get. Think, “longer breathing,” and let the body breathe in a nice, long, deep … 
  5. At Home with the Breath
     … And it allows you to observe your mind more carefully, because there are still deeper levels of calm, deeper levels of well-being that come not just with getting the mind still, but with understanding what the mind is doing. This is why the Buddha’s central teaching is on kamma. It’s what we do that influences the extent to which we find … 
  6. The Duties of Happiness
     … Here, though, we’re creating a safe space where these different voices in the mind, these different members of the heart or the mind, can say their piece. It’s interesting: In Buddhism, they use the word citta to mean both heart and mind. They don’t divide it into two parts, between heart and mind, because all our mental processes are working for … 
  7. An Auspicious Day
    Take stock of your mind: Where is it right now? Is it leaning to the future? Leaning to the past? Try to bring it right here, right at the breath. That’s where the body and the mind meet. If you want to observe the body and to observe the mind, the breath is a good place to stay, because you can see influences … 
  8. The Buddha’s Qualities
    The chants we just had are designed to get the mind in the right mood for meditating. We chant about the Buddha, the Dhamma, and the Sangha to remind ourselves of the values behind the practice. Some people have characterized Buddhism as a religion no need for faith. Well, there is an element of faith, an element of belief, believing that the Buddha was … 
  9. W.W.B.R.
    There are times when you sit down to focus on the breath and the mind is right there, and it takes to the breath. Ajaan Fuang would say that the mind takes to the breath in the same way a kite takes to the wind. You spread your awareness through the body and it stays there. You get interested in how the breath energy … 
  10. Joy in Getting It Right
    Joy in Getting It Right August 16, 2022 When you meditate, you’re watching your mind, so you want to give yourself a good mind to watch—“good” not in the sense of being smart with book learning, but more in the sense of having good qualities of the heart—a mind that’s used to acting on impulses for generosity, virtue, and goodwill … 
  11. Goodness Comes from Heedfulness
    One of the first lessons you learn as you meditate is how tricky and disobedient your mind can be. You make up the mind you’re going to stay with the breath, and five minutes later you find yourself someplace else, thinking about the past, thinking about the future, anything but the breath. If you try to trace it back, it’s hard to … 
  12. Death Is Normal
     … When you meditate to you dedicate merit, try to be really strict with yourself that you’re going to make your mind One as much as you can. The values of the mind are, in some ways, inverse to the values of the world. In the world, the more things you have, the better. For the mind, it’s not the case that the … 
  13. Honest & Observant
     … the mind. It’s the mind that creates the intentions, and the intentions are what make the difference between what does and doesn’t fall under the precepts. In fact, one time he said he himself observed one precept, which was the mind: Keep the mind in good shape, keep the mind skillful, and you don’t have to worry about acting in unskillful … 
  14. Metacognition
    The Thai ajaans often say that when you begin meditating, you should take stock of your mind. In other words, pull back a little bit and look at which direction your mind is leaning. Does it have a lot of energy or just a little energy? Is it thinking thoughts about the past, thoughts about the future? Things it likes, things it doesn’t … 
  15. Happy to Be Here
     … You’re developing good qualities in the mind. *Mindfulness, *the ability to keep something in mind. Alertness, the ability to watch what you’re doing. And ardency, the desire to do this well. When you’ve got those three qualities working together, you can apply them to any task and they help the task go well. But particularly here with the mind, they’re … 
  16. Tranquility & Insight with the Breath
     … This also enables you to understand what’s going on in the mind, because there are many levels of fabrication in the mind. The mind puts things together on many levels. It’s like a big corporation with lots of different people contributing this little piece or that little piece to the final job. Sometimes they’re doing totally separate jobs, sometimes there’s … 
  17. The Most Important Thing to Be Doing
     … getting your mind trained, getting the mind to settle down, so that it has a sense of well-being and is able to see itself clearly—so that it can take care of business inside. Empires rise and fall, but the mind remains. That’s got to be your perspective. Because the mind remains not only through the death of the body but through … 
  18. A Home for the Mind
     … Where do your actions come from? They come from the mind. And if the mind isn’t well trained, it can destroy its own happiness very easily. That’s why we’re here training the mind. These are the values of the Buddha, the Dhamma, and the Sangha. This is what the Buddha discovered in his awakening; this was the Dhamma he taught. This … 
  19. The Path of Happiness
     … When you focus on the breath, then you get to your own mind. Once you get to your own mind, we can talk about the mind without having to bring any particular religion into it. That way, we can talk and understand each other.” So focus on your breath. Notice when it’s coming in; notice when it’s going out. Notice how it … 
  20. Dispassion Isn’t Depression
     … Particularly, actions of the mind. This is why we meditate—and why, when we meditate, we focus on the mind. In other religions, they meditate on God or some abstract principle, but here we’re meditating on what the mind is doing, because what the mind is doing is going to make all the difference between suffering and not. What you’re doing right … 
  21. Why We Meditate
     … The change has to come from learning how to control your mind so that you can observe it. This is why we meditate, trying to exert some sort of control over the mind, keeping it mindful. In other words, you try to keep the breath in mind and you keep alert, watching to see what the mind is doing. It’s only then that … 
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