Search results for: "Mindfulness"

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  2. Bojjhanga: Discernment Fosters Concentration
     … You have to understand the mind to a certain extent to get it to settle down. And to see things really clearly, the mind needs to be still. So you use what discernment you’ve learned in the past or learned from Dhamma talks and apply it to stilling the mind. Then, once the mind is still, you can start seeing things for your … 
  3. Determined to Stay with the Breath
    When you meditate, you’re making up your mind that you’re going to focus on one topic. And that phrase “making up your mind” means that you’re going to have to deal with all the different contrary impulses there may be in the mind. When you tell yourself that you’re going to focus on the breath for the next hour, what … 
  4. Don’t Clap Hands with Pain
     … As he said, once you learn not to cling, then even painful feelings don’t need to have an impact on the mind. The mind experiences them as something separate, he says. That’s the way it naturally is for an arahant. But we can work in that direction by training our minds to step back a little bit from the pain and comprehend … 
  5. Questioning the Hindrances
    There’s an interesting passage where the Buddha says that you need both tranquility and insight in order to get the mind into right concentration. The Pali terms are: for tranquility, samatha and insight, vipassana. You need them both for there to be right concentration. This goes against the idea you sometimes hear that the Buddha taught two very distinct kinds of meditation. One … 
  6. Perfecting the Mind in an Imperfect World
     … That way you find you gain greater and greater unity in the mind, greater unanimity in the mind. When the mind is working together like this, then it develops a lot of strength. If you have a lot of unexamined thoughts and unexamined assumptions still sloshing around in the mind, they’re going to drag you down. You can’t gain awakening simply through … 
  7. Strength of Concentration
     … So even though when concentration is defined as a strength, it’s said to be that you bring the mind to singleness of mind with the purpose of letting go, the question is: 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 … 
  8. Right Action & Right Livelihood
     … So, for the livelihood of the mind, for the strength of the mind, this is where you want to look: getting the mind centered, learning how to relate to the body in a way where you feel at home with the body, at home with the breath, nourished and well supported. This is your livelihood for the mind. These are some of the ways … 
  9. Endurance Training
     … Breathe in a way that gives the mind strength. Develop good qualities in the mind. When we meditate, we’re feeding the mind, but at the same time, we’re exercising it. Now, if the mind just feeds, feeds, feeds, that’s the image for clinging. You feed off something but you don’t get any genuine nourishment out of it. But as we … 
  10. Stay with the Breath
     … And a mind that can’t settle down is a mind that’s going to wear itself out. So it’s healing for the mind simply be able to stay here with this comfortable sensation of the breathing. Whatever thoughts come to the mind, you don’t have to pay them any attention. Your only duty is to stay right here and allow this … 
  11. 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 … 
  12. 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 … 
  13. 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 … 
  14. 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 … 
  15. 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 … 
  16. 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 … 
  17. 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 … 
  18. 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 … 
  19. 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 … 
  20. 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 … 
  21. 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 … 
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