Search results for: "Mindfulness"

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  2. 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 … 
  3. 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 … 
  4. 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 … 
  5. 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 … 
  6. 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 … 
  7. 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 … 
  8. 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 … 
  9. 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 … 
  10. 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 … 
  11. A Real Education
     … One of the first skills you have to learn is that not everything coming into the mind is worthy of attention. And things are not going to be perfectly quiet right from the start. So no matter what the mind is thinking about in the background, keep it in the background. As the texts say, you bring mindfulness to the fore. “Mindfulness” here means … 
  12. Respect
     … Among those skillful qualities, two really important ones are alertness and mindfulness. Mindfulness is the ability to keep something in mind. For instance, we’re going to keep the breath in mind. But keeping the breath in mind encompasses the other frames of reference as well. As you’re focusing on the breath, you want to pay attention to how the feelings in the … 
  13. Adjust the Flame
    The mind’s like a fire, with flames shooting out, thoughts shooting out, in all directions. When we meditate, we’re trying to adjust the flame so that it’s steady, focused on one thing: the breath here in the present moment. Try to stay with it consistently. Start with a small flame. Find one spot in the body that’s sensitive to the … 
  14. Standing Where the Buddha Stood
     … Get the mind centered. In the course of centering the mind, you develop good qualities: mindfulness, alertness, the ability to keep the mind with one frame of reference, without slipping off to other frames of reference. That’s why mindfulness practice is such an important build-up to concentration practice. The Buddha also says that you have to develop tranquility and powers of insight … 
  15. Samvega First
    It’s a common pattern that when you clear out some time to meditate, sit down, make up your mind you’re going to stay with the breath, there’s a part of the mind that sees this time as an opportunity to think about all kinds of other things. So you’ve got to nip that tendency in the bud. That’s one … 
  16. Inner Wealth
     … So start feeding the mind well with a sense of well-being, but also with your intention to do something good. You’re training the mind here to be more alert, more mindful, to put its heart into doing something good and doing it well. “Mindful” means able to keep something in mind. It’s not just simply a matter of noticing what’s … 
  17. Ugly Body, Happy Mind
    Ugly Body, Happy Mind March 20, 2023 Gladdening the mind is an important part of meditation. It’s listed as one of the steps in breath meditation, and there are many places where the Buddha talks about how creating a sense of gladness, a sense of well-being, is an important prelude to getting the mind to settle down. He also talks about two … 
  18. The Four Biases
     … These things have no power over their minds.” When we look at the way the world has power over our minds, it’s because of these four qualities within the mind. So these are things we have to work to get rid of. In English, they’re often translated as four forms of bias, four forms of prejudice. I think bias is probably the … 
  19. Part V : Finding a Teacher
     … Thoughts come into the mind and it’s hard for us to tell, “Is this a good thought or a bad thought?” Even if part of the mind recognizes that it may be a bad thought, another part says, “Well, no, maybe it’s got its good side after all.” After all, there are so many different opinions out there, and our minds have … 
  20. Your Main Foundation
     … Then you’ve got mind states, such as a mind that’s impassioned, a mind that’s not impassioned, a mind that’s aversive or not. This analysis of mind states works its way up to more subtle things, like a mind that’s concentrated or not, or a mind that has reached a state beyond which it has ever been before or not … 
  21. On Human Nature
     … Ajaan Mun comforted him, “Well, it’s in the Satipatthana Sutta that being aware of the distracted mind as a distracted mind is part of right mindfulness. At least you’re aware.” Ajaan Suwat took the advice well. He didn’t say to himself, “Gee, all I need to do is to be aware of my distracted mind as a distracted mind and that … 
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