Search results for: "Mindfulness"

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  2. Creating a World of Concentration
     … We’re trying to bring into being a state of concentration to begin with, and it requires two qualities of mind—one is serenity and the other is insight—to try to calm the body down, calm the mind down. There are basically two ways of doing this. One is just to give the mind something to focus on that it likes, and it … 
  3. We All Start with an Impure Heart
     … You’re right here where the mind and the body meet. The fact that the mind can make the body move has to go through the breath. The fact that things happening in the body can get into the mind has to go through the breath. So you’re right at the crossroads, looking at your body, looking at your mind, and to see … 
  4. Speech for the Sake of Stillness
     … These were things that he would allow his mind to think. But even then, he noticed that he could think about these things all day and they wouldn’t lead to any unskillful actions but they would tire the mind. So he inclined his mind into concentration. That thoughts inclining his mind into concentration were a kind of internal speech, but speech leading in … 
  5. Making a Difference
     … Then just breathe in good and deep in a way that feels really gratifying to the body, and that will re-establish your mindfulness. So these are the qualities you bring to the breath: mindfulness, keeping the breath in mind; alertness, being alert and sensitive to the breathing; and ardency, trying to make that sensitivity even more refined, more continuous. So, as we focus … 
  6. Hunting & Foraging
     … Ajaan Suwat would talk about having a sense of confidence, a sense of pleasure being here: “You’re here to do a good thing, training the mind, nourishing the mind.” So if you come with the right mood, you establish one of the necessary steps in gaining insight into the mind. Of course, one of the first things you’ll see is how quickly … 
  7. Beyond Inter-eating
     … We’ve got to keep this point in mind: that as long as the mind needs to feed, it’s causing suffering. And the greatest act of kindness both to yourself and other people is to put it in a position where it doesn’t need to feed. We tend to forget this. We think that sitting here meditating, trying to get the mind … 
  8. A Heart Set on Goodwill
    The mind is very changeable. In fact, the Buddha said it’s so quick to reverse itself that there’s no adequate image to illustrate how quick and how reversible it is. You’re heading in one direction and then suddenly you turn around and you’re heading in the other direction. Now, if the mind is heading in a bad direction, that’s … 
  9. Responsible for Your Goodness
     … Which means that one thing we can do now for the people who will be around us when we die is to develop skill in nourishing the state of our mind. So this is your number one responsibility, the shape of your mind right now. And the goodness of the mind is something that doesn’t need to be decorated. It doesn’t have … 
  10. Breath Meditation: The Second Tetrad
     … These are images or words you hold in mind for recognizing things. They’re not full sentences. They’re just basic concepts or little pictures by which the mind communicates with itself and communicates with the body. Those perceptions will have an impact on both body and mind. They’re mental fabrication as well. Look into your perception of the breathing: Is it getting … 
  11. A Clear Sense of Priorities
     … When you begin to ask those questions, you find that the practice starts making deeper inroads in the mind and really benefits you in ways that it couldn’t have otherwise. On a very simple level, take the practice of being mindful as you go through your daily activities. Now, mindfulness here covers both mindfulness and alertness. In other words, have a strong sense … 
  12. The Dead Snake Around Your Neck
     … But of course, the mind that’s meditating is the same mind that goes out and deals with the world. And it’s precisely because these same processes shape our experience in the ordinary, everyday world as they do in meditation that the meditation is really a good tool for getting to understand how your mind creates suffering. That’s what the four noble … 
  13. The Search for Something of Substance
     … Here we are working on concentration, but you find that there are parts of the mind that don’t want to be bothered. You try to get the mind to settle down. You try to get the mind to be mindful and alert. There are parts of the mind that thrive on lack of mindfulness and lack of alertness. They’re going to push … 
  14. Greed & Distress with Reference to the World
    The Buddha’s formula for right mindfulness contains his instructions on how to get the mind into right concentration, and it contains two verbs. In other words, there are two activities that we do. One is dwelling. The word viharati, to dwell, can also mean to keep doing something. Here we dwell with the breath, the body in and of itself, just as you … 
  15. Looking in Three Directions
     … As you’re working with the breath right here and the mind begins to settle down, you’re developing insight on many levels. Simply the act of fending off distractions is an important source of insights right there. In the beginning, the distractions are gross. You sit here, and the mind begins to settle down a little bit. And you suddenly realize the mind … 
  16. Working Hypotheses
    There are a lot of ways in which the Buddha compares the activities of the mind to fire. Greed, aversion, are delusion are fires that burn away in the mind, and as we chanted just now, they set fire to our eyes, ears, nose, tongue, body, and mind, and to the things we know through the senses. It’s almost as if our minds … 
  17. Responsible Happiness
     … When the mind has a sense of well-being right now, then even the idea of acting in an unskillful way becomes very unattractive. So you’re changing the balance of power in the mind. The mind is like a committee, as I’ve said many times. We have all kinds of members in there. The members you’re proud of. The members you … 
  18. Mindfulness Gets Intimate
     … Mindfulness as a factor for awakening is present in me.” “Me, me, me.” But you’re using “I” and “me” in a skillful way, because it’s on this level that you’re making an effort to get the mind into right concentration. In fact, you could read that instructions for keeping track, say, of the breath—ardent, alert, and mindful—putting aside greed … 
  19. Right View, Right Attention
     … Right mindfulness keeps that in mind: that we want to develop skillful qualities and to abandon unskillful ones. So each time you breathe in, each time you breathe out, you ask yourself, “Where is my mind right now? Is it with the breath?” If it’s not, you bring it to the breath. That’s what right effort does. If it is with the … 
  20. Taking Apart Suffering
     … There are also issues in the mind. Here, too, this ability to take things apart is important. When you have a certain mood in the mind—say, there’s impatience or irritation—learn how to take it apart. A good way to approach it is to assume that the mind is like a committee. There’s not just one person in there talking or … 
  21. Fixing the Present
    When the Buddha taught breath meditation to his son, he started out by saying, “Make your mind like earth.” When people say disgusting things to you, or you pick up what they say, think of earth. People throw disgusting things on earth and it doesn’t react. People throw nice things on the earth and it doesn’t react. You want to develop that … 
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