Search results for: "The Mind"

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  2. Concentration & Renunciation
     … Now, to put the mind in a position where it can answer these questions with some fairness, we have to get the mind into concentration. Because this is the practice that enables you not to be overcome by pleasure, not to be overcome by pain. Sometimes we sit here with pains in the body, but if the breath is comfortable, we can use that … 
  3. Nuts & Bolts
     … For the person who has passed away, one of the best things you can do is to get the mind into good concentration and think thoughts of goodwill toward that person, because the mind, when it’s steady, is sending off a good energy. When it’s concentrated like this, it’s a good gift to be sending out. You think of Shōtai: Wherever … 
  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. Stepping Out of Yourself
     … a place where the mind can settle in and feel really comfortable. You’re going to need to stabilize the mind, and the mind won’t be stable if it’s not feeling a sense of pleasure. When it’s unstable, it tries to feed on things: to feed on your emotions, feed on other people’s words, feed on your image of yourself … 
  6. Seeds of Becoming
     … When you leave this life, and everything in this state of becoming begins to come rushing in at you and you’ve got to get out of the way, the mind will naturally try to create another state of becoming. It’ll go for another state of becoming, whatever comes up in the mind. If you haven’t trained the mind to be mindful … 
  7. Becomings
     … When another becoming appears in the mind, you can recognize it: “Okay, this is beyond the pale.” In the beginning it’s going to be hard to resist because the mind’s tendency is just to go traveling around. That, in fact, was Ajaan Suwat’s definition for becoming: the places where the mind travels. If you’re just traveling around with no particular … 
  8. Strategic Wisdom
     … That’s where the discernment comes in, because in getting the mind to settle down, it’s not that the discernment comes only after the mind really is still. The process of getting the mind to settle down does require some wisdom, it requires some discernment, requires you using your intelligence and your ingenuity. That kind of concentration has discernment built into it. You … 
  9. Making an Effort
     … They don’t take over the mind. But with an untrained mind, all kinds of things can come in and take over the controls. It’s almost as if you’re being possessed by alien forces. Greed, anger, and delusion: Even though they come from within the mind, they’re alien in the sense that they can cause all kinds of trouble to the … 
  10. The Prison Break
     … As the mind settles down like this, you’re peeling away this layer, peeling away that layer, and it’s in the peeling away that you see the movements of the mind, how the mind puts things together. That’s when both the mind and the heart are ready to start letting some of these things go. You’ve been letting go of certain … 
  11. Everything’s Right There
    We focus on the breath because when the mind is focused on the breath, everything you need to know to put an end to suffering is right here. You’re at the right spot. It’s simply a matter of getting used to it, realizing the potentials all around you right here, both in the body and in the mind. In the body, you … 
  12. Taking the Long View
     … Because at the moment of death—when the body is weak, the mind is frustrated, the mind is distraught—cravings and clingings can bubble up inside. We latch on and we go. When the mind is distraught like that, it tends not to be very choosy. It just takes whatever comes. And who knows what’s going to come up bubbling up out of … 
  13. The Craft of the Heart
     … This is important both in getting the mind to settle down and in dealing with insights that come up. In getting the mind to settle down, you want to be able to observe frankly and fairly: “When I think of the breath in this way, when I try to get the mind to settle down this way, what happens? Is it good? How does … 
  14. Learning by Doing
     … In the meantime, try to get to know this process of getting the mind into concentration, keeping it in concentration—because that’s how you come to understand the mind. Some people think that you get the mind quiet first and then you do vispassana, which requires that you switch to another topic entirely. But that’s not how the Buddha taught, and that … 
  15. Honest & Observant
     … 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 ways because … 
  16. Study & Practice
     … Then you want to bring in two other qualities besides the mindfulness. One of them is alertness, watching what you’re doing, checking on the mind, checking on the body, i.e., checking on your object and also checking on the state of the mind to see whether it’s going to stay here or not, being quick to notice when it’s beginning … 
  17. Strategic Friends
     … learning to read the mind. But the mind is very subtle. As the Buddha says, it’s so quick to change that there’s nothing you can compare it to. There’s nothing anywhere near as quick as the mind to change direction. By time you’ve noticed that it seems to be one way, it’s already something else. So to get practice … 
  18. Groundwork
    When you meditate, it’s like building a home for the mind, and whenever you build a home, you have to do the groundwork. Here our groundwork is thinking about the breath and observing the breath. So take a couple good long, deep in-and-out breaths, and notice where you feel the breathing process in the body. When we talk about breath here … 
  19. Finding Balance
    One of the reasons we meditate is to give a sense of peace and ease for the mind. The mind that’s been carrying its burdens gets to let them down for a while. But meditation at the same time is work. Otherwise, we’re falling asleep here. You’re trying to bring the mind to stillness, but it has to be an alert … 
  20. Kindfulness
    Kindfulness May 1, 2010 As you train the mind, focusing on the breath, allowing the breath to be comfortable, trying to become friends with the breath, it’s a very direct way of showing goodwill to yourself and to the people around you. Goodwill for yourself in the sense that you learn how to develop a source of happiness that comes from within. Your … 
  21. In the Mood
    In the Mood October 20, 2011 When you meditate, you’ve got to put the mind in the right mood. Sometimes, focusing on the breath is the way to put it in the right mood. You take a couple of long, deep, in-and-out breaths, and it feels good. You can just feel the stress and the strain melting away. The patterns of … 
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