Search results for: "consciousness"

  1. Page 28
  2. Take Nothing for Granted
     … As the Buddha said, we fabricate our experience for the sake of having form, feelings, perceptions, fabrications, consciousness, and then we use those things for the sake of happiness. So we have to remember why we’re here. Keep that in the background, and then set your mind on doing what needs to be done to reach to that goal of happiness, of real … 
  3. A Much Better Place
     … those who can see the danger coming before it comes; and then there are those who have to be slapped in the face with a danger before they realize, “Yes, this is dangerous here!” Of course, it’s best for us to see ahead of time the danger of identifying, say, with forms, feelings, perceptions, thought-constructs, consciousness, all the things that go into … 
  4. Inner Refuge
     … Whether we consciously spread thoughts of goodwill to other beings or not, the fact that we’re training our mind is a sign of goodwill for ourselves and that we wish well to other people: that we’re going to take responsibility for our minds, we’re going to learn how to develop reliable qualities inside. The benefits that come from that are not … 
  5. Secluded from Sensuality
     … Why is it that the mind can see all these things, admit all these facts, all these truths about the body, and yet still consciously ignore them? This is a tendency of the mind in general. When you want to go for something you know is unskillful, you block out any thoughts that would criticize what you’re going for and why. We can … 
  6. A Home & a Mobile Home
     … You have to consciously take the perception of breath or of space in and around you—that this is your space, and the space is filled with good breath energy—and learn how to carry that with you. It’s like walking and chewing gum at the same time. There are some people who find that hard. But most of us have learned a … 
  7. The Gift of Meditation
     … And even if they don’t consciously sense it, you’re putting a different energy into the world, and that’s of benefit as well. So what are you doing as you calm the mind down? Often we talk about working with the breath, but sometimes you have to just let the breath go. It’s going to do whatever it’s going to … 
  8. Maintenance Work
     … You can apply it to the sense of infinite consciousness or nothingness. Once you recognize precisely where those perceptions are, precisely how you can focus on them and stay there for long, long times, you’ll suddenly gain insight into how constructed they are. In the beginning it’s very obvious how constructed they are because you’re working so hard to put them … 
  9. Training Wheels
     … So in cases like that, you can start out by being aware of the whole body, consciously making yourself aware of everything from the head down to the feet, the feet up to the head. And then you breathe, sensitive to the breathing process in the context of that larger body awareness. See if that opens up the breath, makes it more refreshing, more … 
  10. The Brahmaviharas Are Not Enough
     … You’ve got to consciously probe to see what’s going to be skillful right now in your given state of mind. That’s the second of the factors for awakening: It goes almost seamlessly from mindfulness into analysis of qualities, trying to figure out what’s skillful and what’s not. That, in turn, moves into persistence when you actually try to abandon … 
  11. Limitless Thoughts
     … If you identify with your feelings, perceptions, thought constructs, consciousness, you’re limited by those things as well. So as we’re meditating, we’re trying to strip away the limitations we place on ourselves, for those limitations are much more confining than the ones that other people place on us. We counteract these limits with limitless thoughts, starting with thoughts of good will … 
  12. Practical Wisdom
     … If we don’t satisfy it consciously, it’ll exert pressure behind the scenes. So the question is, how do we do it in an open, intelligent way? How do we do it in a compassionate way, so that we cause no harm to ourselves, no harm to other people? It is possible. So it’s largely a matter of taking your desire for … 
  13. It’s All about Action
     … In other words, you don’t know it through the eyes or the ears or the nose or the tongue or the body—or even through your regular consciousness that’s aware of the six senses. It’s something outside of that entirely. That’s pretty much all he says. What he talks a lot about is how to get there, and that’s … 
  14. Thinking About Your Fears
     … Space, consciousness, nothingness: These are states of concentration you can work on and dwell in. As you get the mind to settle down, you find that there is a happiness that comes without the body. That way, the fear of leaving the body is not quite so strong. It doesn’t totally do away with it. That fear is going to end only when … 
  15. Established in Full
     … But if you consciously make your awareness large and prevent it from shrinking down like that, it changes your relationship to the thought worlds as they begin to appear. Instead of going into them, you’re standing outside of them. You realize you have the choice: You can go in or not, but right now, no matter how interesting or important those thoughts may … 
  16. Two Types of Dukkha
     … She has to wear an oxygen monitor and she found when she sits and meditates and consciously thinks of all the pores opening up, the oxygen level in her blood goes up. This is one way that you can allow the breath to grow calm, even to the point where it seems to stop, yet you’re not going to be deprived of oxygen … 
  17. Something New
     … There are forms, feelings, perceptions, thought fabrications, and consciousness. Out of those five, fabrications covers the widest variety of mental events. It’s the way you talk to yourself. It’s the way you think. It’s your emotions, your world views, your ideas of what you have to do, what you don’t have to do, how other people should be, how other … 
  18. Good for What Purpose?
     … The facts of our awareness, the facts of our consciousness, are all fabricated. And what is fabrication? Fabrication is putting things together for the sake of something. In other words, there’s an intentional element, there’s an aim, there’s a desire underlying everything. This is why the Buddha said, “All things are rooted in desire.” So you have to ask yourself which … 
  19. Working from the Inside
     … Those things can contribute to the way you make yourself suffer, but the real issue is the level of your skill—approaching consciousness from within; approaching your experience from within. When you learn how to do that well, then you’ve taken care of what you’re responsible for. And this part of your awareness no longer becomes a source of worry for other … 
  20. Shoot Your Pains with Wisdom
     … You can change your experience of the body by consciously breathing in ways that feel good and gratifying. The other way we fabricate our experience is through the way we think, so you can shoot yourself with skillful thoughts. Learn to think about the breath in a way that makes it easier to breath. For example, you can try holding in mind the perception … 
  21. Four Bases of Success
     … Ask yourself, “How am I breathing right now? Is it aggravating things so that it makes the mind want to wander off?” Or if anger, greed, or fear has taken hold of the mind, what have they done to the breath? Can you consciously get it back? If they’ve kidnapped your breath, you can seize it back. As for verbal fabrication, how are … 
  22. Load next page...