Search results for: "Mindfulness"

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  2. Defilements Are Real
     … This is where the concept of the committee of the mind is very useful. All too often we see the committee of the mind as a problem, in that the mind has so many desires, so many different wants, and there so much conflict inside. All those different voices can often get in the way of getting the mind to settle down and be … 
  3. More than a Sliver of Mindfulness
    For a while now, they’ve had a pilot program where they teach mindfulness to kids in New York City schools. Recently, they decided to do a survey of the results. They found that a lot of kids were having a negative reaction, that the mindfulness they were taught got them more in touch with their feelings and what was going on in their … 
  4. Mindful All the Way
     … So work on your mindfulness. What is mindfulness? It’s the ability to keep something in mind. Alertness is what watches what you’re doing. Ardency is the effort to do this well. These are the three qualities you need to get the mind into concentration. We start with mindfulness practice, and the purpose of mindfulness practice is to get the mind to settle … 
  5. Food for the Mind
    One of the reasons we practice concentration is to make sure that the mind is well-fed, that it has the strength it needs to deal with things. And that it’s also in the proper mood for dealing with things. In other words, if we take on lots of issues in life, after a while the mind gets frazzled. It’s responsible for … 
  6. The Power of the Mind
     … The mind or the heart is the forerunner of all things. When you look at the body, you’re looking at past karma. In other words, your old actions are being reflected back at you. If you don’t like those reflections, you’ve got to make new reflections: skillful reflections out of skillful mind-states. So, put the mind first. Then, from there … 
  7. Observing the Mind at the Breath
    As we focus on the breath—trying to keep it in mind, bringing the mind back every time we realize that it has wandered off, and doing what we can to keep the mind there again—our focus is on the breath, but the mind is getting trained at the same time. When you catch yourself wandering off, that’s alertness. When you remember … 
  8. Mind Reading
    As the Buddha said, even if you can’t read the minds of others, make sure at the very least that you can read your own mind. This is something you have to do at the beginning of a meditation. Get a sense of what shape your mind is in right now. One way of testing it is to get into the breath. See … 
  9. Mindfulness, Discernment, & Peace of Mind
    We meditate to gain peace of mind, and part of that means finding something soothing for the mind to focus on. If all you can think about are problems and distractions, then there’s not going to be much peace. The mind is going to feel frazzled, rough, raw. This is one of the reasons why we start with the breath, because you can … 
  10. Factors for Awakening
    As I mentioned the other night, in all the lists of the wings to awakening that mention mindfulness and concentration, mindfulness always comes before concentration. And I’ve mentioned many times that the Buddha’s instructions for mindfulness are basically his instructions on how you get the mind into concentration. You start out ardent, alert, and mindful, focused, say, on the breath in and … 
  11. The Goldsmith
    Ajaan Lee once said that training the mind is like training a child. When it cries, you have to learn how to decipher its cries. Sometimes it’s crying because it’s hungry. Sometimes it’s crying because it’s got a stomachache. And sometimes it’s crying simply because it’s ornery. It has its moods. And you have to learn how to … 
  12. A Well-stocked Memory
    In the descriptions for the factors for awakening, mindfulness comes first. Usually it’s defined as being mindful of the body in and of itself, feelings, mind, mental qualities—in other words, the four frames of reference for establishing mindfulness, in and of themselves,—ardent, alert, and mindful, putting aside greed and distress with reference to the world. This is the practice leading up … 
  13. Trustworthy Judgment
     … The difference between these two people was that one had trained his mind and the other hadn’t. The person who had trained his mind to be reliable was the one who could trust his mind. He could know if weird things were coming in, and could trust his judgment that they were weird. If you don’t train your mind, you have no … 
  14. Insight from Developing Concentration
     … Yet now you think of your distractions as distractions when you’re trying to get the mind concentrated. You’ve made up your mind you’re going to stay here. But part of the mind is going to play traitor—or parts of the mind will play traitor. They make an agreement: As soon as your mindfulness slips, your alertness lapses, they’re going … 
  15. Calm
    When the Buddha lists the factors for awakening, he starts with mindfulness. You remember why you’re here—you’re here to find happiness that’s harmless. And, you’re going to meditate for two reasons: One is to gain some peace of mind, some calm, and the other is to gain insight. You get the mind quiet so that it can see things … 
  16. Training the Mind
    Get your body into position, and then get the mind into position. Getting the body into position is relatively easy. Sit facing straight forward, your hands in your lap, your right hand on top of your left. Close your eyes, and there you are. Getting the mind into position is easy as well. Just focus on your breath—nothing elaborate, nothing abstract, just the … 
  17. Dhamma Medicine
    The practice of meditation is medicine for the mind. It cures our diseases of greed, aversion, and delusion. In fact, the practice as a whole is medicine. The Buddha often compared himself to a doctor, and to get the full implications of that image, you have to think about what old-fashioned medicine was like. To begin with, the doctor didn’t give you … 
  18. A Total Training
     … And one way to give yourself a good grounding so that you can actually watch the mind is to practice right mindfulness. Find a topic for the mind to keep thinking about, to keep in mind. It could be the body in and of itself or feelings or mind states or mental qualities in and of themselves. The difference between mind states and mental … 
  19. Meditation as Play
    Sometimes, when we learn about the Buddha’s teachings on heedfulness, they can sound pretty grim—like the teaching that you should be mindful of death with every in-and-out breath. But the teachings are not meant to be grim. Look at what the Buddha has you do with the breath: In his instructions on how to focus on the mind while you … 
  20. Mindfulness Aims at Concentration
     … In the noble eightfold path, discernment comes before effort, mindfulness, and concentration, while effort comes before mindfulness. In the seven factors for awakening, mindfulness comes before effort, and discernment comes after mindfulness. But there’s one pattern that’s consistent in all the sets: Mindfulness always comes before concentration. When you look at the description for mindfulness, it’s easy to see why. It … 
  21. What Makes Concentration Right
     … The same with the state of the mind: The mind could be thinking about various things, but you’re looking at the mind as it’s processing things, or looking at the mind as a process. Those are the three big things: body, feelings, mind, in and of themselves. And then right effort is the effort to shape these things skilfully. For example, with … 
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