Search results for: "Mindfulness"

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  2. Secluded from Sensuality
     … This applies not only in right concentration but also right mindfulness, because the two are actually parts of the same process. Right mindfulness is how you get the mind into right concentration. Think of the Buddha’s images: When you’re practicing right mindfulness, you’re like that quail in the field that’s been newly plowed. The stones are all turned up, and … 
  3. As Days & Nights Fly Past
     … You stir up all your relentlessness, your desire, your mindfulness to put out the fire. It’s one of those passages that shows that mindfulness doesn’t mean simply accepting things as they are. It means keeping something in mind, keeping the important things in mind—in this case, realizing that you don’t know how much time you have. Death is going to … 
  4. Getting Familiar with Concentration
    The mind has its own rhythms, its own pace in the practice. It’s not up to you to determine what that rhythm or pace is. All you can do is provide the right conditions for it to grow. Whether your mind is going to be a banana tree that grows so fast you can almost watch it grow, or an oak tree that … 
  5. Imperturbable
    Imperturbable June 18, 2014 Before the mind can settle down, you have to do a little housecleaning, to clean up the mind, clean up the body. Cleaning up the mind is putting it in the right mood with the right attitude so that it’s ready to settle down and not pick up a lot of other issues. After all, you’ve got a … 
  6. Calm & at Ease
     … If you’re feeling anxious, ill at ease, worked up about things, it’s hard to get the mind to settle down. And only when it’s settled down can it stay firmly focused. The English word concentration is a good translation for samadhi, because it’s when the mind is firmly intent. Calm is more gentle. You’re beginning to settle down, so … 
  7. Leaving Distractions Alone
     … One day, he went to complain to Ajaan Mun, saying that his mind couldn’t settle down. He’d sit there meditating and all he could see was his mind running off. Ajaan Mun said to him, “Well, at least you’re practicing the foundations of mindfulness. Knowing the distracted mind as a distracted mind is practicing mindfulness of the mind in and of … 
  8. Protection Through Mindfulness Practice
    Protection Through Mindfulness Practice December 24, 2015 The Buddha often talks about the practice of satipatthana, or the establishing of mindfulness, as a kind of protection. He says that you make yourself a refuge when you practice the establishing of mindfulness. You make yourself an island, a safe place in the middle of the flood. There’s also the passage where he tells the … 
  9. The Buddha’s Shoulds
     … You want to be ardent, alert, and mindful. The ardency there is right effort. The mindfulness means that you keep your frame of reference in mind — as when we’re keeping the breath in mind right now. The alertness means seeing what’s happening in the present moment, seeing if you really are with the breath, if the mind is settling down well with … 
  10. The Seven Treasures
     … But if the mind can realize that these things are going to have to go someplace, sometime, anyhow, you can develop the generosity that comes from seeing that other people may need them and you happily give them away. Your mind becomes a lot more open, a much more spacious mind. That’s a mind that’s a lot easier to live in. This … 
  11. On Not Twisting the Cow’s Horn
     … We want to see the subtle things because the subtle things are what drive the mind. If you don’t dig them out, they’re going to stay there and keep driving the mind. We’re not here just to accept the fact that they’re driving the mind. We want to put an end to it because these subtle things can grow into … 
  12. Look at Yourself
     … This way, your mindfulness practice builds on your ability to remember things way back, things you’ve learned from the practice in various times, because you haven’t been throwing up walls in the mind in the meantime. Then mindfulness, in turn, gives you the skills you need for concentration, because as you get the mind into concentration, what are the themes of concentration … 
  13. Life Well Lived
     … One of the hardest ones is concentration, because it’s so easy for the mind to wander off. Catching the mind is like trying to catch a bead of mercury: You put a little pressure on it, it scoots off; put a little pressure on this side, it scoots someplace else, scatters all over the place. But unlike mercury, the mind can be tamed … 
  14. A Good Purpose in Life
     … And as we’re developing the mind, we’re developing the heart as well. In fact, in most Buddhist cultures, starting with the Pali language, the words for “heart” and “mind” are interchangeable. As the Buddha realized, our mind—the smart part of this psyche we have, the part that figures things out—is not really that much different from the heart, the part … 
  15. Booster Stages
    The Buddha was a master of the apt simile, the apt comparison, but even he found himself stymied when it came to finding comparison for how quickly the mind can change. Attitudes you may have held for a long time, you can drop in a fraction of a second. Intentions that you sincerely wish for, you can drop very quickly—and then you want … 
  16. Take the One Seat
     … As long as the mind is going to be making choices, you want to teach it to make skillful choices. You do that by watching it. Getting the mind into concentration is a very good way of learning how to watch it. You need mindfulness to stitch together your moments of awareness, moments of attention, so that they become continuous. Mindfulness is the ability … 
  17. Mental Stirrings
    Everything you really need to know about the mind keeps happening in the present moment. Many times, when a thought comes into the mind, we want to trace it back, “Where did this come from?” And psychotherapy really encourages that: If you want to understand the thoughts, the urges, the neuroses in your mind, they say, you’ve got to remember back to when … 
  18. Motivation
     … Everything you can do that can get you here, training the mind, is part of the training. Other people can give you ideas, but you’re the one who has to figure out your own mind to see: What is it about the mind that resists? Or what is it about the mind that gets so easily distracted? Then come up with your own … 
  19. All-around Alertness
     … That’s how mindfulness actually gets in the way of alertness. It’s a case when mindfulness is wrong mindfulness. You have to be able to hold in mind the fact that you want to be fully aware of the body all-around. You may be paying a lot of attention, say, to your hands today, but don’t block out everything else. You … 
  20. The Bridge to Concentration
     … Other people here are trying to keep their minds quiet. They’re trying to keep as little greed, anger, and delusion as possible from infiltrating their minds. So avoid expressing things that would stir them up, especially in a community like this, where people are meditating good part of the day. Their minds are very sensitive. Try to show restraint both about what’s … 
  21. Eeeels
     … We learn to be connoisseurs of the mind, expert observers of the mind. Which means we have to watch and compare. Try to get very, very precise in noticing the movements of the mind. It’s only then that you can begin to trust your powers of judgment, your powers of perception. So in your quest to get the mind still, don’t go … 
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