Search results for: "Mindfulness"

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  2. No Happiness Other than Peace
     … You begin to take that for granted, that the mind’s got to move in order to have some pleasure. The things you focus on have to change, which means there’s no more pleasure in being there, so the mind has to change to keep staying happy. But again, things have to change in a very, very particular way for the mind to … 
  3. A Thread into Awareness
    We focus on the breath to catch the mind. You can’t grab hold of the mind directly; you’ve got to give it something you can get interested in. And so we work with the breath to notice what way of breathing feels good, what way of breathing doesn’t feel so good right now. And sometimes it’s not a matter of … 
  4. Virtue Fosters Concentration
    When you came to the meditation hall—took off your shoes, came in the door—did you take off your everyday mind as well and bring a different mind inside? Obviously not. It’s the same mind. So it stands to reason that the way you live your life, the way you walk up to the hall, everything you do in the course of … 
  5. Worldly Equanimity & Its Uses
     … Let’s watch it.” Again, you hold the mind in check. You exercise some restraint, not by clamping down, but by having the right perceptions in mind to make it easier to keep the mind on an even keel. Because to get the mind to the deeper levels of equanimity requires that you be really observant. Once you get the mind into concentration, how … 
  6. Make the Most of This Breath
     … After all, when you’re going to be identifying the different hindrances that come up in the mind, the different skillful qualities that can come up in the mind, you want your identification to be accurate, too. You don’t want to mistake, say, an inquisitive mind state for a doubtful mind state. An inquisitive state, of course, is a factor for awakening: It … 
  7. Patience & Consistency
     … You’re trying to watch the mind, observe the mind, so that you can understand the mind. That requires a consistent gaze, because otherwise we see the mind in just little bits and pieces. It’s like connect-the-dots. There’s a dot here, a dot there, but there are huge spaces between them. And these dots don’t come with numbers. So … 
  8. The Skills of Stillness
     … As you do this, you’re developing three qualities in your mind. The first is mindfulness, which doesn’t mean non-reactive awareness. The way the Buddha used the term, it means being able to keep something in mind. Here you’re keeping in mind the fact that you want to stay with the breath each time it comes in, each time it goes … 
  9. 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 … 
  10. Technique & Attitudes
     … This way, your technique and your attitude go together and enable you to train the mind. As the Buddha said, a trained mind is the mind that can bring you happiness. The mind that’s untrained goes out and grabs hold of fire and brings it back in. It’s like a little child who doesn’t know anything. It sees something bright and … 
  11. Equanimity
     … This is the kind of equanimity you can use to watch subtle things clearly in the mind. You begin to notice some of the defilements in the mind—and they are defilements. We usually don’t like to use the word “defilement” with regard to our thoughts and emotions, but that’s often what they are. They cloud the mind; they darken the mind … 
  12. Practice All Day
     … He’d come back from his walk, and his mind would be stirred up. So he made up his mind: Look for the signs of aging. They’re there. He found that when he came back home from that kind of walk, his mind settled down a lot more quickly because it had the Dhamma in mind all the time. The mind was talking … 
  13. Do, Maintain, Use
     … There’s that five-step program that the Buddha gives for dealing with anything unskillful coming up in the mind. First is seeing its origination: Where does it come from within the mind? That’s an important insight right there—that it’s coming from within the mind. It’s not just floating past. You want to see that—and you see that best … 
  14. Fabricating with Awareness
     … It’s the mind that cares, and it’s the mind that wants these things. The body is just a tool in the mind. So the problem is not the body, it’s the lust in the mind: Why would it lust for these things? What does he gain? Is lust in and of itself a comfortable emotion? No, it’s not. It just … 
  15. Guardian Meditations
    The Buddha talks of times when you meditate, you try to focus on the breath or any of the other topics in the body, but there’s a fever—a fever in the body, a fever in the mind. It doesn’t allow you to settle down. In cases like that, he says, try to find another theme that’s inspiring. Focus on that … 
  16. The Brightness of Life
     … When the Buddha said that the mind is naturally luminous, he didn’t mean that it’s naturally pure, or that it’s already awakened, simply that it can observe itself. That luminosity of the mind, he said, is the prerequisite for the fact that we can develop good qualities in the mind. We follow the path that the Buddha himself followed: We act … 
  17. Protection
     … But at the same time, the mind needs to rest. So you have to work on the skillful qualities that take you to a place where you can rest for a while in concentration. That starts with mindfulness. Mindfulness doesn’t mean non-judging awareness, as we sometimes hear. It means keeping in mind what you need to do. Right now, you need to … 
  18. Nobility Through Inner Strength
    Get your body in position—in a posture you can try to maintain for the whole hour without putting too much strain on any part of the body—because the mind has work to do. Getting the mind into position is not all that hard, but keeping it there is going to be the work for the hour. Getting it in position simply means … 
  19. Broad, Tall, & Deep
     … If what they have to say is actually true, if you’ve actually done something wrong, then by lifting your mind to a higher plane, you’re in a better position to admit your mistake and to learn from it. So this ability to depersonalize things is what heightens the mind, raises the level of the mind, so you’re up on the tower … 
  20. Practicing Your Scales
     … You find that you have to learn how to streamline your understanding of what it means to keep the mind focused. You start out by basically doing too much: You tense up the body, you engage all kinds of other parts of the mind to try to keep the mind here, and yet you can’t maintain that amount of tension. The mind is … 
  21. Four Virtues
     … In the process of observing the precepts, making sure you don’t kill anything, not even little bugs, not telling even white lies, you have to be very careful, very mindful and alert. In this way, you’re developing the qualities you need in formal meditation throughout the day. You’ve got to be mindful to keep your precepts in mind, and to be … 
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