Search results for: "Mindfulness"

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  2. A Stranger to Your Thoughts
     … Because after all, to get the mind to settle down and be still, you have to discern what’s going on in the mind. And to discern really clearly, you have to get the mind to be still. But this is not a Catch-22. These two sides develop gradually. It’s not an all-or-nothing kind of affair. As the mind gets … 
  3. Goodwill All Around
     … And then train the mind so it’s more and more careful all the time, more mindful all the time. This is why we use the breath or use the word buddho , or 32 parts of the body, whatever object we find is easy to keep in mind as a way of getting the mind to settle down. Once the mind settles down, it … 
  4. How to Leave Concentration
    As you’re sitting here trying to get the mind into concentration, the natural thing to talk about is how to get in: what to let go of as you leave the world outside, how to focus, how to work with your breath, and how to work with your mind, your awareness right now, so that it’ll be willing to settle down. It … 
  5. Making Yourself Worthy of Trust
     … When unskillful thoughts come up in the mind, you have to learn how to recognize them for what they are. That’s one of the functions of mindfulness. Mindfulness doesn’t mean just accepting whatever comes up. It means keeping something in mind. In this case, you keep in mind what you know is the right path, what you know is the wrong path … 
  6. Unhindered at Death
    When we usually think about the hindrances, we think about the Buddha’s comment that before you get the mind established in its frame of reference, before you establish mindfulness properly, before you get into concentration, you’ve got to clear the hindrances out of the way. So we tend to think that the hindrances are mainly a problem with getting the mind into … 
  7. Antidotes for Narcissism
     … And even then, what use would that be? Mindfulness doesn’t mean awareness. It means keeping something in mind. As in that old phrase—to be ever mindful of the needs of others—you keep other people’s needs in mind. It means you remember them. You hold them in mind. And the same with mindfulness practice. When you’re focusing on the breath … 
  8. Balancing Tranquility & Insight
     … The mind gets more still, and as things calm down, you gain more and more insight into this process of fabrication. The same principle applies to the third tetrad, when you’re directly aware of the mind. Again, the tetrad starts out by telling you to be sensitive to that aspect of your awareness. Here “mind” can also mean “intent,” the intent you have … 
  9. Fabrication
    Fabrication March, 2001 The mind has a basic habit, which is to create things. In fact, when the Buddha describes causality, how experiences come about, he says that the power of creation or sankhara — the mental tendency to put things together — actually comes prior to our sensory experience. It’s because the mind is active, actively putting things together, that it knows things. The … 
  10. Getting Your Head Around the Goal
     … It’s through these exercises of mindfulness and concentration that the mind’s powers of perception can grow. When the mind is more still, it can see subtler things. It develops a more refined sense of what kind of pleasure can be experienced in the present moment. It also becomes sensitive to more refined levels of stress, dis-ease, or disturbance in the mind … 
  11. Anchored in the Present
    There are four frames of reference for establishing mindfulness: the body in and of itself, feelings in and of themselves, the mind in and of itself, and mental qualities or mental events in and of themselves. They’re not very far apart from one another. In fact, when the Buddha talks about the best way to develop all four of them, he says to … 
  12. A Mind Like Earth
     … He said, “Make your mind like earth.” People throw disgusting things on the earth, but the earth doesn’t shrink away. “Make your mind like water.” People use water to wash disgusting things away, but the water doesn’t get disgusted. “Make your mind like fire.” Fire burns garbage, but it doesn’t get disgusted by the garbage. “Make you mind like wind.” Wind … 
  13. The Wisdom of Ardency
    The standard formula for mindfulness is that you keep track of the body in and of itself—ardent, alert, and mindful—putting aside greed and distress with reference to the world. You do the same with feelings in and of themselves, mind-states in and of themselves, and mental qualities in and of themselves. There’s a large sutta devoted to explaining part of … 
  14. Breath Meditation: Four Sets of Tools
     … You notice things about the mind you didn’t notice before. And working at the breath is the ideal task to pursue so you can actually see the mind in action. So once you get the mind right here, just stay right here: mindful, alert, ardent. And the things you need to know to unburden the mind will reveal themselves as you keep at … 
  15. Don’t Believe Everything You Think
     … The breath is basically a physical phenomenon, but it’s very close to the mind and it’s your mind’s anchor in the present moment. When you’re with the breath, you know you’re in the present. When you’re with the breath, you can watch the thoughts coming into the mind and not get sucked into them—unless, of course, you … 
  16. Respect for Concentration
     … This is an important principle to keep in mind because all too often the stillness of our minds is something we step on. An idea pops into our heads and we go running after it. We leave our home base very quickly and then find it hard to get back. We’ve got to learn how to make concentration our normal state of mind … 
  17. To Discern Suffering
     … Mindfulness is keeping something in mind. Here it’s keeping in mind the fact that you want to understand the pain—and it’s not so much the physical pain of course, but the pain in the mind, the tension, the stress, the constant pressure that you’re putting on yourself one way or another. Here again, you run into that attitude, “If I … 
  18. The Value of Concentration
     … As soon as the thought comes into the mind, you’re right there. The hard part is in staying there, and for that you need to have a strong sense of how valuable it is to have a peace of mind, to have the mind centered in one place. You need to be very protective of what you’ve got. In the beginning it … 
  19. Choices
     … The Buddha says you should be mindful, alert, ardent. In other words, keep the breath in mind: That’s mindfulness. Then be alert: Watch what you’re doing as you’re staying with the breath. This means both watching how you’re breathing, and also watching how the mind relates to the breath. If you see anything wrong—in other words, your mindfulness is … 
  20. Choices Now & at Death
     … Aim your mind there. Now, this will depend on what that person’s belief systems are. When people are dying, you don’t want to impose something new on them, as long as they do believe that the mind will survive death. What’s important is that where the mind is holding on will create a state of mind that will either be lifted … 
  21. The Good Fight
     … In the same way, the mind has to be fed. This is why try to create a sense of well-being through the concentration. We’re taming our hunger, sensitizing ourselves to a higher aspiration than just to go around feeding off things outside. You can feed the mind with pleasure. You can feed the mind with rapture. Simply sitting here breathing, you can … 
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