Search results for: "The Mind"

  1. Page 34
  2. When it’s Hard to Settle Down
    When it’s Hard to Settle Down January 17, 2017 When the mind has trouble settling down with the breath, you want to check to see whether the problem is with the mind or with the breath—or with your perceptions of the mind or of the breath. The first problem, the mind: Sometimes you have lots of issues that are unresolved, and simply … 
  3. Talking to Yourself
     … As long as the mind is going to talk, teach it how to talk well. You can’t stop the conversation without first turning it into a skillful conversation. This is when the Buddha gives instructions on getting the mind into concentration. Two of the factors of getting the mind to settle down are what he called vitakka and vicāra, directed thought and evaluation … 
  4. The Arrows of Emotion
     … A thought will come into the mind and spark a reaction, but then we choose to keep repeating that reaction, repeating the pain, piling on more and more problems, more and more arrows, with the various ways that we comment on the pain itself, the original impulse, and the processes that the mind is going through. These are more and more arrows that we … 
  5. Fear of Death
     … The same thing applies to the thought worlds that appear in the mind as death approaches. And particularly if it’s an unpleasant thought world that’s appearing, you want to be able to stay away from it. So realize that this is just a construction of the mind, because at that point when the mind is in a position where it’s about … 
  6. One Thing at a Time
     … You see how the state of the mind depends on the breathing, and how the breathing depends on the state of the mind. Again, everything gets brought back to the mind. It’s simply a matter of learning how to use the acts of the mind and the results of those acts to train the mind higher and higher. This goes to show that … 
  7. Stay
     … That’s when you tune the mind in to a more subtle frequency of the breath—in the same way that you’d tune a radio into a more calming station after listening to a lot of hard rock—and you find that the mind can settle-in there. The mind, itself, is equanimous. There’s a sense of ease in the body, and … 
  8. Take an Interest
     … You can use it as a foundation that gives the mind a stable place to stay with a sense of well-being. Then you can watch the mind, and the movements of the mind are a lot more interesting than the movements of the breath. But again, these are things we tend to ignore. When a thought tells us that this is right or … 
  9. Part V : Finding a Teacher
     … If you see that indulging in certain foods has a bad affect on the mind, you stop eating them. If indulging in certain kinds of conversations has a bad affect on the mind, you stop engaging in them. If indulging in certain thoughts has a bad effect on the mind, you stop thinking them. You give them up. You give them back. You say … 
  10. Evaluation
     … To get the mind to settle down snugly with the breath, you have to survey what’s going on. This is part of the reflection: Is the mind snug with the breath? Is the breath snug with the mind? Are you ready to settle down? Ajaan Lee emphasizes the evaluation of the breath, but you also have to evaluate the state of your mind … 
  11. A Good Place to Stay
     … Working with the breath also helps your discernment because you’re right here, right next to the mind so that you can see what’s happening. If you keep the mind with a comfortable breath, you put it in a good mood. That, too, is an important part of gaining discernment into the mind. If the mind’s in a foul mood, it’s … 
  12. Look at Yourself
     … Then you try to develop the mind in a skillful direction looking inside, learning to calm the mind down. This is our main activity, this activity based on tranquility. And it’s also based on insight—beginning with the insight that if you’re going to solve the problems of suffering and stress, you’ve got to look inside, get the mind to come … 
  13. Thoughts About Thinking
     … But actually, their ignorance of what’s going on in the mind is just a sign that their minds have lots of walls inside. They’ve learned how to cover up a lot of things below the surface. But if you get the mind really quiet, you can start seeing when a decision is made way before it becomes obvious, before it comes to … 
  14. In the Mood
     … We do have good qualities in the mind, and there are plenty of things we can think about to put the mind in a good mood. This is why we have the chant on goodwill to start out the meditation each and every time. Goodwill is a good thing to think about. You look at yourself spreading thoughts of goodwill and you feel good … 
  15. Training Your Minds
     … There’s the mind of lust, the mind of anger, the mind of fear, greed, jealousy, the mind that’s tired from the long day, the mind that’s wired and overactive. There are lots of “yous” in there. So you have to ask yourself, which you is going to be the subject of your training tonight? Then try to remember that the Buddha … 
  16. Appropriate Attention
     … What kind of desire is it? Is it a desire that should be encouraged? Or is it a desire that should be discouraged? To see that, you’ve got to get the mind really quiet. There’s no way you’re going to be able to apply these teachings with a lot of detail unless the mind is very quiet. You can start out … 
  17. Don’t Limit Yourself
     … It gives strength to the mind, gives a sense of well-being to the mind. You start knowing things about the mind that you didn’t think you could know. Now, for a long time, as I was getting started with concentration practice, I thought it was impossible to observe the mind being distracted. All you could see, I thought, was what you’re … 
  18. On the Path of the Breath
     … As things grow more and more calm, they lead to a point where you can sit here just looking at awareness — the awareness of the mind itself as it’s watching the breath. This is an important ability in the meditation: learning how to observe the mind. It’s almost as if there are two minds: the mind being observed and the mind doing … 
  19. Concentration Nurtured by Virtue
     … Because when we’re developing both concentration and discernment, it’s a matter of seeing how the mind creates unnecessary problems for itself: harm on a very subtle level, so subtle that when you first encounter these states of concentration, you don’t see that there’s any disturbance in the mind at all. But if you learn to be alert to how your … 
  20. Looking Inward
     … The pleasure is used to create the sense of well-being in the mind, the sense of stability, so that it can really start looking inward in a way that’s steady, in a way that’s calm, dispassionate, and doesn’t let itself get waylaid by the tricks of the mind. You use pain as a tool as well. One thing you’re … 
  21. Building Concentration
     … In this way, as you put together a state of concentration in the mind, you learn an awful lot about the mind: all the processes of fabrication, how things get put together in the mind. It’s when you try to build a state of concentration that you really get to know these things. Otherwise, they just pass, pass, pass by your eyes. You … 
  22. Load next page...