Search results for: "Mindfulness"

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  2. 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 … 
  3. 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 … 
  4. 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 … 
  5. 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 … 
  6. 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 … 
  7. Complexities of Karma
     … This is why we develop mindfulness, so that we can remember what’s good, what’s right and what’s wrong, and hold that in mind and not let our emotions or our moods push that knowledge away. Remember, mindfulness means keeping something in mind. And you want to keep in mind the fact that your intentions are important, your actions will shape your … 
  8. A Concentration Checklist
     … In other words, the mind settles down and suddenly you realize, “Hey! The mind has settled down.” The mind hasn’t been talking to itself for a while, you realize, “Wow! The mind hasn’t been talking.” And that’s the end of it. This is where you have to take a very matter-of-fact attitude toward whatever comes up. You can’t … 
  9. Descartes’ Error
     … How do you go from being aware to forming thoughts? What are the steps in that process? You can’t see them unless you make the mind really still, unless you raise that question in your mind and turn your attention to making the mind still. So this is the proper role of thinking: directing your attention to important issues that are needed to … 
  10. The Perception of Space
     … reflections or perceptions to keep in mind as you get the mind in shape to be with the breath. These reflections and perceptions can be useful in all kinds of situations. One of the perceptions he taught to Rahula was make your mind like space. Nothing can be written on space. This is an image that keeps reappearing throughout the Canon. When the Buddha … 
  11. The Practice is Wherever There’s Mindfulness
     … In fact, that’s what mindfulness is: directed awareness. Mindfulness is keeping something in mind. Like right now as you’re meditating, you’re keeping the breath in mind. You’re keeping your meditation word in mind—if you’re using a meditation word—remembering not to wander off; remembering also, if you wander off, to come back. You can also remember what ways … 
  12. The Taste Is Release
     … When the mind is nurtured by discernment, it gains release from what are call the effluents, qualities that flow out of the mind, bubble up in the mind, and create a flood that can often sweep us away: sensuality, becoming, ignorance. Those are the four noble dhammas: virtue, concentration, discernment, release. In other words, the instructions remind us that the whole point of this … 
  13. Beginner's Mind, Expert's Mind
  14. Inquisitive
     … How does the mind relate to the body, how does the body relate to the mind? And how can you understand that relationship in a way that you can make the most use of it? You see that the mind and the body meet at the breath. So as you get to know the relationship between the mind and the breath, that spreads out … 
  15. The Interactive Present
     … Then you can start applying the same principle to positive mind states, the ones that you’re trying to develop. If you’re conscious of the part of the mind that doesn’t want to stay with the breath, try to find the part of the mind that does, that really appreciates having a chance to settle down and let go of its burdens … 
  16. Suffering Comes from What You’re Doing
     … Because if the mind is restless and you’re impatient with your restless mind, that just stokes the fire. So find some spot in the mind, find some spot in the body, in the breath, that’s relatively still, and as for the rest of the mind, just let it chatter for a while. One of the basic principles of the practice is that … 
  17. A Safe Haven Through Alertness
    One of the Pali terms for concentration is vihāra-dhamma, “a home for the mind.” It’s a place where you settle in and dwell with a sense of peace, security, well-being. And as we all know, it takes a heap of living to make a house a home. Sometimes it’s easy to settle down with the breath and sometimes it’s … 
  18. Do Jhana
     … Get the mind in right concentration.” And in doing jhana, you develop both samatha and vipassanā—these qualities of mind. They’re not meditation techniques. They’re aspects of the practice of jhana—qualities you need to bring to the practice of jhana and qualities that get developed as you do more jhana. It’s important to keep this point in mind, particularly as … 
  19. A Culture of Restraint
     … What are you developing in your mind? When you follow certain trains of thought, you develop the habits that go along with them. You create ruts in the mind. When you give free rein to anger, you create an anger-rut. When you develop mindfulness, you create a mindfulness-rut. The next time you get anywhere near those patterns of thinking, the mind falls … 
  20. A Full Range of Archery Skills
     … Also remember that, in stilling the mind, it’s not simply a matter of beating them mind down. If you beat it down, when the beating down ends, then it springs right back to its old ways. You want to develop some insight into your mind as it settles down: the insight that sees both what the mind would like, what skillful objects the … 
  21. A Mind Bigger than Pain
     … You want to develop a state of mind that’s not suffering, not clamoring after pleasure or running away from pain. This is one of the reasons we’re trying to develop a centered state of mind. And, from that centered state of mind, really look into how it is that the mind creates suffering, not only out of pain but also out of … 
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