Search results for: "Mindfulness"

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  2. 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 … 
  3. 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 … 
  4. 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 … 
  5. 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 … 
  6. 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 … 
  7. 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 … 
  8. 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 … 
  9. Befriending the Breath
     … Say, “I’m here to make my mind a better mind, so that I’m not disturbed by what other people do. If there’s anything unskillful I’ve done in the past, I’m going to learn how not to do it again.” How do you do that? By developing good qualities in the mind, like the alertness, the mindfulness, and the sensitivity … 
  10. Part I : Basic Instructions
     … The qualities here are mindfulness, alertness, those things that undergird the development of discernment. Keep the breath in mind and be alert to it as it comes in, as it goes out. Be alert to how well your mind relates to it, how you can change the way you breathe. How can you change the way you think about your breathing, so that it … 
  11. Open Are the Doors to the Deathless
     … Exactly what are you doing that’s causing a burden to the mind right now? Do you have to keep burdening the mind in that way? The Buddha’s answer is No. What is your answer? Part of the mind will say, “I don’t know. I can’t see.” Okay, get the mind quiet. Then if anything comes up in the mind that … 
  12. Your Higher Power
     … The way we breathe is going to have an impact both on the body and on the mind. And you’re reclaiming the breath. Otherwise your greed, aversion, and delusion, your fear and your lust—these attitudes in the mind, these emotions of the mind—come and take over. They take over the breath. They have their way of making you breathe so that … 
  13. A Sense of Direction
     … At the same time, it allows the mind to see itself clearly. Because when you get the mind well-settled in concentration, mindfulness and alertness come to the fore. You can see the motions of the mind and their results: when they cause harm, when they don’t cause harm. In this area, though, the harm is very subtle, it’s hard even to … 
  14. Respect for Emptiness
     … Those little moments of stillness in the mind: We tend to ignore them, we don’t pay them much attention. We’re so much more interested in running after things, getting the mind all stirred up, yet ignoring those little moments of stillness between what basically come down to moments of disturbance in the mind. We see the disturbance as interesting and the stillness … 
  15. What You’re Responsible For
     … Just focus on the mind and the breath right here, right now. Is the mind staying with the breath? If not, is the problem with the breath or with the mind? First, focus on the mind. Get a sense of what kind of mind you’re bringing to the meditation. Thinking about the future or the past? Put those thoughts aside. Too much energy … 
  16. Start with Goodwill
     … Why is it that the mind, even though it wants happiness, can create suffering for itself? It’s all in the background. Try to get as sensitive as you can, first to the breath and the body. That will then transfer over to becoming sensitive to the mind, which is a lot more delicate. So we’re here to get the mind still—but … 
  17. The Arrows of Emotion
     … Make your mind like the earth, meditate to make your mind in tune with the earth—in the sense that people will throw disgusting things on the earth, but the earth doesn’t react. Train your mind to be like wind. Wind blows disgusting things around, but the wind doesn’t get upset. Train it to be like fire. Fire burns garbage, but the … 
  18. Watch Your Mind Whenever You Can
     … The solution lies in developing knowledge about what the mind is doing. This is why, when we meditate, we don’t just think about lofty topics. We actually watch the mind. The best way to watch the mind is to give it something to be focused on, like the breath—something where the act of focusing actually makes a difference. If you’re quick … 
  19. Constructing & Deconstructing
     … You’re looking for disturbances the mind is creating itself. And the classic example is that when you’re getting the mind to settle down, you’ve got to talk to it. You evaluate the breath, think about the breath, evaluate the breath some more. You think about your mind, evaluate your mind, see how you might be able to fit them together. When … 
  20. The Path to Stream Entry
     … And the cause comes from within the mind. Basically what it’s saying is that whatever is caused by the mind is going to cease. That insight appears spontaneously when you’ve seen something that’s not caused by the mind, and it doesn’t cease. Whereas, everything else that was caused by the mind does cease in that experience. Which is why you … 
  21. The Primacy of the Mind (2)
    The Primacy of the Mind (2) June 22, 2021 All phenomena are preceded by the mind or the heart: the first verse in the Dhammapada. Last night I talked about how people tend to forget this verse when they come to meditation—forgetting the active role of the mind. Tonight I’d like to talk a little bit more about the topic because the … 
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