Search results for: "The Mind"

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  2. Strength Training
     … The point is, you want to see what works for you to get the mind to settle down and be really grounded here. Then, once it’s grounded, the next question is: How do you keep it here? There will be a part of the mind that says, “Okay, enough of that. What’s next? I’m in a hurry here. I’ve only … 
  3. Unskillful Thinking
     … Do you want to identify with it or not? If you let the mind be ill, the mind is going to go around latching on to other things to identify with, and then it gets itself even worse off. This is why we’re working on the health of the mind. If you can learn how not to fall prey to your thoughts, you … 
  4. Why the Breath
    Why the Breath January 9, 2004 We watch the breath so we can watch the mind. The breath is like a mirror for the mind. When you look at the way you breathe, you can get a good sense of what’s going on in the mind. If you get really familiar with the breath, you can begin to detect things that are happening … 
  5. A Sense of Space Inside
     … We’re trying to put the mind in a position where it can observe itself. After all, the whole point of the teaching is that the suffering that really weighs us down is the suffering created by the mind itself. There may be things happening outside that we don’t like—and some of them can be really bad—but the question of whether … 
  6. Appropriate Attention
     … So for this question the mind always has—“What should I do now?”—he provides an answer for it. This is why the Dhamma is so good for the mind, so right for the mind, because it answers your burning question: You’ve got these responsibilities. How do you handle them, for the sake of a happiness that’s worth the effort that goes … 
  7. You’ve Got Friends
     … If the mind resists, well, watch it for a while and see what the resistance is coming from. One of the peculiar things about the mind is that a lot of the painful things that we carry around have their allure. Part of the mind likes them. And again, that’s something we don’t normally want to see. But once the mind gets … 
  8. Taking a Stance
     … In Pali, the word for the object of the mind, arammana, literally means a “support” for the mind. When you meditate, you want to find a good, solid support, because when your support is solid you can deal with whatever’s coming at you from whatever direction, whether thoughts inside the mind or things people do or say from outside. Your response — if it … 
  9. Attention with an Agenda
     … You’re trying to get the mind into concentration. So you breathe in a way that will give rise to a sense of comfort for the sake of getting the mind into concentration. You use directed thought and evaluation, again for the sake of getting the mind to be willing to settle down, giving it a good place to settle down so that it … 
  10. Duties in the Present
     … After the mind has developed a good solid foundation with the breath, then you can notice where there’s any stress, any pain in the body. Look at how the mind reacts to it. You’ll begin to see that there are lot of unskillful thoughts surrounding the pain. Your duty there is to abandon them, because the mind usually doesn’t just look … 
  11. Clearing a Space
    Practice would be easy if the problems of the mind were neat and orderly, if they fit into nice categories and came in nice, graduated steps—starting first with the easier problems and moving up gradually to the harder ones. That way the practice could be neat and orderly, too: You’d start out with virtue, and when your virtue is perfected you could … 
  12. Training Your Commentator
     … what’s going on with the breath, what’s going on with the mind. If you’re constantly commenting, it gets in the way of seeing what else is happening in the mind on a deeper level. There may be an issue left over from the day that you have to deal with first before the mind will be willing to settle down. And … 
  13. The Skillful Heart
     … The same way when you get the mind really still, get the body really still: The little things that are happening in the mind, the subtle movements of the mind, become very clear. This is the other lesson of discernment, which is that the suffering that’s weighing down the mind is not being imposed on you from outside. It comes from within. Craving … 
  14. Samvega First
    It’s a common pattern that when you clear out some time to meditate, sit down, make up your mind you’re going to stay with the breath, there’s a part of the mind that sees this time as an opportunity to think about all kinds of other things. So you’ve got to nip that tendency in the bud. That’s one … 
  15. Vitakka & Vicara
     … Is this going the way you want, or is it not? You have to apply these fabrications not only to the breath, but also to the mind. What is your mind doing right now? If it’s slipping off, is the problem with the breath or with the mind itself? Where is it slipping out to feed? If you find the mind feeding on … 
  16. Equanimity on the Path
     … For instance, when you’re getting the mind into concentration, anything that comes up that’s not related to the concentration, you’re just going to have equanimity for. Now, this may be temporary. It may be an issue that you have to deal with when you leave concentration. But for the time being, you want to keep the mind on an even keel … 
  17. Pleasant Practice, Painful Practice
     … Where is there still any stress here? You look for what you might be doing to cause the stress, and you notice that by keeping track of the rise and fall of the level of stress in the mind while it’s in concentration. If you catch the activity of the mind that brings on the stress, drop that activity right then and there … 
  18. Shelter
     … You have to be willing to take time, with a sense of confidence that this project we’re working on right here—getting the mind to settle down, getting a good place for the mind to stay—is going to take time because the mind is a very complex phenomenon. Part of it is willing to settle down and another part is not. This … 
  19. A World Apart
     … So we’re looking after the mind both for its own sake and for the sake of the duties we have in the world outside. It’s obvious that when the mind is calmer and clearer, then when you engage in the world outside, you can engage in a way that’s more skillful. But it’s important that we keep our priorities straight … 
  20. Using Your Many Minds
    You’ve probably noticed as you meditate that the mind has lots of minds, lots of different opinions on things, lots of different desires, often in conflict. It’s a major problem, but you can to turn it to your advantage. After all, suppose that you did just have one self, one that was all confused and basically corrupt in its motives. You couldn … 
  21. Concentration
     … You can read as much as you’d like about discernment, inconstancy, stress, not-self, emptiness, whatever, but it’s not really going to have a hold on the mind until the mind settles down firmly and can be still. However much the mind likes to read about those things, its feeding habits are still low. Ajaan Chah’s image of Westerners is one … 
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