Search results for: "Mindfulness"

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  2. How to Save the World
     … The intentions that shape your life come out of the mind, which is why the central part of the practice is meditation, like we’re doing right now: working with the mind, training the mind, in the same way you’d train a vine in a particular direction. You keep bending it, bending it, bending it, without letting it snap, but directing it in … 
  3. Five Precepts, Five Virtues
    The Pali word for meditation, bhāvanā, means to develop, to try to develop good qualities in the mind. Even with something simple like this, focusing on the breath: Take a couple of good long deep in-and-out breaths, and try to stay with nothing but the breath. In other words, the sound of the crickets, the sound of the wind, the sound of … 
  4. Subduing Greed & Distress
     … So when we talk about mindfulness and concentration, we’re talking about the same things here. Right mindfulness is simply how you get the mind into right concentration. When the Buddha describes the four jhanas in right concentration, he’s talking about the stages the mind will go through. But in the description of right concentration, he doesn’t tell you how to get … 
  5. A World Apart
     … In the same way, when you focus on the breath, you can understand the movements of the mind. And when the movements of your own mind are clear, then you’re a lot more in control. So you create this space to give the mind strength, to give it understanding, partly because you can then take that mind that you’ve trained and use … 
  6. Momentum Through Restraint
     … Now, that requires that you develop some good qualities in the mind that are conducive to the meditation: mindfulness to keep the precept in mind, alertness to watch your behavior to make sure it stays in line with the precepts, and ardency to stick with this—because there will be times when your precepts get challenged. Say you’re asked for some information that … 
  7. Even Animals Can Be Trained
     … You hold on to your ability to get the mind into concentration, because this is the only way to get across. This is why we train the mind to begin with. As the Buddha said, the untrained mind is resistant. You try to get it to do the things you want it to do, and it’ll do something else. But when you realize … 
  8. The Problem of Suffering
     … When the mind is really still, it can use those same three characteristics as tools for prying loose more refined attachments. That’s why the teachings are there. So keep this in mind. The Buddha’s teachings are best understood from this perspective, from this perspective of a still mind: Alert. Mindful. Inquisitive. In other words, when a disturbance comes up, you want to … 
  9. Endurance
     … You’re going to be looking at your own mind as the mind is looking at the breath. In the beginning, you want to pay most attention to the breath, and pay attention to the mind mainly when it’s not with the breath. When it’s wandering off, bring it back. Try to breathe in a way that will make the mind want … 
  10. Distractive Thoughts
     … But know that you probably will wander off again, because that’s the way the mind is used to operating. When they talk about samsara, it’s not a place, it’s an activity of the mind that wanders around. This is what the mind’s been doing for who knows how long. So take it for granted that the mind will wander off … 
  11. Establishing Priorities
     … You’ve got to keep in mind the fact that the mind has to be trained if you want to gain true happiness, and you don’t want to train the mind only when you sit here with your eyes closed. You want the training to be 24/7 because the mind’s potential to create problems is 24/7 as well. So it … 
  12. Do You Want to Stop Suffering?
     … You learn to watch your mind more carefully. This ability to watch your own mind in action: That’s the discernment that allows you to dig deeper and deeper and deeper inside, always with that thought in mind: There’s something that you’re doing that’s causing stress, that’s weighing down the mind, and you don’t have to do it. You … 
  13. A Positive-Sum Game
     … Each time you’ve overcome the impulse to go someplace else, there’s a small victory in the mind. The mind will come up with all kinds of reasons as to why you should move someplace else. As you learn to see through those reasons, that’s another victory. You’ve gained some insight into how the mind pushes itself around, how it lets … 
  14. Protection from Fools
     … So the skill you need is to be still, and keeping the mind still requires mindfulness and alertness to protect it: mindfulness to keep your meditation object in mind, and alertness to see how well you’re staying with it. Then comes discernment, the ability to see how you can maintain that still state in the midst of your other activities. For most of … 
  15. Right Livelihood
    For the mind to settle down, you need to give it space. This principle works on many layers. You need to give it a good space in the body. You need to give it a good space in your life. Because meditation isn’t simply a practice that you can fit into the cracks of your life regardless of what shape those cracks are … 
  16. Working at Home
    Working at Home August 13, 2008 A traditional Pali term for concentration is vihara-dhamma, a home for the mind. It’s a place where the mind can stay. But it’s also more than that. As with any home, there’s more to the home than just the bedroom. And there’s more to the home than just living in it. First you … 
  17. Training Your Inner Teacher
    We’re trying to find a special kind of truth inside ourselves, the truth of the end of suffering, a deathless dimension that can be accessed by the mind. The Buddha describes the steps in awakening to that truth. You start by finding a teacher who’s reliable, and you listen to the Dhamma; you pay careful attention; you try to remember the Dhamma … 
  18. Nuclear Thinking
     … Mindfulness and alertness are like teachers of the mind, and you’ve got to train them to be sharp and wise. When alert mindfulness fills the body, fills your awareness, then your random thoughts get very quiet. But your thoughts are sneaky. As soon as mindfulness slips a little bit, a new thought forms in the corner. Then it spreads out to fill up … 
  19. Hindrances to the Heightened Mind
     … Just because something comes up in the mind, they make us feel that we’re committed, that we have to think the thought through. There’s also the problem where one part of the mind says, “Well, as long as I’m trying to get the mind into concentration, I can’t let there be any thoughts at all in the mind,” and so … 
  20. Perceptions of the Breath
    Perceptions of the Breath March 23, 2010 To bring the mind to the breath, you need to have a perception—a label or a picture in mind—as a way of reminding yourself where you want to stay, and exactly what topic you’re focusing on. That’s because all the states of concentration up to the dimension of nothingness are called perception attainments … 
  21. How the Tree Leans
     … The same applies to the mind. You can be sitting here very still with the mind focused on the present moment. But the present moment keeps changing. The present moment you were focused on just a few seconds ago is gone. The mind is leaning in different directions. As the Buddha said, based on the thoughts that you encourage in your mind, it’s … 
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