Search results for: "Mindfulness"

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  2. The Triple Training
     … What we’re doing here is lifting the level of the mind, training the mind in a way where the three aspects connect with one another. Heightened virtue is meant to make it easier to get the mind concentrated. Heightened discernment is meant to make it easier to get the mind concentrated. Heightened mind helps with your virtue, it helps with discernment. And your … 
  3. An Island in the Flood
     … What does it mean to practice these things, and to make yourself an island for yourself in this way? Look at those three qualities— ardent, alert, mindful—taken in the reverse order. Mindful means keeping something in mind. Like right now, you’re keeping the breath in mind. That’s part of the body in and of itself—in other words, your body as … 
  4. Now & at Death
    When you try to get the mind in concentration, there are five qualities that can get in the way, five ways of thinking. They’re called hindrances, nīvaraṇa: sensual desire, ill will, sloth and torpor, restlessness and anxiety, and doubt. But these aren’t just obstacles to concentration. When the Buddha talks about the things you have to watch out for when you’re … 
  5. Don’t Limit Yourself
     … So we work on mindfulness. As for concentration, you keep your focus. With concentration, you’re trying to keep your focus going as long as possible. And again, it enables you to see things you didn’t see before. 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 … 
  6. Bursting Bubbles
     … These potentials are here in the mind. For example, with restlessness: We talked about this a little bit today. When the mind seems overcome by restlessness, you’ve got to remember that there’s a part of the mind, there are these potentials in the mind that you can be bringing to the fore. One of the potentials is that even though the thoughts … 
  7. Driving Lessons
    The Buddha’s instructions for right concentration come in his description of right mindfulness: keeping track of the body in and of itself—ardent, alert, mindful—putting aside greed and distress with reference to the world. That describes two activities, and three qualities of mind you bring to them. The two activities are, on the one hand, having a topic that you stay with … 
  8. Lessons of Right Resolve
     … And there comes a point where thinking wears the mind out. This is when the mind gets inclined to concentration. You need a place for the mind to rest. It’s in this way that mundane right resolve develops into transcendent right resolve. There’s a very clear connection between right resolve and right concentration. After all, what is concentration? The mind is firmly … 
  9. The Veils of Delusion
     … The process is what’s important because this process is what keeps the mind weak, keeps the mind dependent on things outside. If we learn how to see through these processes in the mind, making all these creations, we begin to see that the mind doesn’t need things outside. If it learns how to see through these things, take them apart, it comes … 
  10. Your Inner Mob
    Your Inner Mob September 6, 2005 The mind is like a town meeting: lots of people, lots of different opinions. Sometimes the town meeting is well run — people are reasonable, courteous — but often it goes out of control. People start shouting, and a kind of mob psychology takes over. If you’re standing outside the mob, it’s easy enough to see that the … 
  11. Approaching the four noble truths
     … The term for singleness of mind—cittass’ ekaggata—is sometimes translated as one-pointedness of mind: so one-pointed that, in some cases, people interpret it as meaning you can’t even sense your body or anything else around you. Of course, that wouldn’t work for a Dhamma talk. What the term really means is the mind is gathered together around one thing … 
  12. The Buddha’s Wisdom
     … The practice of concentration actually begins with mindfulness: The Buddha gives you new things to keep in mind, not just the precepts, but now you’re going to focus on, say, just the breath in and of itself, or feelings or mind states just in and of themselves. But it’s good to start with the breath because everything else revolves around that. You … 
  13. Strength for Your Goodness
     … So strengthen your mind. Other people have done that in the past. You can give it a try, too. The third strength is mindfulness. Now, mindfulness for the Buddha means keeping something in mind. It’s a faculty of the active memory. You’re trying to get the mind into concentration. And you remember, one, you have to stay with one object. And two … 
  14. Two Hands Washing
     … For instance when you try to keep the mind with the breath, sometimes you find that the mind settles down very easily. They seem to fit. There’s very little problem: direct the mind to the breath and it settles down. Other times, though, it won’t settle down. You’ve got other issues going on. So, the first question you have to ask … 
  15. Close to the Heart
     … Now, this opening may happen suddenly or gradually, but the important point is that as you get to know the breath, get close to the breath, you’re also getting closer and closer to your own mind, closer to the more sensitive parts of your mind. As you deal with the breath more precisely, with more sensitivity, you find that the mind is finally … 
  16. Sober Up
     … One of the first steps is getting the mind to stay with one thing so that you can learn how to rely on it, and so that it can keep things in mind. When it jumps around from thought to thought, there’s a little bit of forgetting that goes in between each of the thoughts. And there’s a part of the mind … 
  17. Three Virtues for the Mind
    When we think about the precepts, we tend to think about the five precepts dealing with actions of the body and the words we say, but there’s also a list of precepts for the mind. It involves three things: avoiding excessive greed, avoiding ill will, and developing right view. This is part of what we’re doing as we meditate: developing these virtues … 
  18. Established in Full
    When you establish mindfulness, you’re doing two things. One, you put aside greed and distress with reference to the world. Two, you try to keep track of something here in the present moment. It can be the body in and of itself, feelings in and of themselves, mind states in and of themselves, but we usually start with the body and we don … 
  19. Single-minded Determination
    Single-minded Determination June 15, 2004 We’re here for the sake of true happiness. That’s why the Buddha left his palace and went out into the wilderness. He wasn’t satisfied with the happiness that comes in normal, everyday life. He wanted a happiness that was dependable, a happiness really worth all the effort that would go into it. All kinds of … 
  20. The Fires of Sensuality
     … As a result, that part of the mind just gets starved, starved, starved, so that it feels all alone. What the Buddha is doing here is giving some food to that part of the mind, the part of the mind that wants a happiness that doesn’t have to be tied down to these things. These contemplations will help incline the mind to want … 
  21. The Flowing Mind
     … You’re doing it all the time, as the mind flows out to the senses. It’s not that things from outside come in and stir up trouble in the mind. The mind is going out looking for trouble, looking for distraction, looking for entertainment. Sometimes it looks for things to get lustful about; other times, things to get angry about. It’s because … 
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