Search results for: "Mindfulness"

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  2. An Island above the Flood
     … Where do your actions come from? They come from the mind, and when you’re dealing with the mind you want to look at things simply on the level of name and form: mental events and physical properties. So you’ve got ardency, alertness, mindfulness; then you’ve got the property of the breath, and you bring all those together. That forms your island … 
  3. Genuine Goodness
     … What are the best ways to bring the mind to stillness? What are best ways to gain a sense of well-being in the mind? Focus on the breath, see how it feels. What kind of breathing feels best? In focusing on the breath, you’re also learning about the mind. As Ajaan Lee says, the breath is like a mirror for the mind … 
  4. Guardian Meditations
     … So you look at the object of the lust, then you look at the fact of lust in the mind itself. When you can develop dispassion for both, then the mind can become more free. When the Buddha talks about dispassion, he often pairs it with the fact that the mind becomes unfettered, the mind escapes from its prisons that it builds for itself … 
  5. Dwelling in Emptiness
     … As we’re working on bringing the mind to stillness, it’s pretty obvious when you’re struggling with it, that the inability to get the mind to settle down is suffering. Once the mind does get settled down, there’s going to be a sense of ease. But that phase of being unable to get the mind to settle down: It’s good … 
  6. In Charge of Your Moods
     … If your mind is like sails on a sailboat, the breeze comes, the sails catch the breeze, and the boat goes wherever the breeze will take it. So, take down your sails. Let the wind blow right through—but you stay right here. You’re trying to develop a special quality of the mind: the mind when it’s still, at ease, solidly here … 
  7. The Skills of Truth & Calm
     … Well, you’re talking to yourself about the breath, about the mind settling down with the breath, trying to get them snugly together. Then you’ve got perceptions and feelings. You’re trying to create a feeling of ease, well-being. And you’ve got certain perceptions about how the body relates to the mind, the mind relates to the body. Where is your … 
  8. Anxiety
     … And then there are the perceptions, the images you have in your mind: the image of the breath, the image of the energy flowing. Actually, there are a lot of images running through the mind. If you dig around inside, you’ll find lots of ways in which your mind communicates with itself through the images and words that it sends back and forth … 
  9. Simple & Basic
     … The mind wanders off: Bring it back. Wanders off again, bring it back again. Make the breath comfortable. See if making the breath comfortable makes it easier to stay. This is all pretty basic stuff, but there’s a lot there. When the mind wanders off and you’re bringing it back, all the factors of dependent co-arising are in there—if you … 
  10. The Body In & Of Itself
     … That’s why the Buddha talks about giving your mindfulness a place to get established. This is your frame of reference right here. Mindfulness means the ability to keep something in mind. Right now you’re going to remember the breath, keep the breath in mind, keep the body right here in mind—in other words, keep reminding yourself that this is the world … 
  11. Evaluating Your Practice
    Evaluating Your Practice January 12, 2012 When you try to bring the mind into concentration, there are two mental faculties that do most of the work. One is directed thought, and the other is evaluation. You bring your mind to the object, or as they say in Thai, you lift the mind to the object, you lift the object to the mind. This means … 
  12. Good Heart, Good Mind
     … When Ajaan Lee explains the different factors of mindfulness, for him the discernment faculty is ardency, which is another word for persistence, realizing that the ability to get your mind to settle down is so important that you should keep at it regardless of how long it takes. And also find ways of making the mind want to settle down. That’s discernment in … 
  13. Full Attention
     … The mind state that stays focused here, that’s the mind. Then, of course, there’s the mental quality of mindfulness, along with all the other factors for awakening. The thinking here is the thinking that tries to analyze how well all this is going. You make adjustments and then evaluate how well it feels. If you sense that it would be good to … 
  14. What Right Mindfulness Remembers
    The Buddha compares mindfulness to a gatekeeper: one who knows who to let in and who not to let in. This is a gatekeeper at a fortress at the frontier. There are a lot of people you do not want to let into that fortress: basically greed, aversion, and delusion. You do let in skillful mental qualities: right view all the way down through … 
  15. Discipline
     … One is simply that mindfulness is your governing principle. You want that to take charge. Mindfulness, of course, takes many shapes because it depends on what you’re going to remember, what you’re going to keep in mind. Part of what you have to keep in mind is your willingness to motivate yourself to stick with the practice, what you’re going to … 
  16. Protection
     … what’s coming in and what’s lying latent in your mind, what could be easily disturbed. So you’ve got to be careful, you’ve got to be vigilant, not to pick up diseases from outside, and to watch out for any tendency in the mind to go for those diseases. Sometimes you hear that the problem of the mind is that we … 
  17. Bodies & Minds Outside
    Bodies & Minds Outside October 21, 2013 When describing the various ways of developing or establishing mindfulness, the Buddha talks about being focused on the body in and of itself, internally, externally, or both. And the same with feelings, mind, and mental qualities: You can focus on them either internally, externally, or both. Internally, it’s pretty obvious what he’s talking about: your own … 
  18. Your Intentions Come First
     … As the Buddha said, the mind is in the forefront of all things. The very first verses in the Dhammapada say, “The mind is the forerunner of all dhammas; it’s in charge.” So don’t abdicate the fact that you’re in charge. Take advantage of it. Make up your mind that you’re going to stay here and keep that in mind … 
  19. Organizing Your Inner Committee
    Organizing Your Inner Committee February 6, 2011 As you meditate, you want to bring the whole mind to the breath. Sometimes it’s easy. You’re in the mood, everybody in the mind is in the mood, and they all can settle down. But other times, some members of the committee would rather do something else. They have their other agendas, their other desires … 
  20. The Power of Intention
    After an active day like today, you may have to do some active sweeping out of the mind before it’s ready to settle down. Just remind yourself with regard to whatever you did this morning, whatever you did this afternoon: Sweep it out, sweep it out, sweep it out. It’s not a concern right now. What you’re planning to do tomorrow … 
  21. Chronic Pain
     … Is the pain the same thing as the mind? The pain doesn’t know anything. The mind is aware. The pain is not aware. The mind has intentions. The pain has no intentions. Learn to see these three things as separate—the body, the pain, and the mind—and that way, the mind can be there at the same time that there’s pain … 
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