Search results for: "The Mind"

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  2. On Top of Your Actions
     … But if part of the mind reflects back on something you did or said in the course of the day and you know that it was not right speech, you have to recognize that. And that puts the mind on the right track. The same with right action: Anything you did that was opposed to the principles of right action, you want to make … 
  3. Light Merit
     … The mind can be light; the mind can be fresh. As you work with the breath, you find with each new breath that there is a possibility for good energy coming into the body, bad energy flowing out. It’s a good symbol for what the mind can do, because the mind does not have to be a slave to what was done in … 
  4. Knowing & Acting
     … When the mind is in that mode, it doesn’t really gain any insight at all. But when it sees the connection—“Oh, you do this and this results. When you do that, that results”: That’s insight. It gives you a stronger, stronger sense of what you’re doing, whether it’s skillful or not, whether it’s causing suffering or not. The … 
  5. Setbacks
     … When the mind is nurtured with discernment, then it’s released from the effluents.” In other words, there is the possibility of having concentration without virtue or having discernment without concentration, but in cases like that they don’t lead to great rewards. It’s also not necessary that when you’re virtuous, the mind becomes concentrated or when you’re concentrated, you gain … 
  6. To Certify Yourself
     … If you notice that, you can let it go, and yet the mind can still stay in place. After a while, the process of the mind’s talking to itself about the breath becomes unnecessary too, because the mind is right here. Ajaan Fuang’s analogy is that it’s like having a water buffalo and you call the water buffalo to you. As … 
  7. Immersed in the Body
     … You really do want to get the mind into concentration because it’s an important part of the path. It’s your food on the path. It’s your foundation. If you’re going to see the mind clearly, you have to see it when it’s still—or as the Buddha used another term, when your mindfulness is immersed in the body. You … 
  8. Getting Your Head Around the Goal
     … It’s through these exercises of mindfulness and concentration that the mind’s powers of perception can grow. When the mind is more still, it can see subtler things. It develops a more refined sense of what kind of pleasure can be experienced in the present moment. It also becomes sensitive to more refined levels of stress, dis-ease, or disturbance in the mind … 
  9. Focused on the Breath
     … We’re here to learn about the mind. And one of the best ways of learning about the mind is trying to keep it in concentration—at the same time learning how not to be deceived by thoughts that’d pull you away. There’s a part of the mind that wants to be entertained, wants variety, wants change, so it’ll go for … 
  10. The Pursuit of True Happiness
     … The commentaries call this upadhi viveka , being secluded from the mind’s acquisitions, or the mind’s baggage: your cravings, your clingings, your conceits, your ignorance. Dig into the present moment and find out exactly what’s happening here. How is it that the mind can still create suffering and stress even when you’re centered in the present moment? It’s very subtle … 
  11. Rivers of Craving
     … There is this tendency of the mind to follow its cravings, which is what causes suffering. As long as the mind is weak, it gives in to whatever impulse comes in if it hasn’t been trained. So part of the training is to strengthen the mind, so that even when the body is tired, even when it’s sick, you still have mental … 
  12. Don’t Just Fatten Your Mind
     … We try to settle the mind with one object, like the breath, and bring the mind to the object in a way that it feels at ease and has a sense of fullness, refreshment. So we work with the breath to see what kind of breathing would feel good, and then we learn to live with that sense of well-being. This is why … 
  13. Choices in the Present
     … You find that it not only sends a sense of ease through the body, but it also soothes the mind. It helps to heal any wounds in the mind—places where you felt deprived, places where you felt hurt, wounded. This helps to ease a lot of the feeling of rawness that goes along with those wounds. Then, when you’re feeling healed and … 
  14. Practice Without Gaps
     … The original intention is not so hard, but maintaining it—that’s where you run into difficulties, because the mind does have a tendency to jump around. Then it’ll come back, and then somehow it jumps again without your even realizing that it’s jumped. So you have to train yourself to be more alert to what’s going on in the mind … 
  15. Choose Your Actions Wisely
     … For the mind to hold on means that it keeps coming back to do the same thing again and again and again. So we’re back to that issue of actions, the actions of the mind. You’ve got to figure out why you keep doing something that’s not that skillful. Sometimes it’s just a lack of imagination. You can’t think … 
  16. Escape from Inter-eating
     … So to train the mind, you sit here moment-by-moment, breath-by-breath, watching the mind as it stays with the breath because the movements of the mind are important. And you don’t really know them until you see how they begin. This means that we’re not here just to rest or get some stress reduction. We get the mind still … 
  17. Values
    There are lots of different ways of getting the mind to settle down, and the breath is the object the Buddha discussed most frequently and in most detail for settling down with. But there are other ways of getting the mind to settle down as well. You can focus on the Buddha, the Dhamma, the Sangha either by simply repeating one of those words … 
  18. Choices
     … This is why we’re focusing on the mind here in the present moment: because of the power of the mind in the present moment to shape both the present moment and the future. So, if you’re focused on the breath, really be sincere in sticking with it. The Buddha says you should be mindful, alert, ardent. In other words, keep the breath … 
  19. Four Determinations
     … You have to think your way to get the mind to settle down with the breath: You adjust the breath to fit with the mind; you adjust the mind to fit with the breath. But there comes a point where you don’t have to adjust anymore. The fit is perfect, or at least good enough to settle down in. But often the mind … 
  20. Right Resolve & Right Speech
     … If the mind is settling down with the breath, fine. Keep it going. Try to breathe in a way that’s comfortable. But if the mind is not settling down, you have to look into why. This is where you want to hear more truthful speech inside. What’s the mind focused on? There will be times when it’ll be embarrassed to admit … 
  21. The Allure of Sensuality
     … There’s a part of the mind that will be willing to do almost anything, and there are parts of the mind that will do anything, to get that pleasure back—which is why you can’t trust it. But the pleasure of concentration makes the mind much more trustworthy because you know you’ve got something good right here that doesn’t require … 
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