Search results for: "The Mind"

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  2. Choices Now & at Death
     … Have confidence that you can change the mind. You have that choice. And the mind does have possibilities, many of which are more than you can imagine. So, train the mind in the direction where it will go for the best possibilities. Keep in mind the principle of choice and have the confidence that, yes, you can learn how to make better and better … 
  3. Success Through Maturity
     … Breathe in a way that steadies the mind, gladdens the mind, or releases the mind, depending on what the mind needs. What all of these steps have in common is that they’re very proactive. They’re aimed at giving rise to certain states, getting the mind into right concentration. There is a purpose to all this. The Buddha’s instructions on mindfulness, if … 
  4. Pleasure on the Path
     … Then as you find yourself getting more and more interested in this flow of energy in the body, the mind begins to settle down. A quality of ease comes with that, when the mind has one place where it can stay and doesn’t have to go jumping around. It’s like trying out different places to sleep and none of them quite work … 
  5. What Should I Do?
    One of the questions that gnaws most frequently at the mind is, “What should I do?” It goes deeper, it eats deeper, than questions, say, like, “Who am I? What am I?” because our identity isn’t always an issue, but we’re constantly called on to make choices as to what to do. And that question, “What should I do?” implies a couple … 
  6. Immersed in the Body
     … They can hit the mind with a lot more violence, with a lot more force than the wobbling or sudden braking of a subway train. So the mind needs a really solid stance. This is why we work on providing this support for the mind not only while we’re sitting here meditating but also throughout the day. Some people complain that it’s … 
  7. Contentment vs. Initiative
     … the wandering-on of the mind. It keeps creating new worlds to think about and then to inhabit. You follow them for a while and then, when you get tired of one world, you create another one. You’ve got lots of worlds going on all at once: That’s the normal habit of the mind. So it’s going to take some effort … 
  8. Perceiving the Breath
     … You want to have that sense of allowing the mind to relax fully into the body in the same sort of liquid way. What you’re doing is giving the mind something good to return to here in the present moment because, especially as you’re beginning to meditate, you find it has other things going on as well. You’ve told yourself you … 
  9. Hindrances Based on Delusion
     … to see what kind of thinking leads to calming the mind, centering the mind, so that you can get past these obstacles and get the mind into a good, solid state of fixed penetration.
  10. Thinking & Not Thinking
     … At the same time, look after the mind. Be sensitive to the mind. Try to gladden it so that it’s happy to be here. Part of gladdening requires talking to yourself about what a good thing it is that you’re able to meditate. And then you can gladden it further by making the breath really comfortable, so that it’s very pleasurable … 
  11. Fear of the Truth
     … Ultimately, the Buddha says the highest noble truth—the truth of liberation, the truth of nibbana—is the ultimate protection for the mind, the ultimate place of security and safety. That, too, is a possibility in the mind, a potential in the mind—in your mind. So don’t let all the unskillful potentials scare you off. There are plenty of good things to … 
  12. Breath, Tranquility, & Insight
     … Verbal fabrication is your directed thought and evaluation, as when you bring up a topic in the mind and then evaluate it. This is how we create sentences in the mind, ask questions in the mind. The third type of fabrication is mental fabrication, which is composed of feelings of pleasure, pain or neither pleasure nor pain, and then your perceptions. Those things—feelings … 
  13. The Uses of Fear
     … How and why does the mind hide these things from itself? And how do you know that it’s about to happen? When you can anticipate that it’s about to happen, you’ll notice it’s because of a sense of irritation or boredom or antsiness in the mind. Even though you’re standing with the breath, the mind is beginning to look … 
  14. Looking for Happiness Inside
     … The part of the mind that wants to direct this and say, “focus here, focus there,” gets thrown into sharp relief. And you ask yourself: “Who’s talking to whom in here?” You start questioning the very, very basic movements of the mind, until you see an opening where there are no movements of the mind at all. That may sound very abstract, but … 
  15. Hope
     … So try to get the mind as still as possible so that you can be more precisely aware of what you’re doing and the results of what you do. The more quiet you are, the more you can see. The more still you are, the more you can see the little movements of the mind as they run out after things. Ajaan Lee … 
  16. Peace of Mind
     … It has to involve peace of mind, because if the mind is agitated, if the mind is worked up, then no matter how good things may be otherwise, you can’t really be happy. So this is the essential ingredient. That’s why we’re meditating: to find peace of mind. So how do you make your mind peaceful? Remind yourself that its well … 
  17. Take Down Your Sails
     … When something comes up in the mind, first question, is it true? Two, is it beneficial? There are a lot of true things out there that are not beneficial at all, especially for the training of the mind. And then three, is this the right time and place for that? If you can apply this to your meditation, you’ll find that it helps … 
  18. The Dangers of Sensuality
     … Look at them from the point of view of what’s called “metacognition,” where part of the mind steps back from another part of the mind and observes it. You look for the origination of the fantasy. What sparks it? The problem is that all too often we’re aware of the fantasy only well after it’s been sparked, because there are subterranean … 
  19. Breathing through Daily Life
    Breathing through Daily Life September 4, 2003 The mind is always working. If it were doing just one or two jobs at a time, that would be no big problem. But it’s usually juggling several jobs at once. No wonder it’s tired. Relationships, responsibilities, jobs, issues: Lots of things are going on in the mind all at once. Often when we start … 
  20. To Comprehend Suffering
     … Then you begin to watch the mind. What did the mind just do when it flared up? Not in reaction to the flaring up—what did it do to cause the flaring up? Then, when it calmed down, what did the mind do at that point? What’s the connection? You can see cause and effect right here in the present moment. In Thai … 
  21. Focus on What You’re Doing
     … I’ve got to push what’s left to push.” He said to Anuruddha, “That’s your restlessness right there.” Sometimes you have some preconceived notions about how things should work, and you just push, push, push, push the mind the mind in that direction. And it doesn’t work. As Ajaan Fuang once said, “If we could push our way into nibbana, we … 
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