Search results for: "The Mind"

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  2. Simplify
     … But when you learn how to develop a greater sense of spaciousness in the mind, a greater sense of wellbeing in the mind, after a while you begin to realize it doesn’t depend on the level of energy in the body at all. The mind begins to have its own internal nourishment, its own internal place to recharge. This is why we spend … 
  3. Three Levels of Effort
     … I’m here to learn about the mind, to strengthen the mind, to develop good qualities in the mind because that’s how happiness is found.” So setting things up like this is going to take a while, especially if you haven’t meditated before. But it’s a first step that everybody has to follow through with. The Buddha talks about three levels … 
  4. Develop Your Inner Observer
     … The more sensitive you get to how the mind fabricates, even on the bare level of bare awareness, the more likely you are to get the mind inclined to want to find something that goes beyond this, something that’s not fabricated. But in the meantime, work on developing this skill, because it helps you sort out a lot of things in the mind … 
  5. Worldly Narratives
     … Then you finally get to a point where they say you, “incline the mind to non-fabrication.” And that’s what heads you in the direction of awakening. So, there are many steps in this process of peeling away the layers of the mind, like layers of an onion. It’s not just that you say, “Okay, stop thinking. Put the mind into a … 
  6. At Normalcy
     … But once you’ve put the mind in a position of feeding off its moods, you find that it’s got a lot of other things to feed on as well, such as depression or sorrow. Once you create that kind of mouth and stomach for the mind, hoping to feed off the good moods, it’s open to take in the sad moods … 
  7. Humility & Confidence
     … You’ve got a quality that the Buddha calls luminosity of the mind. It doesn’t mean that the mind is already awakened or already pure. What it means is the mind can observe itself. You’ll be observing not only the breath, but also the mind as it relates to the breath—and that, in fact, is going to be the important part … 
  8. Suffering is an Addiction
     … It’s an old bad habit, and meditating goes against the easy routes of the mind. In the Buddha’s terms, he says that when you think in certain ways, you bend the mind in that direction. So now you’re trying to bend the mind in a different direction. If it’s a young sapling, it’s easy to bend, but if it … 
  9. A Full Life
     … Actions don’t just stay in the mind. They come out and they affect the world outside. Sometimes you hear some people say, “Karma is simply a matter of the mind affecting the mind,” but that’s not true. The mind affects the world around you. You’ve got to be careful about where your mind wanders. Let go of anything you notice that … 
  10. The Buddha’s Protection
     … Trying to get the mind to settle down, because the mind, when it’s settled down, is in a much more secure place. It can watch itself. It can see its actions clearly. You’re going to need to see them clearly because following the Buddha’s teachings is not just a matter of following the rules. When the Buddha says that certain types … 
  11. Oozing Bodies, Oozing Minds
     … One is effluent, something that comes flowing out of the mind. Usually in English we think of an effluent as something dirty, and that gives a pretty good idea of the implication in Pali as well. It’s something that defiles the mind, something unclean. Another translation is fermentation, something that comes bubbling up out of the mind. Either translation is effective in getting … 
  12. Beyond Likes & Dislikes
     … There are two parts of the mind: the part that likes to fool itself and the part that likes to be fooled. It’s like little kids playing together. “Okay, I’ll be the doctor, you be the patient,” or, “I’ll be the doctor, you be the nurse,” or whatever. The two parts of the mind say, “Okay, let’s play along,” and … 
  13. Exploring the Basics
     … That helps with the staying power of the meditation because after all, the mind is a very complex organ. Training the mind is not a matter of forcing it into a few simple and draconian modes. To train the mind, you have to engage the whole mind. So remind yourself that when the body breathes in a healthy way, it’s healthier. The organs … 
  14. Don’t Objectify
    We focus on watching the breath so that ultimately the mind can watch itself, because the breath is probably the closest thing that you could focus on outside of the mind. In the beginning, it’s a lot easier to stay with the breath than it is just to stay with awareness, because awareness is so large and vague and has such ill-defined … 
  15. The Purity of Your Intentions
     … The needs of the mind have to do with having something that’s interesting to observe. Here again, your intention is important. When you think about how the breath fabricates feeling, and feeling fabricates the mind, you realize how important it is to get to know the breath. Then you think about all the important things you’re going to learn about the mind … 
  16. The Right Focal Length
     … What’s the mind cooking up right now? What new issues is it creating to stab itself with? Try to take those four noble truths seriously. The cause of stress and suffering that’s weighing on the mind is what’s happening in the mind itself. The things outside that it brings in to aggravate its suffering are brought in through craving and clinging … 
  17. Intelligent about Change
     … Here he was, the master of analogies, and even he couldn’t find an analogy for how quickly the mind can change. The twinkling of an eye is still slower than the mind when it’s ready to change. And that’s the kind of change you have to fight. Once the mind is in good shape, you have to resist its tendency to … 
  18. Mange in the Mind
     … You see the intentions of the mind, the activity of the mind, because that’s where the suffering comes from. It doesn’t come from your body—although the mind can create a lot of suffering around the body. The body gets sick, you get upset. The body is growing old, you get upset. The body is getting ready to die, you feel abandoned … 
  19. A Master of Your Thoughts
     … The “doing it” is a simple matter of bringing the mind to the breath—or if you want, to buddho, to the parts of the body, or to any of the recollections. If you choose the breath, try to bring the mind to the breath and then evaluate it. Is this a good place to stay? Then you make adjustments. If the breath doesn … 
  20. Mindful Judgment
    We meditate because the mind needs to be developed, or the good qualities in the mind need to be developed. The word for meditation in Pali, bhavana, means literally that: development, bringing things into being, or taking what’s already there and strengthening it. Mindfulness, alertness, concentration, discernment: These are all things we have to some extent, and what we’re doing is learning … 
  21. Into the Cave with the Tiger
     … It means things that are caused, and in particular, things that are caused from within the mind. But now you’ve found something that’s not caused from within the mind. It’s not caused at all, which is why the idea of “whatever is subject to origination” would naturally occur to the mind at that point. In opposition to whatever is subject to … 
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