Search results for: "Mindfulness"

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  2. Perceptions & Potentials
     … The Buddha compares concentration to a home, a dwelling for the mind; he compares it to good food for the mind, medicine for the mind. Ajaan Lee makes a further comparison: He says that when the mind has this inner sense of virtue, it’s well clothed. So, you’ve got all the requisites: food, clothing, shelter, medicine for the mind. You’re going … 
  3. Invest in the Breath
     … Things you never even noticed you had in your mind before now begin to become clear. So we try to learn both from pleasure and from pain. They can be used to refine our understanding of what our minds are doing. We realize that even with the limitations that come to the body and to the mind, we can still do good with what … 
  4. One Person
     … That’s the function of mindfulness: remembering. Mindfulness and concentration go right together. Without the mindfulness, there can be no concentration, because when you make up your mind to stay with the breath, you have to keep remembering each time you breathe in that that’s what you’ve made up your mind to do. Then try to make being here as pleasant as … 
  5. In & of Themselves
    The basic frames of reference for getting the mind into concentration are three: body, feelings, mind. And the Buddha has you look at these things in and of themselves: the body in and of itself, feelings in and of themselves, mind states in and of themselves, because otherwise, we go and create them into becomings, acts of taking on identities in worlds of experience … 
  6. Hope
     … The same, of course, with the mind: The mind can be changed. It may seem to have a tendency to make up its mind to do one thing and then do something else. Learn how to notice that and not get frustrated but, of course, don’t give in. Simply just drop whatever it is that distracted you, come back, and if the thought … 
  7. Unskillful Voices
     … As I said, when you start to be mindful of your feelings, mindful of your thoughts and emotions, you start seeing things that you don’t like. Some of us try to put them out of mind, and in doing so we can create a little area of the mind where everything gets shoved away. Of course, those things are going to eventually come … 
  8. Obsessive Thinking
     … When you can get sine distance from it, that’s when the mind can settle down. There are two ways of getting the mind into concentration: directed and undirected. The undirected approach is when you see whatever the mind is holding on to that’s not an object of concentration that you want, and you let go of it. The mind settles down on … 
  9. Use Your Defilements
     … And you have to develop good qualities in the mind if you take on the precepts. You have to be mindful to keep the precepts in mind, alert to what you’re doing, and ardent in trying to overcome any intentions that would make you break the precepts. Ardent also in developing the goodwill that nurtures your virtue. As you get more and more … 
  10. Chopping Off Thoughts
     … Tell your mind it has no business thinking about anything else. In order to keep the mind with the breath, you have to make it interesting, so explore what kind of breathing feels good right now: long breathing or short, heavy or light, fast or slow. There are no set instructions on this part. This is what’s up to you. This is what … 
  11. The Story-telling Mind
    The Story-telling Mind June, 2001 We’ve all read how the practice of meditation can dismantle our sense of self as we take a good hard look at the things we identify as me or mine. When you meditate you’re supposed to come into the present moment and drop all reference to the future or the past and simply look at things … 
  12. Mindful & Grateful for Lessons in Freedom
    The way the Buddha defines mindfulness, it’s a neutral quality—simply the ability to remember what was done or said a long time ago. What makes it skillful mindfulness or right mindfulness is when you remember the right things: things that are useful. Like as we’re meditating right now: We’re remembering that it’s a good thing to stay with the … 
  13. Be Bigger Than Your Pains
     … developing those skills—the mindfulness, the concentration, and the discernment. This larger state of mind allows you to be bigger than your sufferings, bigger than your pains, so try to keep this enlarged perspective in mind. One of the Buddha’s terms for the mind in concentration is mahaggatam cittam, the expanded mind or the enlarged mind. You can see things from a larger … 
  14. The Dhamma Wheel
     … In other words, with mindfulness, you could keep anything in mind. And as for alertness, you could watch yourself do anything and that would count as alertness. With ardency, though, you want to be mindful of things that are really skillful to be mindful of. This mindfulness is not just a non-judging awareness. As the Buddha said, the role of mindfulness in the … 
  15. Don’t Believe Everything You Think
     … You have to keep in mind the importance of keeping a good, solid, calm state of mind as a skill that you want to develop. You’re going to need this in your everyday life, as aging comes, illness, as death comes. Your best defense in the face of any pain or danger is a calm mind. Especially if your mind tends to operate … 
  16. The Patience of a Hunter
     … What particular defilement is there in the mind? Which of the voices of the committee of the mind is running things without your realizing it? Just keep those thoughts in the back of your mind. That’s what you’re looking for. Otherwise, the signs can go right past you and you don’t see anything because they are going right past you all … 
  17. Concentration Nurtured with Virtue
     … They don’t guarantee your awakening, but they do give you food for thought, they do train the mind in the qualities of mindfulness, alertness, ingenuity, discernment, compassion, and empathy. In a sense, they soften the mind so that you recognize a mistake when it happens. You’re not stubborn. You don’t put up walls of resistance and denial. That makes the mind … 
  18. When Things Regress
     … If there’s a lot of conversation in your mind, let other people in the mind carry on the conversation. You’re not responsible for it. Just stay right here. What this means is that you have to get your mindfulness, alertness, and ardency well-tuned: mindful not to keep in mind how good it used to be, but mindful to remember the basic … 
  19. Normalcy
     … You get your mind into all kinds of weird situations, weird perceptions, extreme perceptions. Then you’ve got to get yourself out, because that’s not where you’re going—at least not where you’re going if you’re going anywhere sane, anywhere safe. So when you catch the mind trying to push itself into an unusual state, pull back. Remind yourself that … 
  20. How to Talk to Yourself
     … You recognize them as they come into the mind and you know which category they fall into: They’re the causes for suffering. So you want to abandon them. Then there are good qualities that come up in the mind: mindfulness, the ability to keep something in mind; alertness, your ability to watch what you’re doing and to see the results that you … 
  21. Using Your Many Minds
    You’ve probably noticed as you meditate that the mind has lots of minds, lots of different opinions on things, lots of different desires, often in conflict. It’s a major problem, but you can to turn it to your advantage. After all, suppose that you did just have one self, one that was all confused and basically corrupt in its motives. You couldn … 
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