Search results for: "Mindfulness"

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  2. 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 … 
  3. 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 … 
  4. 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 … 
  5. 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 … 
  6. 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 … 
  7. 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 … 
  8. 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 … 
  9. 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 … 
  10. 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 … 
  11. Prevention
     … But mindfulness doesn’t function that way. Mindfulness is actually a quality of your memory, applying useful things from your memory of the past to the present moment with the knowledge that your mind is always creating karma. The mind is not just passively receiving input. It’s out there actively creating the world that it knows. Some of that creation involves input from … 
  12. Abandoning Effluents (2)
    Luang Pu Dune, one of Ajaan Mun’s most senior disciples, had a famous short explanation of the four noble truths, in which he said that the cause of suffering is the mind flowing out. The path to the end of suffering is the mind knowing the mind. This teaching fits in with what the Buddha taught about asavas, or effluents: the things that … 
  13. Elemental Energy
    When we get in touch with the breath, we’re getting in touch with the spot where the mind and the body meet, which makes it a really good place to focus. You look in one direction, and there are physical events; you look in the other direction, there are mental events. You see how they come through the breath to each other, how … 
  14. Rooted in Desire
    Rooted in Desire August 28, 2017 The Dhammapada starts with two verses on the topic of the power of the mind: “The mind is the forerunner of all dhammas. The mind is their chief; they’re made of the mind.” And we may say, on one level, that this sounds reasonable. The way you look at things, the way you act, will have an … 
  15. The Craft of the Heart
     … Sometimes our mindfulness is like the phrases in music. There’s a phrase that lasts for a while and then stops. And then there’s another phrase which goes on and then stops. Can you imagine your mindfulness not stopping, as not occurring in phrases, but just drilling right through time? Holding that image in mind can help strengthen your concentration. So in the … 
  16. Impossible Things
     … So try to overcome that barrier in your mind that deep down someplace says, “I can’t do this.” Question it. Why would you want to believe that? Who in your mind is saying that? It’s the part of the mind that doesn’t want to make an effort. Do you want to identify with that part of the mind? You can if … 
  17. The Knife of Discernment
    The Knife of Discernment April, 2002 The mind feeds on its moods and its objects, so you’ve got to find something good for it to feed on. We have the choice. There are all kinds of things you could focus on right now. It’s up to you to choose the right place to focus, the right place to feed. So look around … 
  18. Bad Friends Inside
     … The mind feeds in the same way that the body feeds. But the question is: What are you feeding it? Just as the body has junk food and health food, the mind has junk food and health food as well. Feeding on greed, anger, and delusion, lust and fear: That’s junk food for the mind. If all you knew was junk food, then … 
  19. Solid in the Face of Death
    Choose a good place to put your mind. It can be with the breath, thoughts of goodwill, repeating Bud-dho, or visualizing the parts of the body. The choice is up to you, because you’re looking for a place where the mind can stay and feel engaged. You’re also looking for an antidote. Sometimes with sleepiness, just repeating the word *buddho-buddho … 
  20. Pain & Patience
     … In every case where pain is weighing down the mind, it’s because of clinging—that’s the activity of the mind that causes the mind pain. Of course, there are causes for physical pain out there, but the fact that there’s pain in the body that weighs on the mind, the weight on the mind comes from your own clinging. And you … 
  21. The Four Frames of Reference
    When people first come here to stay for a period of meditation, it’s important to keep the four frames of reference in mind as a way of getting the mind into seclusion. But it’s also interesting to note that when the Buddha gave parting instructions to his monks, one of his themes was to stay with the four frames of reference. The … 
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