Search results for: "The Mind"

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  2. A Concentration Diet
     … The most interesting answer, though, is the answer to, “What is one?” And that is, “All beings subsist on food.” And here when the Buddha says “food,” he means both food for the body and food for the mind. Food for the mind includes things like contact at the senses, consciousness at the senses, and intentions. Our mind feeds off of these things. This … 
  3. Engaging the Whole Mind
     … It’s not simply a mechanical process that you put the mind through, where you do the steps, without any observing on your part, and somehow the mind will come out awakened. This is not a meat grinder. It’s not an assembly line. It’s a skill. And as with all skills, it requires that you have a sense of what works and … 
  4. The Observer
     … Rule number one in either case is to keep the mind on an even keel. Have a strong sense of the observer, the part of the mind that’s simply watching what’s going on, and identify as much as you can with that. Ajaan Suwat once mentioned that when he first went to stay with Ajaan Mun his mind seemed to be all … 
  5. A Heart Wider than the World
     … When the mind is undisturbed, you can see very clearly what’s going on inside. This takes you back to your discernment, so that what you’ve taken on as a working hypothesis becomes clear as you see what’s happening in the mind: where the mind grabs on to things, clings to them, thinking that it’s going to find happiness, and in … 
  6. To See What You’re Doing
     … In the beginning, the mind may not be that still. The breath may not be all that still. But you’re working in that direction. You want to breathe in a way that makes the mind more and more interested in staying here, because one of our big problems in seeing the connection between our actions and their results is that we run around … 
  7. To Discern Suffering
     … So when the Buddha said, “discerning suffering,” what he meant was really understanding what it is, where it comes from, what can be done about it— particularly the added suffering that’s totally unnecessary and yet is really the suffering that weighs the mind down. Without all that added stress, the mind would not suffer. There might be pain in the body but there … 
  8. Guardian Meditations
     … This is one of the reasons we have the practices for calming the mind: not only so that we can see the defilements as we’re getting them calmed down but so that we can challenge them as we try to get the mind to calm down. That begins to stir them out of their lair a little bit. So to get the mind … 
  9. How to Be Happy
     … And there’s a bliss that comes with the mind’s ability just to settle down, be with one object. At first, you have to make adjustments so that the mind fits the object and the object fits the mind. In other words, what kind of breathing would feel good now, what way of conceiving the breath would be good both for the mind … 
  10. Boring
     … He was watching the mind in relationship to the breath, seeing a lot of subtle movements going on in the mind. Those are the really interesting things. And everything you need to know for awakening is right here. It’s just that your powers of observation are not subtle and all-around enough. And if you can’t even see the subtleties of the … 
  11. Non-Verbal Discernment
     … If the pressure isn’t right, the mind won’t settle down. If there’s too much pressure on the breath, you feel confined. If there’s too little, you float away. So, how can you stay with the breath consistently? And how can you keep the mind happy to be there consistently? The mind likes a lot of variety, and you have to … 
  12. Practicing from Gratitude
     … These are things that come flowing out of the mind: greed, aversion, delusion, flowing out of the mind. Our desire to be this or that: That comes flowing out of the mind. Discernment, when it’s fully developed, as the Buddha says, can cut these things, cut the flow, and the mind is no longer flooded by suffering. This, too, is a gift you … 
  13. Persistence
     … Another use is that when you get really sensitive to the breath energy, you begin to notice that when a thought forms in the mind—especially when it takes hold—there’s going to be a little bit of tension in the body. It’s the mind’s way of using the body to anchor a thought so that you can look at it … 
  14. Gratification
     … When you try to enjoy a nice sound or a nice sight, the mind embroiders an awful lot around the sound and sight in order to enjoy it, because those things are pretty fleeting. The mind has a tendency to advertise the sound and sight to itself, telling itself that this is really something special. This is something you really ought to pay attention … 
  15. Happy to Be Here
     … That can overwhelm the mind. In a lot of ways, the mind lies to itself. The pleasure wasn’t all that much after all. Maybe there were some karmic consequences. You ended up doing some unskillful things to get it. And then with each of the sensual pleasures: It’s not pleasant all the way through. It can last only for a brief time … 
  16. Home Schooling Your Inner Children
     … Okay, this is for the mind. All the good things in life, all the good things in the world, come from the mind, and the mind needs to be trained. Otherwise, its greed, aversion, delusion, and ignorance will just take over, along with all the other members of the committee, and there will be nothing left of your meditation. Notice that not all of … 
  17. Delight
     … And as the mind begins to settle down, learn to appreciate the mind when it’s still. You can think back on times when the mind was weighed down, hemmed in by the affairs of the world, and how much better off you are here being quiet, just breathing—finding contentment in the skills that you can develop sitting with your eyes closed. At … 
  18. The Language of the Breath
     … How do you read the language of the mind? How do you listen to the language of the mind, the language of the body? On the one hand, you can learn lessons from outside, as when you have a teacher who’s teaching you the foreign language. But it’s not simply a matter of mastering the grammar. You also have to master how … 
  19. Discernment Is in the Doing
     … In the same way, when you get the mind really still, you can hear a lot of things in the mind, see a lot of things in the mind, that you wouldn’t have seen when it was running around. So it’s not just work, work, work in terms of right effort. After all, when right resolve becomes noble, it turns into right … 
  20. Virtues Bright & Neither Dark nor Bright
     … That attitude, the sense of well-being that comes from being principled, is really conducive to concentration because, as you’re going to get to settle the mind down, you let go of your ordinary thinking. The mind gets into a state where it’s more tender than normal as it’s beginning to get snug with its object but it’s not quite … 
  21. Choosing Not to Suffer
     … And you’ll find that once you put down the unnecessary burdens, there’s nothing to burden the mind. All the things that cause suffering to the mind are unnecessary. There may be pains in the body, there will be aging, illness, and death, but the mind doesn’t have to create suffering out of them. The first lesson in how not to create … 
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