Search results for: "Mindfulness"

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  2. Inconstancy
     … At first, we’re trying to create a state of mind that’s constant. You stay with one thing, and the Buddha’s trying to have you shift your allegiance from looking for pleasures in sights, sounds, smells, tastes, tactile sensations, and ideas to looking at the state of mind, the quality of a still mind for your happiness, for your pleasure. That’s … 
  3. Solving Real Problems
     … If he was going to look for something that didn’t age, didn’t grow ill, didn’t die, he would have to look in the mind. He would have to train the mind so that even with the death of the body, the mind wouldn’t suffer. That right there requires that we have choice in the present moment. And this is what … 
  4. The Languages of Right View
     … This is the quality Ajaan Maha Boowa talks about in his definition of the word ekaggata, singleness of mind. It’s a mind that just can be there with the ups and downs, and yet not get knocked over by them. The mind on an even keel. The more you can develop that mind on an even keel, the more you develop the observer … 
  5. Choices that Matter
     … They can be developed and have a good impact on your mind. So we start with mindfulness. Give mindfulness a good foundation. Combine it with alertness—the ability to see what you’re doing while you’re doing it. And ardency, the desire to do this well. That kind of desire, the Buddha said, is good. It’s not the case that all desires … 
  6. What Should & Shouldn’t Be Done
     … They seem to be welling up from some deep part of the mind. Well, they may be coming from a deep part of the mind, but not every deep part of the mind is reliable. There are also some deep delusions in the mind. So it’s good to have some advice on what dangers to watch out for and what possibilities to look … 
  7. Issues of Control
     … We’re here to get to know our own experience, know our own mind, to get the mind to settle down. How deeply it settles down has to do both with our ability to calm things down in the mind, and also to gain some insight into what’s going on. There’s another sutta where the Buddha talks about how getting the mind … 
  8. Sober Up
    Sober Up January 30, 2011 In English, when we talk about getting the mind to stay focused on something, we talk about its “settling down.” And in one way that’s right. The mind tends to be flying around all over the place. If it can focus on one object, it’s like a flock of birds that finally settle down on one spot … 
  9. Calming Mental Fabrication
    When the Buddha teaches concentration practice—breath meditation practice—he gives you a physical fabrication to focus on, i.e., the breath coming in, going out, and then he gives you a verbal fabrication, the instructions, “Keep track of the breath; remain focused on the breath—ardent, alert, mindful—putting aside greed and distress with reference to the world.” So you keep reminding yourself … 
  10. Take Your Time
     … Your mind is ready, you see the value of training the mind, and so you can focus in on the breath. But sometimes you find that it takes a while to get into the mood, and that’s perfectly fine. If there are mental habits or ways of thinking that get in the way of the mind settling down, sometimes you have to spend … 
  11. Against the Stream
     … And once your mind has been bent like that, it takes a while for it to get unbent. So there will be thoughts that come into the mind and they just don’t seem to want to go away, but this is what we have the breath for. Say, “Well, that thought can have that corner of the mind, but I’m going to … 
  12. Slowing Down to Look
     … a mind settled in good strong concentration, where mindfulness and equanimity become pure. Or you have the alertness and the mindfulness you need. The mindfulness is to keep in mind that you always want to do the skillful thing, always want to go with the skillful intention. The alertness is to see, “Okay, what are the signs by which I can tell which is … 
  13. A Refuge in Quiescence
     … As you work on these qualities, applying the lessons you’ve learned, you’re ardent, alert, and mindful. Those qualities turn into the factors of jhāna, which is the next faculty, or next dominant factor. You get the mind still. When the mind is still like this, it can see itself a lot more clearly, with a sense of balance—and this lies at … 
  14. When it’s Hard to Settle Down
    When it’s Hard to Settle Down January 17, 2017 When the mind has trouble settling down with the breath, you want to check to see whether the problem is with the mind or with the breath—or with your perceptions of the mind or of the breath. The first problem, the mind: Sometimes you have lots of issues that are unresolved, and simply … 
  15. The Adventure in the Present
    We’re here to train the mind, because as the Buddha said, it’s when the mind is well trained that you find happiness. If your mind isn’t trained, it’s like a puppy that hasn’t been trained. No matter how beautiful your house may be, the puppy can make a mess anywhere. In other words, no matter how well things may … 
  16. Precarious Knowledge
     … But for the sake of your own mind, a permanent change has already been made. That’s what the knowledge is good for. We learn things because they do have an effect on the mind, a beneficial effect on the mind. We’re not gathering up knowledge of the Dhamma just to decorate our minds, like a library in a den, because when you … 
  17. Work with It
    As Ajaan Lee points out, when you’re meditating and you’re setting your mind on staying with one thing, it’s hard not to have other things come in and get in the way. In fact, it’s to be expected. Those things come in two forms. With some of them, all you have to do is look at them and they go … 
  18. Negotiating with Death
     … The other two, mind and mental qualities: Again, this may seem an arbitrary way of dividing up the pie. But it’s useful. The mind, you could think of as the entire committee of the mind that has made a decision. It’s on the side of greed or on the side of anger—or on the opposite side. Or you’re trying to … 
  19. An Island in the Flood
     … The texts talk about how mindfulness and concentration are dependent on virtue. As the Buddha said, the things that foster mindfulness are views made straight and careful virtue. But mindfulness and concentration help with your virtue as well, because they give you this center of strength, this island you can stand on, where you feel secure, where you feel well established. When you’re … 
  20. The Buddha’s Safe Space
     … The description of mindfulness that we chanted just now—staying focused on the body in and of itself, ardent, alert, and mindful, putting aside greed and distress with reference to the world—describes what you’re doing as you’re trying to get the mind into concentration. You stay with the breath, remembering to keep the breath in mind: That’s mindfulness. You see … 
  21. Vitakka & Vicara
     … Is this going the way you want, or is it not? You have to apply these fabrications not only to the breath, but also to the mind. What is your mind doing right now? If it’s slipping off, is the problem with the breath or with the mind itself? Where is it slipping out to feed? If you find the mind feeding on … 
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