Search results for: "Mindfulness"

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  2. Customs of the Noble Ones
     … What helps the mind to settle down? The Buddha says, “views made straight and purified virtue.” Those are the bases for right mindfulness, and then right mindfulness is the basis for right concentration. So make sure your views are straight: that if there is suffering in the mind, it’s caused by the mind. No matter how much you may be suffering over bad … 
  3. Concentration Develops Right View
     … He learned one big lesson about sensuality—that if you’re going to train the mind, you have to get it past its fascination with sensual thoughts. This is a deep-rooted tendency we have: When we’re looking for a little pleasure, we think about sights, sounds, smells, tastes, tactile sensations, thoughts of lust. We get really fascinated about these things. The mind … 
  4. Settling In
    The mind is a compulsive wanderer. It has trouble staying with anything for any length of time, so much so that we think that that’s its nature—just to keep going and going, thinking of this, thinking of that, checking out things over here, over there. We forget that one of the reasons the mind keeps wandering like this—is so compulsive about … 
  5. Stillness & Clear Seeing
    Each time you start to meditate, you should remind yourself that this is a very high level of work for the mind—an honorable level of work, a noble level of work. So put yourself in the mood to do something noble. You’re not going to just sit here and follow your thoughts wherever they go. You’re going to stand above them … 
  6. Learning from the Precepts
     … In this way, you’re training both the heart and the mind at the same time. You’re training the heart in the desire to be harmless, and the mind in the desire to know itself. Remember, of course, that the Pali word citta means both heart and mind. If you’re going to train one side of it, you’ve got to train … 
  7. Grief & Regret
    Ajaan Suwat would often comment on the need while you’re meditating to have some respect for what you’re doing, because this is an important skill that we’re working on, and it’s really good for the mind. In the Buddha’s words, you need to have some respect for concentration. That means several things. On the one hand, it means you … 
  8. Customs of the Noble Ones
    We spread thoughts of goodwill to put our minds in the right frame to practice: “May I be happy; may all beings be happy.” This means we want a happiness that doesn’t cause harm to anyone, and we want them to find a happiness that doesn’t cause harm to anybody else either. Where are you going to find that happiness? You’ve … 
  9. Right View & Right Resolve
     … So we look at the mind. But to look at the mind, you need to give it a focal point, which is why we don’t look directly at the mind to begin with. We start with the breath, get the mind focused on the breath, and get used to being here. Notice what way of breathing feels really good. Notice where you feel … 
  10. Non-Reactive Judgment
     … Then we further train in mindfulness in this way. The Buddha said one of the functions of mindfulness on the path is to remember what right view tells you about what’s right and what’s wrong, what’s skillful and what’s not. Then you use your ability to keep that in mind to direct your efforts, to get rid of what’s … 
  11. Accepting the Way Things Function
     … So, as you go through life, you may say, “Okay, I’m going to resolve on goodwill.” And then you have to be careful, you have to be mindful as you chose your intentions, to keep them in line with your resolve. Remember that goodwill is a form of mindfulness. You have to be mindful that any time you come up with any thoughts … 
  12. Second Wind
     … Is the body sitting in the mind? Is the mind sitting in the body? Where is your mind in relationship to the body right now? In other words, be curious of what’s going on right here, right now. Begin to take things apart so that you can see how you put it all together. When there’s distraction, we drift off in other … 
  13. Insight from Jhana
    Insight from Jhana September 17, 2012 We meditate so that we can put an end to the sufferings in our lives, and particularly to the unnecessary sufferings that the mind imposes on itself. And, as it turns out, those are the sufferings that weigh down the mind. Without those sufferings, there’s no problem. So how does the meditation do this? We make the … 
  14. Large-hearted Goodness
    When you settle down with the breath, and the mind is willing to stay here watching the breath consistently, making it smooth all the way in, all the way out, it’s food for the mind. And it’s good food. It’s food inside, not food out in the world. You get a sense of well-being, a sense of ease, of being … 
  15. A Culture of Self Reliance
     … We’re doing these things because we see that our minds are suffering, and the dominant values of the culture are not helping. They’re increasing our suffering. So you need to develop a sense of independence. You need to have a sense of self-reliance as you maintain these values, keeping in mind the fact that you’re doing it because the mind … 
  16. Death Without Drama
     … Mind states are just mind states, without all the fearful narratives. And that’s your refuge. The Buddha talks about taking the Dhamma as a refuge and he explains it as establishing mindfulness in this way. It’s your refuge because it helps pull you out of the narratives that would make things overwhelming. There’s a lot of drama that can happen around … 
  17. Worldly Narratives
     … So you use the reflection on aging, illness, and death to see that the narratives you create with your mind are, in the Buddha’s technical terms, nothing but sankharas. They’re mental fabrications. And as long as the mind is going to fabricate, you’d be better off using mental fabrications to bring the mind back to where it should be. Reflect on … 
  18. The Creator of Worlds
    The mind is constantly creating worlds for itself to live in. Sometimes they’re based on things you’re experiencing right now. But there’s always an element that comes in from the past—your assumptions, your narratives, your sense of who you are—so that even pleasant experiences in the present moment can be turned into pain as they stir up issues from … 
  19. Keep the Mind from Wandering
    The mind’s tendency is to wander—that’s what the word samsara means. Samsara is not a place. It’s an activity, something the mind does. We think of it mainly as what the mind does as it goes from one life to the next, but it’s a basic principle in the Buddha’s teachings that the larger patterns can be seen … 
  20. Grace & Dignity
     … We have greed, aversion, and delusion, and there are parts of our minds that really like greed, aversion, and delusion. That’s a danger. As the Buddha once said, the mind is capable of almost anything. Think of all the animals in the animal kingdom—all the different shapes and sizes and classifications. He said the mind is more variegated than that. The mind … 
  21. One Thing Clear Through
     … Then the mindfulness, alertness, and ardency, all the qualities you develop as you meditate, help to make your actions more consistent, in line with what discernment teaches us. Because if you have the teachings of the Buddha in mind but then you forget them, it’s as if the Buddha never existed. Which is why we need mindfulness to keep remembering: Our actions matter … 
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