Search results for: "The Mind"

  1. Page 55
  2. Turning Points
     … On the contrary, it was a pleasure that allow the mind to see things clearly. In fact, he discovered as he pursued that path that it led to a state of concentration with total purity of mindfulness and equanimity. The mind was clear, malleable, and bright. This is how right concentration became the first factor of the path the Buddha discovered. The other seven … 
  3. What You Don’t Like About Yourself
     … Images can come up in the mind. Sentences can come up in the mind and you just let them be there in the background. You don’t have to get involved. Think of them as the results of past karma. And your question is, “Do I really want to create a new present moment out of that thought or that emotion?” There may be … 
  4. Thinking Your Way to Stillness
     … He said to keep these things in mind while you’re living at home with your children and you’ll find that it will lead the mind to a sense of well-being, a sense of confidence, and from that sense of confidence the mind will eventually get concentrated. So these are ways of thinking that actually lead the mind into concentration. They’re … 
  5. Making a Difference
     … Once the mind is more under your control, then the whole issue of the happiness that you’re looking for in life becomes more manageable, because the major factor that’s going to shape that happiness is the mind. When it’s in better shape, more under your control, then it’s not a traitor to your happiness. All too often the mind seems … 
  6. The Path of Questions
    The Path of Questions July, 2001 Let the mind settle down comfortably on the breath. Don’t push it too hard and don’t let it float away. Try to find just the right amount of pressure for staying with the breath. Let there be just that one question in the mind right now: how heavily to focus on the breath. Other questions you … 
  7. A Strong Post
     … The Pali word āsava means “things that flow out.” Sometimes sensual desire flows out of the mind, or a particular view flows out of the mind, or an idea of who we are flows out of the mind. If we’re not really aware, really mindful, really alert, we just go flowing along with whatever. It usually just goes flowing out the senses. It … 
  8. The Middle Way
     … Something in the mind might ask, “Now what? What’s next?” The answer is, “Just stay right here.” And this is the important point: learning how to stay. This is right concentration, after all, learning how to keep the mind established. It’s going to want to think about this, and move around about that, and do all those other old things it’s … 
  9. Feeding Instructions
    We read in the Buddha’s descriptions about what happens when the mind gets into jhāna that rapture and pleasure spread through the whole body, saturate the whole body, so that there’s no part of the body not saturated by them. We read in Ajaan Lee’s descriptions of the breath energy flowing throughout the body. We begin to think that we have … 
  10. Enjoying the Path
     … That gives you an interesting insight into the movements of the mind, what they do, what they leave in their wake. You may have hardly even noticed that the mind was wandering off, or that it was oblivious to certain things, but then you come back and you see it. That gives you a lesson in ignorance: how the way the mind deliberately closes … 
  11. Respect
     … But also in our ability to bring the mind back from distraction: As you pay more and more attention to this process of trying to stay with the breath, you begin to notice that there are warning signs for when the mind is about to leave. It all happens very quickly, but the more carefully you pay attention, the more respect you have for … 
  12. Truthful & Observant
    One of the Thai idioms for meditation is “making an effort,” and of course it means making an effort with the mind. There’s the physical effort to do walking meditation, the effort that goes through sitting long periods of time and dealing with the pain that comes up when you sit for long periods of time. But primarily it’s an effort with … 
  13. There’s Work to Be Done
     … First, physical pleasure, then breathe in a way that allows you to gladden the mind, concentrate the mind, release the mind. So you’re training yourself. You’re exploring the possibilities of this breath element in the body, and if you do it properly, it should keep you awake. If you start drifting off again, it’s a sign that your range of awareness … 
  14. The Dhamma Wheel in the Heart
     … But if there’s a part of the mind that’s blocking a thought, and you don’t know what the thought is or why you’re blocking it, then you approach it in a different way, because the reason the mind doesn’t know is because it’s hiding something from itself and it’s also feeling threatened by the thought. So as … 
  15. Subduing Greed & Distress
    The Buddha’s instructions on mindfulness are basically instructions on how to get the mind into concentration. They describe two activities: One is remaining focused on a particular frame of reference in and of itself. Like right now we’re focused on the breath: That’s the body in and of itself. The second activity is subduing greed and distress with reference to the … 
  16. Stand Your Ground
     … Either way, it’s not good for getting the mind to settle down in the present and see itself, because when we hit the wound, the mind recoils. If you run into scar tissue, you don’t really know what’s there, because it’s all hardened. So for the mind to be open to itself—particularly for your mindfulness to be able to … 
  17. Intent
     … There are large parts of the mind that don’t want you to see them. There are areas we’ve all blocked off. If we’re really going to understand the mind, we have to see through those blockades. And to do that requires that you have a sense, one, of a place where you can settle down and not feel threatened by what … 
  18. How to Straighten Out the World
     … It’s the mind that’s going places. Actually, the mind doesn’t really go any place, it stays right here as well, but it creates little worlds for itself here inside and then it gets into the worlds and loses its bearings. So as soon as you find yourself in a little world like that, just come back to this world: the world … 
  19. An Island above the Flood
     … Where do your actions come from? They come from the mind, and when you’re dealing with the mind you want to look at things simply on the level of name and form: mental events and physical properties. So you’ve got ardency, alertness, mindfulness; then you’ve got the property of the breath, and you bring all those together. That forms your island … 
  20. Stay with the Knowing
     … You’re trying to retrain the mind. And the hardest parts of the mind to retrain are the ones where you think you know what to say, you know what to do, and it’s going to be unskillful. And you don’t care. You’ve just got to stop the mind there and say, “Nope, not going to go there.” And watch it … 
  21. Agreements to Perceive
     … Another is the whole issue of thoughts coming into the mind. When a thought comes into the mind, a part of the mind will say, “I’ve got to look into this, to see what this is all about. Maybe there’s entertainment. Maybe there’s something important.” Learn to switch that perception around. Look at the thought as an energy that’s simply … 
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