Search results for: "Mindfulness"

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  2. Learning by Doing
     … It’s what keeps your body and mind together. And it’s one of the few processes of the body that you can actually adjust. So you can make it comfortable to make it easier to stay here. We’re practicing both mindfulness and concentration together. Mindfulness is keeping something in mind. You’re going to keep the breath in mind right now. And … 
  3. The Good We Already Have
     … And as the breath gets steady and still this way, the mind begins to take after the breath. It gets in touch with its levels of steadiness and stillness as well. Because there already are parts of the mind that are totally unaffected by anything. It’s just that they get covered up by all the other things going on in the mind. But … 
  4. Breath vs. Distraction
     … You’ve got this body, and you’ve got the mind that’s aware. What are they doing here together? How do they relate to each other? A famous Zen master, Dogen, recommended asking questions like this: Is the body sitting in the mind, or is the mind sitting in the body? Which is the container for the other one? Or does there have … 
  5. Producing Discernment
     … The mind isn’t willing to settle down with the breath. There’s something going on in the mind that you have to correct, and you have to think your way out of that unskillful mind state. Simply telling yourself, “I’ll be with the breath and everything will dissolve away,” doesn’t work. Again, reading the mind, getting sensitivity, and having a sense … 
  6. 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 … 
  7. 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 … 
  8. 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 … 
  9. 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 … 
  10. 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 … 
  11. 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 … 
  12. 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 … 
  13. 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 … 
  14. 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 … 
  15. 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 … 
  16. 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 … 
  17. 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 … 
  18. Sober Up
     … 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, all gathered together. In Thai, though, they have another idiom: They talk about lifting the mind up above its ordinary preoccupations. So you can think of the mind either going up or … 
  19. 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 … 
  20. 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 … 
  21. 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 … 
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