Search results for: "Mindfulness"

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  2. Mindfulness of Death
    When the Buddha talks about the importance of being attentive and alert in the present moment, it’s usually in the context of mindfulness of death—the message being that you don’t know when death is going to come, but you do know there are duties you have to do in the present moment in order to prepare. This is why mindfulness of … 
  3. Go, Do Jhana
     … The fabrications that keep the mind still and steady, that keep the mind engaged in the pursuit of what’s skillful, are the ones you want to encourage. So this practice of steadying the mind, maintaining that still, steady flame, requires both tranquility and insight. And, of course, once the mind settles down, the insight gets more refined. The tranquility gets stronger. In this … 
  4. Rehab Work
     … You begin to notice how the feelings created by focusing on the breath have an impact on the mind. You also notice how the perceptions of what’s happening in the breathing process have an impact both on the mind and on the way you breathe. You try to calm all of that down. Then you look at the state of your mind. Is … 
  5. Faith in Awakening
     … You have to keep that larger set of possibilities in mind. That’s what gives meaning to our actions. As the Buddha said, there are worldly treasures—the treasures of money, gold, silver, land, and possessions—but they’re nothing compared to the treasures of the mind. He gave a list of noble treasures: conviction, a sense of shame, a sense of compunction, virtue … 
  6. Right Effort
     … Hold that perception in mind. That’s one way of using perception to put yourself in the right mind state for dealing with whatever the defilement may be. That’s called exerting a fabrication. So again you’ve got to use your discernment to see when the issue in the mind will go away simply by watching it and when you’ve got to … 
  7. Look after Yourself with Ease
     … It’s cooling for the mind, refreshing for the mind. Or think of the person sitting, covered by a white cloth: Your mind is filled with a bright awareness. These are all images of the mind being at ease right here in the body. You’re not going after sensual pleasures, i.e., the pleasures of contact with the body. You’re going for … 
  8. Set Your Heart on the Breath
    Set your heart on the breath, as that’s essentially what concentration means—to have your mind set on something, to have your heart set on something. In the Buddha’s vocabulary, the word citta means both heart and mind. They don’t draw a clear distinction or a line between the two. This knowing faculty includes both knowing and willing. The two inform … 
  9. The Form of the Body
     … In other words, get the mind to really engage in this aspect of having a body. In that way, the mind can get to know itself a lot better. Its exploration of cause and effect in the way the mind relates to this sense of form gets more and more continuous. When it’s continuous, you see more, especially in terms of connections, cause … 
  10. The Skill of Renunciation
    The Buddha’s description of concentration is that you seclude your mind from sensuality and unskillful thoughts. For most of us, when we hear that you’re going to drop sensuality, it sounds like a deprivation. But actually it’s not. You’re going to be trading one form of happiness for another: the sense of well-being that comes when the mind can … 
  11. Part II : Common Problems
     … This is one of the reasons why we get the mind into concentration, so that we can put it in a position where we can watch the pain and not feel threatened by it. As you watch it, you learn about it. You come to comprehend it. So, focus on the breath. Get it really comfortable. Give the mind the energy it needs in … 
  12. Guardians at Death
     … But the mind needs a lot more than just breath. Lots of issues come up in the mind. There are five in particular that can be obstacles to your concentration, and the Buddha also points out that they can be obstacles when you die. He recommends that you get the mind in a good state of concentration, because the place where your mind is … 
  13. Appropriate Attention
     … This is why we try to get the mind into the present moment. This is why we come to a quiet place like this, so that we cut down on the number of people in our mind. We cut down the number of people first by giving the mind something good to play with in the present moment (the breath), so you can get … 
  14. The Buddha’s Investment Strategy
    As you focus on the breath and stay with the breath, you’re developing good qualities of mind: mindfulness, alertness. As you apply these qualities to the process of breathing, you’ll see that it’s a kind of fabrication. There’s a willed and intentional element in there. And because there’s an element of will, you can change it. You can find … 
  15. Thoughts, Wanted and Unwanted
     … What would be an obstruction in the mind? Then focus on training the mind to get rid of that obstruction. This is what contemplation of death is all about – getting you focused back on realizing that there’s work to be done in your mind, and that meditation is the best way to do it. So this training in learning how to gain control … 
  16. Feeding on Right Resolve
    Just as the body needs food and nourishment, the mind needs nourishment as well. The Buddha identifies three different kinds of food for consciousness. One of them is sensory contact: sights, sounds, smells, taste, tactile sensations making contact at your eye, ear, nose, tongue, body, mind. Then there’s the act of consciousness itself as those things make contact: We’re constantly looking, listening … 
  17. Cooking Skills
     … After all, this is the duty of mindfulness when it becomes a governing principle. All too often we’re told that mindfulness is all about simply seeing things arising and passing away. But actually, when you have mindfulness as a governing principle, when you see that something good hasn’t arisen, you want to be mindful to make it arise. Once it’s there … 
  18. Passion for Nostalgia
     … If you create this as a habit, then this is where the mind is going to go as life comes to an end. At that point, you’re not going to want to be thinking about the future very much. It doesn’t present much in terms of hope, so the mind will cast back to the past because the mind is really good … 
  19. Your Secret Foundation
     … The breath is as close as you can get to focusing on the mind without actually focusing directly on the mind itself. It’s right next door. And because it’s the part of the body that’s most sensitive to the movements of the mind, it’s a really good mirror for the mind. So it serves a lot of functions. When you … 
  20. Groundwork
    When you meditate, it’s like building a home for the mind, and whenever you build a home, you have to do the groundwork. Here our groundwork is thinking about the breath and observing the breath. So take a couple good long, deep in-and-out breaths, and notice where you feel the breathing process in the body. When we talk about breath here … 
  21. The Wisdom of Equanimity
    Every evening, before the sit, we spread thoughts of goodwill, compassion, empathetic joy, and equanimity to set the stage for the meditation, to put us in the right frame of mind, to remind ourselves of our motivation and why we’re carrying that motivation out in precisely the way we are. The first three—good will, compassion, and empathetic joy—are of a piece … 
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