Search results for: "Mindfulness"

  1. Page 58
  2. Discernment
     … The discernment has to be there to inform them all, all the way along, because you’re looking at, “What are your actions? What are you doing right now?” Right now, you say, “I’m watching my breath.” “Why are you watching your breath?” “To get the mind into concentration.” “Why would you want to get the mind into concentration?” “Because the mind in … 
  3. Fourth Truth, First Duty
     … Sensuality in the Buddha’s terminology deals not so much with the actual sensual pleasures themselves, but more with the mind’s fascination with thinking about them. You begin to realize that that fascination is one of the big enemies as you’re trying to get the mind into concentration. But getting the mind into concentration helps you separate yourself out from that kind … 
  4. The Heart of the Teachings
     … We try to fully develop our skills because we learn about the mind in the process. We learn about how the breath has an effect on the mind, and then how that effect can be used to train the mind. We’re getting more and more sensitive to what’s going on in the mind, and that allows us to purify it, to see … 
  5. Measuring Progress
     … At the same time, as you develop your powers of mindfulness and alertness, you get more sensitive to what’s going on in the mind, so that in your measurement of what’s skillful or what’s quiet in the mind, what counts as good concentration, what counts as a good insight, your standards are going to change. Like that old issue in relativity … 
  6. Straightening the Arrow
     … The way you direct the mind, the perceptions you hold in mind as to what’s worthwhile and what’s not: Those things are under your control. Use that fact to nurture the development of your mind. This is a practice you can do anywhere. Here in the monastery, it’s easier because our basic values are different from those of the world outside … 
  7. Doing Meditation
    One of the Buddha’s major insights is that the mind spends its time doing. We’re always doing something: thinking about this, getting the body to move and do that, getting your mouth to move to say those things. There’s always a doing, there’s always a choice going on in the mind. This is what lies at the essence of karma … 
  8. Advice for a New Monk
     … This kind of awareness, once it settles down and is very still, is a healing awareness for the mind. So give the mind a chance to settle down and be by itself. You don’t have to listen to the Dhamma talk. Just focus on the sensation of the breathing. Allow the breathing to be comfortable. Think of good breath energy filling every cell … 
  9. Training Wheels
     … It’s the pleasure of having the mind settle down and be still and have some peace inside. The pleasure also comes from having some control over what the mind is going to do, because these topics of concentration, the component factors of concentration, are also the things that we have cravings for—craving for the body; craving for feelings; craving for certain mind … 
  10. Nuts & Bolts
     … For the person who has passed away, one of the best things you can do is to get the mind into good concentration and think thoughts of goodwill toward that person, because the mind, when it’s steady, is sending off a good energy. When it’s concentrated like this, it’s a good gift to be sending out. You think of Shōtai: Wherever … 
  11. Conspiracies in the Mind
    Conspiracies in the Mind September 11, 2012 The world is enthralled with conspiracy theories—political conspiracies, religious conspiracies. I’ve even read books commenting on the Buddha’s teachings, saying that he couldn’t possibly have meant what he said, this business about going beyond desire. Sometimes they point out the paradox: If you want to put an end to desire, there you are … 
  12. Peace of Mind
     … It has to involve peace of mind, because if the mind is agitated, if the mind is worked up, then no matter how good things may be otherwise, you can’t really be happy. So this is the essential ingredient. That’s why we’re meditating: to find peace of mind. So how do you make your mind peaceful? Remind yourself that its well … 
  13. Take Down Your Sails
     … But you also have to learn how to teach the mind just to strip down any thoughts that come through, and not react to anything that comes in, because you’ve got work you’ve got to do here: working on your own mind. You need your mind to be in good shape for whatever comes up. How much time do you actually get … 
  14. Read the Breath
     … That’s an inherent part of right mindfulness. It’s what makes it right. The same with right concentration: having abandoned unskillful qualities in the mind, you can settle down until you develop pure equanimity and mindfulness. As the Buddha said, there’s no right concentration without a certain amount of insight, a certain amount of understanding. You can’t get the mind to … 
  15. Strength Training
     … The Buddha talks of the path as a path of strength, and the strengths of the mind are conviction, persistence, mindfulness, concentration, and discernment. The Buddha has one way of formulating the path in these five terms. He himself often compares the path of practice to various skills, and some of them have to do with strength. The skillful meditator is one who can … 
  16. Perfections as Priorities
    Perfections as Priorities August 21, 2008 We sit here focused on the breath, mindful of the breath, alert. We want to make sure we’re not just mindful and alert for a few breaths and then off someplace else. We want to stay mindful and alert for the whole hour. And then at the end of the hour when you get up, you want … 
  17. Step Back & Watch
     … But with Ajaan Suwat, he had trained his mind to step back from his thoughts, to step back from his thought worlds. And that’s what saved him from a lot of suffering. This is one of the reasons why we develop mindfulness, why we practice concentration: to keep in mind the possibility that sometimes our perceptions are off. The concentration gives us a … 
  18. Focus on What You’re Doing
    You probably notice that as soon as you focus on the breath, the chattering classes in your mind start in, commenting on the breath, commenting on how well things are going, or commenting on whether you should continue meditating. Some of the comments are useful; a lot of them are not. An important part of the meditation is learning how to sort these things … 
  19. On Being Non-reactive
     … In other passages, the Buddha gives analogies for the state of mind you’re trying to develop. When you’re working on mindfulness, he says you’re trying to work on getting the mind into concentration. We’re not just here to be noting things coming and going. We’re directing the mind in the right direction, to concentration—because, after all, the path … 
  20. Get Out of Yourself
     … Now, if you interpret mindfulness simply as being aware, that sounds very strange: You’re supposed to sit next to someone else and hear them breathe? How are you going to feel their feelings or be aware of their mind-states? But when you remember that mindfulness is a faculty of the memory, something you keep in mind, then you can see what the … 
  21. Focused on the Breath
     … And two, notice the little movements of your mind, little thoughts that you tend not to see, that you tend to take for granted as just background noise in the mind. This means that the more quiet you can get the mind, the more quiet you can get the breath, then the more you’re going to see. So one of the aims of … 
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