Search results for: "The Mind"

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  2. Locate Your Craving
     … So, this process of getting the mind to settle down with the breath as you’re creating a sense of pleasure teaches you a lot of lessons about the different activities going on in the mind, the different functions. In particular, it teaches you exactly where your craving is located—and how you don’t have to follow along with it. You can see … 
  3. The Balance of Power
    There’s a balance of power in the mind, in the same way that there’s a balance of power in the world outside. We have a lot of different desires, and there’s a tension among them. But as long as each of them has its say in one way or the other, things are relatively peaceful. Not really peaceful inside, there’s … 
  4. Owning Your Actions
     … And it’s the same with the mind. As the Buddha said, you try to notice when the mind settles down: why it settles down, where it settles down. When it’s not settling down, ask yourself, “What could be changed?” This is why it’s good to stop and reflect after each session of meditation, “What went well? When the mind was settled … 
  5. 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 … 
  6. Read the Breath
     … The reason is not only that it energizes you, but also that you begin to see the movements of the mind that would shrink. What are they shrinking from? When the mind shrinks to go out after something, why is it going out? What’s the attraction? This way, while you’re trying to maintain your concentration, you start getting insight into the mind … 
  7. Mindfulness 2.0
     … If the mind wanders off, you bring it back. It wanders off again, you bring it back again. Three times, five times, ten times, a hundred times: Keep bringing it back. Show it that you mean business. When it comes back, pay careful attention to two things: One, what would be a really comfortable breath to stay with so that the mind will want … 
  8. Admirable Friendship
     … We practice generosity to train the mind; we practice virtue to train the mind. But sometimes when we do, the focus on the mind is indirect. But when you’re meditating, you’re directly focusing on the mind in and of itself. You start first by focusing on something right next to the mind: the breath in the body, how you sense it right … 
  9. Choosing Your Allies
     … different ways of breathing that can have a different effect on the mind, calming when you need to be calmed, energized when you need to be energized. This way, you can develop an ally here in the body—an ally you need, because you’ve got that other problem: the mind. As I often say, the mind is like a committee. Sometimes it’s … 
  10. The Five Hindrances
     … And one way to cut through that is to keep reminding yourself to look at these thoughts as events in the mind, part of a chain of causes and effects. Where do these thoughts come from? Where do they lead? Why are they taking over the mind? Sometimes it’s through your views. Buried some place in the mind is the idea that you … 
  11. Over the Pass
     … After all, what are the causes of suffering? The cravings of the mind—which, as the forest ajaans say, are things that flow out of the mind. And you’ve got to cut the flow. When your mind flows toward unskillful behavior, you’ve got to cut the flow. This, of course, is based on the realization the mind is not innately good. The … 
  12. A Small, Steady Flame
    A Small, Steady Flame July, 2002 The breath is where the mind and the body meet. We often have a sense that the solid part of our bodies is the part we know best, the part we inhabit, and the breath is something that just comes in and goes out through the solid part we’re inhabiting. But when you close your eyes, what … 
  13. Right Mindfulness
     … All of this is designed to put the mind in a position where it’s ready to really settle down. The mindfulness and the alertness protect the mind, provide a good foundation. The quality of ardency is what helps make it skillful. And when you reflect on the universality of suffering, it gives you the right motivation for practicing. All these qualities together get … 
  14. The Lightness of the Concentrated Mind
     … But once you close your eyes, why do you have to think that the mind has a face in any direction at all? The face belongs to the body. The mind doesn’t have a face. Think of it as centered in itself. As for the solid parts of the body, remind yourself, as the body sits here very still, that you don’t … 
  15. A Graduated Discourse
     … So sometimes when you have trouble getting the mind to settle down, give yourself your own graduated discourse, about all the things that you find alluring out in the world and then realizing that they have their drawbacks and their degradation. If the mind were to get fascinated and infatuated with them, they would pull you down. Whereas when you get the mind into … 
  16. The Dhamma Eye
     … For instance, the origination of suffering is craving—and where is craving? It’s in the mind. What’s the origination of the causal chain that leads to craving? It’s ignorance. That, too, comes out of the mind. You then begin to realize all the other things that come out of the mind: fabrication, name-and-form, consciousness, your experience of the six … 
  17. Mental Experiments
    Mental Experiments October 14, 2005 Meditation is like running a series of experiments in the mind, trying to see what happens when you focus it on one thing for long periods of time, trying to see what happens when you really take seriously the idea that the way you use your mind may be causing unnecessary suffering. So you want to see clearly what … 
  18. When the Mind Is Still
     … In the beginning, that’s not hard because there’s a lot to be done in getting the mind to settle down. Sometimes it takes a while, takes some strategizing: “What can you do to get the mind to be willing to settle down, stay with one thing, the breath, with a sense of ease?” Ajaan Lee gives some advice. You can notice where … 
  19. Sitting & Walking
     … You begin to see how the mind lies to itself. You’re innocently looking at the end of the path but another part of the mind says, “I have another agenda.” As you ignore that, that’s how the mind normally lies to itself. You’ve got to catch it as it’s going out. And the trick is to watch it go out … 
  20. Hindrances
     … It doesn’t blind you to what’s going on in the mind. In fact, it actually makes events in the mind a lot clearer. So pursue that pleasure instead. As for ill will, sometimes you can justify that by saying that someone really did something wrong, and justice has to be done. They have to be punished. But how many people respond well … 
  21. On Human Nature
     … What’s it like to stay with the breath for long periods of time? Do your best to argue with the mind, cajole the mind, anything that works to keep the mind with the breath, exploring how to make the breath comfortable, looking at the breath energy in the different parts of the body you don’t normally look at: the breath in your … 
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