Search results for: "The Mind"

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  2. Remarkable Qualities
     … The whole purpose of this is to improve your powers of observation, your powers of perception, your powers of judgment, your powers of evaluation, because ultimately you want to turn them on to the mind, to evaluate what’s going on in the mind. But the mind is a lot subtler than the breath. So first you exercise your powers of observation with the … 
  3. Dhammacentric
     … When feelings calm down, they let you look directly at the mind. You want to get the mind energized so that it feels good inside, gladdened inside. When the mind’s gladdened, it’s easier to settle down. Then you get it concentrated, and from there you go through the stages of concentration. You release it from the lower ones to get it as … 
  4. Chickens from Hell
     … One of the purposes of getting the mind into concentration is to step back from the whole process and learn to see it as it’s happening. At the same time, we practice concentration to give the mind an alternative place to feed. Otherwise, we’ll just keep feeding on whatever the chickens produce. When the Buddha provides analogies for different parts of the … 
  5. The Awful Truth
     … What are these things that pull you away? We build up this stillness inside so that we can use it as a foundation to look at these tendencies in the mind. In the Buddha’s terminology, they’re called asavas—effluents, things that flow out of the mind: sensual desires, states of becoming, views, ignorance. These things keep fermenting in the mind, bubbling up … 
  6. Bases for Success
     … You have to like the object you’re doing, and like the activity of trying to get the mind to settle down. So as you’re practicing, you want to do your best to overcome any dislike, any disinclination you might have to get the mind to settle with the breath, to settle with the meditation word, whatever the object is that you’re … 
  7. Victory over Death
     … One of our strengths, of course, is meditation, training the mind, based on generosity, based on virtue. You develop good qualities of the heart and mind. It’s good to remember when training the mind that the Pali word for “mind,” citta, also means “heart.” So we’re not just training the thinking side of the mind. We’re also training the part of … 
  8. Mindful of Death
    Breathe deeply to energize the body and to wake up the mind. This is a necessary step in the breath meditation because if you start out with a very relaxed breath, it’s easy to drift off. So energize things a little bit. Breathe deeply. Think of the breath going all the way down through your torso, waking up the different elements in the … 
  9. Thoughts, Wanted and Unwanted
     … learning how to step back and observe what’s going on in the mind with a sense of detachment, trying to be as mature and observant as you can in evaluating what’s going on in the mind. This way, the mind becomes your friend. It helps you as you go through life, as you face all the issues in life. That way, it … 
  10. At the Door of the Cage
     … The next stage is for the mind to incline to the Deathless. Normally the mind will not incline to the Deathless unless it feels that that’s the only way out. Otherwise it’s always going to find some other place to go, some other corner to hide in. So you need to remember that the teachings on, say, the three characteristics — inconstancy, stress … 
  11. Choiceful Awareness
     … We’ve heard about all the wonderful things that happen when you gain discernment and insight arises, and so we want to be right there, right now, without building the foundation, without mastering the skills that are needed for that insight really to have an impact on the mind, to have the really desired effect—which is to train the mind not to create … 
  12. 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 … 
  13. 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 … 
  14. 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 … 
  15. 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 … 
  16. 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 … 
  17. 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 … 
  18. 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 … 
  19. 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 … 
  20. 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 … 
  21. 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 … 
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