Search results for: "Mindfulness"

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  2. Mindful to Be Skillful
     … These are the teachings you want to keep in mind at all times. When the Buddha talks about right mindfulness, he talks about being mindful of the body, feelings, mind states, and mental qualities in and of themselves. But there’s more to it than just that. You’re mindful, which means that you keep these things in mind. You’re alert, which means … 
  3. Protect Your Inner Center
     … One is mindfulness: You remember to stay with the breath. Two, alertness: You watch what’s actually happening both in the breath and with the mind, so that you can get a sense of how well they’re getting along. And then three, ardency: You really try to do this well. In other words, you see that the activity of training the mind is … 
  4. Fabricating against Defilement
     … This is one of the reasons why we develop mindfulness—keeping the breath in mind, keeping the Four Noble Truths in mind. It means just this: remembering what led to suffering in the past is probably going to lead to suffering again, no matter how attractive it may seem right now. Other practices that did lead the mind to clarity in the past will … 
  5. The Steadiness of Your Gaze
     … Then you get your mind into position: Just focus it on the breath. The breath is right here. You don’t have to search around too much to find it. The difficult part lies in keeping the mind in position, trying to maintain a steady awareness. That takes some doing because the mind is used to not being steady. It’s used to jumping … 
  6. Strong Through Commitment
     … That’s another reason why we get the mind into concentration: You want to have a sense of well-being to give some strength to the mind. If you simply force new habits on the mind without a sense of well-being, the mind rebels. But if it comes from a sense of inner wealth, inner health, it’s more likely to stick—this … 
  7. 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 … 
  8. 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 … 
  9. 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 … 
  10. 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 … 
  11. 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 … 
  12. 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 … 
  13. 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 … 
  14. 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 … 
  15. 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 … 
  16. 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 … 
  17. 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 … 
  18. 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 … 
  19. 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 … 
  20. 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 … 
  21. 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 … 
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