Search results for: "The Mind"

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  2. Using Right Resolve Rightly
     … The issue is solved by creating a sense of well-being inside from which you can then look at the present moment and gain some insight into how the mind creates unnecessary suffering and how that unnecessary suffering is the only thing that really weighs the mind down. Right resolve points in here, right here at the breath and right here at the mind … 
  3. The Mind in Good Shape
     … Even if things get bad in the body when the mind is in good shape, it’s not going to suffer. Once you’ve thought about how much you’d like to train the mind, then the next step is to actually do it. Focus it on the breath. You need to bring the mind into the present moment because that’s where the … 
  4. Balanced Concentration
     … You need insight, too, to get the mind to settle down. You have to understand what’s going on. You have to use your ingenuity. You have to have strategies to get the mind to settle down and stay down. After all, even people who find it easy to get the mind to settle down can have trouble staying there. And when the mind … 
  5. Take Nothing for Granted
     … Sometimes you hear about people saying that when the mind gets still then you frame an intention, and things will magically happen in the mind. And it is true that when the mind is still it can be very suggestible. But with really the important things in meditation you can’t simply set you mind say, “Okay, I want awakening tonight” or “I want … 
  6. Training the Whole Mind
    Training the Whole Mind June, 2001 When we train the mind, it’s not just a question of using a meditation technique to bludgeon the mind into the present moment. If that’s our approach, the mind is going to start rebelling, finding ways of slipping around our defenses, because there are times when the meditation technique is right for the situation and times … 
  7. Deep Understanding
     … Don’t think of the body as an inconvenient thing that’s getting in the way of your focusing on the mind. If you really want to understand what’s going on in the mind, you have to deal with your awareness of the body. It’s a huge area of the mind—the way it interacts with the body—and the interplay between … 
  8. Common Sense
     … And then you learn to do whatever is needed to get the mind to stay with the breath consistently with a sense of ease, of well-being. Then, once you’ve set up a good intention like that in the mind, you begin to see the effect that it has. At the same time, you’re putting the mind in a good position where … 
  9. Beneficial Thinking
     … If you lay all the groundwork—get everything nice and easeful in the mind, easeful in the body, nourishing in the mind, nourishing in the body—then when the mind does settle down, it’ll be willing to stay. Now, it is possible to keep the mind clamped down on the breath for a couple of breaths, but it’s going to be quick … 
  10. A Refuge Inside
     … What you’re doing is trying to find a place where the mind can stay in the present moment with a sense of ease, a sense of comfort, because if there’s no sense of ease, the mind won’t stay. The Buddha once said that one of the prerequisites for the ability to concentrate the mind, to get the mind to settle down … 
  11. Rewriting the Mind’s Song
    What we would call this stream of consciousness—all the words and sentences, the bits and snatches of songs or whatever that go through the mind—Ajaan Mun called the mind’s song. The mind is singing to itself all the time. In technical terms, this is verbal fabrication. It’s one of the things that you notice as you try to get the … 
  12. A Mirror for the Mind
     … We’re not training the mind for the sake of the world. We’re training the mind for the sake of the mind. So as you sit here right now, put all your other concerns aside—because the big issue is not the world outside. The big issue is your mind, and you now have the time to focus total attention on the mind … 
  13. Figuring Out Concentration
     … So, as you’re getting the mind to settle down, you’re taking this habit of the mind that you’re already familiar with and applying it to the task of getting the mind to settle down. What do you direct your thoughts to? What do you evaluate? To begin with, you try to direct your thoughts to the topic of the concentration itself … 
  14. Messaging Your Mind
     … The mind’s quiet and still like this, breath energy filling the body very still, the mind, your awareness filling the body. In cases like this, with the activity in the body becoming so quiet, then whatever is going on in the mind becomes a lot clearer. This then becomes your laboratory for watching the mind, because after all, the big problem in life … 
  15. Three Perceptions
     … So it’s good to keep reminding ourselves of this point, because our prime focus in the meditation should always be on the mind. We’re not trying to analyze things outside in and of themselves. We’re trying to see how the mind’s quest for happiness relates to the way things behave. You always want to keep your focus here, on the … 
  16. Sort Things Out
     … One thing you may want to watch for is the level of stress in the mind. Meditation involves some stress as you’re trying to get things together, but then as the mind begins to settle down, you begin to realize a lot of the activity you’ve been engaged in to keep the mind settled in becomes unnecessary. It’s as if the … 
  17. Exploring Fabrication
     … Each of those approaches to bringing the mind into balance requires a certain amount of fabrication. After all, feeling and perception have an effect on the mind, and the breath has an indirect effect on the mind through the feelings. How do you use these fabrications to gladden the mind? How do you use them to steady the mind? How do you use them … 
  18. Training the Mind
    Get your body into position, and then get the mind into position. Getting the body into position is relatively easy. Sit facing straight forward, your hands in your lap, your right hand on top of your left. Close your eyes, and there you are. Getting the mind into position is easy as well. Just focus on your breath—nothing elaborate, nothing abstract, just the … 
  19. Wisdom Through Training
     … The Buddha once said that the difference between a fool or a wise person is that the wise person understands that the mind needs to be trained. It’s important because the basis for our happiness comes from training the mind. The fool doesn’t understand that. Why is it wise to train the mind? Because so much of your happiness depends on the … 
  20. The Humane Quality of the Path
     … It’s not simply through force of will, it’s also through understanding what’s going on in the mind, understanding the ways the mind tends to hide things from itself, the ways it suddenly slips off seemingly without warning. As you get to know the mind, though, you begin to realize that there are warning signals that the mind is about to play … 
  21. Mindfulness Like a Dam
     … There may be a little twitching or stirring someplace in the body, which corresponds to a little twitching or stirring in the mind. And you can breathe through it. You’ve diffused it, at least for the time being. The quicker you can get at this process, catching the mind in time, the more you learn about the currents of the mind, how a … 
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