Search results for: "Mindfulness"

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  2. Talking to Yourself
     … As long as the mind is going to talk, teach it how to talk well. You can’t stop the conversation without first turning it into a skillful conversation. This is when the Buddha gives instructions on getting the mind into concentration. Two of the factors of getting the mind to settle down are what he called vitakka and vicāra, directed thought and evaluation … 
  3. What Is One
     … All the different members in the committee of your mind have their ideas about what would be good dinner tonight, what the food should be, how it should be fixed. And a lot of the discussion in your mind is about how you’re going to feed. So when you learn how to meditate and get the mind into a state of well-being … 
  4. Karma-ism
     … What does it mean for things to be *going on? *How do things *go on? *And in particular, what are we contributing to the going on of things? This is why meditation focuses on the mind. Not just to get the mind into pleasant states: You attain the pleasant states so that you can understand, “Exactly what is the mind doing? How does it … 
  5. Intent
    One of the phrases we chanted just now, “keeping focused on the body in and of itself, ardent, alert, mindful, putting aside greed and distress with reference to the world”: This is a formula for how you get into concentration. And underlying it is a very important quality for succeeding in concentration, which is intent. You want to be totally intent on what you … 
  6. The Governing Principle
    The Governing Principle May 5, 2014 In the passage where the Buddha describes the different functions of the qualities you want to bring to the path, he describes mindfulness as the governing principle. In another passage, he explains what that means. Essentially, when you see that there’s a good quality that hasn’t arisen within you yet, you’re mindful to give rise … 
  7. Opening Your World
     … The mind will say, “I need something more than just pleasure. I have certain needs that have to be met.” This is where you want the mind to be really clear about what those needs are, and not accept its first explanations as to what they are. It has the ways of presenting the case that it knows are acceptable—or instead the mind … 
  8. Skills for Awakening
     … We learn how to breathe in a way that calms the body, calms the mind; we think in ways that calm the body, calm the mind. And these are skills we can develop to benefit the mind. But they’re not the whole story. In spite of what you may have heard, we cannot relax our way to awakening or decree that awakening means … 
  9. Dhamma Medicine for Free
     … The mind won’t stay with the body, and the body itself will start getting tense, tight, uncomfortable. You have to realize that a large part of the health of the body and the health of the mind, the well-being of the body, the well-being of the mind, depends on the breath. For the most part, we ignore this potential. We ignore … 
  10. Monotasking
     … The third step the Buddha gives in dealing with the mind is releasing the mind. In other words, if you find there’s something burdening the mind, a particular thought, try to locate where in the body there’s the physical sensation that corresponds to that thought. There will be a little hitch or a little spot of tension; see if you can breathe … 
  11. The Mind’s Eating Disorders
     … What’s the form, what are the feelings, what are the perceptions, what are the fabrications, what’s the consciousness that surround the addiction? One of the reasons we get the mind into concentration is because it’s a good way to feed. It’s a harmless way to feed the mind and at the same time, because the mind is centered right here … 
  12. Truth in Action
     … Make up your mind you’re going to stay right here with the breath and then you have to keep watch over yourself. Which means that alertness, the quality that we bring to the present moment, has to cover two things: One, you’re alert to the breath; and two, you’re alert to the mind. Mindfulness is what reminds you to stay here … 
  13. A Refuge from the Winds of the World
    The Thai translation for concentration is “to have the mind firmly established.” Right concentration, of course, means have it established firmly in the right way. When you think of concentration in that way, then it’s obvious that it’s a quality you want to have all the time. As Ajaan Suwat once noted, when you define concentration that way, it covers all aspects … 
  14. The Gradual Path of Skill
     … The mind, when you look at it, has all kinds of ideas, all kinds of potentials, good and bad. The mind itself is neither. Ajaan Chah has a nice statement where he says, “The mind isn’t ‘is’ anything.” You can’t really define the mind as this, that, or the other thing. It’s just the quality of knowing. Ajaan Lee makes the … 
  15. Adbusting the Mind
     … That’s why we have mindfulness as the precursor to concentration. You want to keep something in mind. In this case, you keep in mind the fact that you want to stay with the breath, and you keep in mind all the other lessons you’ve learned about staying with the breath, either through what you’ve heard or read, or what you’ve … 
  16. Delight in Concentration
     … your human mind. When you find physical seclusion and you can focus directly on your mind, and you get the mind into mental seclusion like this, learn how to delight in that. Then get the mind still. See that as a genuine accomplishment. The final two objects of delight have to do with the goal of the path. One is the fact that it … 
  17. Chanting Before Meditation
     … This, as the Buddha says, means the practice of establishing mindfulness. Mindfulness is not just a matter of being aware of what’s happening. It also involves remembering that if you notice anything unskillful coming up in the mind, you let it go. You remember what you’ve learned about how to let it go. If something skillful comes up, you remember to encourage … 
  18. Think
     … a sixfold path of right mindfulness, without right effort and right concentration, and a sevenfold path of right effort and right concentration but without right mindfulness. Yet that doesn’t make any sense. You have to go back and see where the modern definitions are wrong. Actually, mindfulness is not an open accepting state of mind. Mindfulness has its agendas. You’re trying to … 
  19. Insight into Pain
     … Then there’s the regret in the mind when you realize you’ve harmed someone else or harmed yourself. As the mind is trying to settle down in concentration, that becomes a thorn, makes it hard to settle down. Training in virtue is a way of avoiding those difficulties. At the same time, training in virtue is also training in mindfulness, training in alertness … 
  20. At Ease with the Breath
    For the mind to be steady, it has to feel at its ease. This is why the Buddha taught so many different topics of meditation. The commentaries list forty in all. Ten recollections, ten contemplations of corpses—some people find that a congenial topic, it’s easy for the mind to settle down there, it’s really riveting. Then there are the four sublime … 
  21. Endurance
     … There’s an area in the mind where you have to learn to be intolerant. When the Buddha talks about the various ways of training the mind, there are some areas where you are tolerant, specifically of things that come from outside: sights, sounds, smells, tastes, tactile sensations, ideas you hear from other people, ideas that come up in your mind. But you have … 
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