Search results for: "Mindfulness"

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  2. Defilements
     … But you notice these things best if you have the mind in concentration and you try to maintain that sense of center. You begin to hear more clearly the voices in your mind: all the different committee members. This is where it’s good to have some practice with the phrases for goodwill, compassion, empathetic joy, and equanimity, because if you then suddenly find … 
  3. Restlessness & Anxiety
     … What you’re going to need when the future comes is more alertness, more mindfulness, more concentration, more discernment. The future’s going to bring a lot of unexpected things, and these are the qualities of the mind that can deal with the unexpected, that can be sensitive to what’s going on and see opportunities that you wouldn’t see if the mind … 
  4. Appreciating Goodness
     … This training starts with being meritorious, but it goes on beyond that, it goes deeper into the meditation, as you learn to see ways in which the mind is causing itself unnecessary suffering, and you can root out those causes. The mind becomes a lighter mind, more spacious mind, a mind you can trust a lot more. The scariest thing in life—even scarier … 
  5. Hindrances
    The ajaans would often say that when you begin to meditate, you should make a survey of your mind to see if there are any hindrances there. Clear out the hindrances and then focus on your meditation. Now, sometimes it works in that order. Other times, you’ve got to start with the breath and then be prepared to see what comes to get … 
  6. Kind & Happy
     … To develop qualities in the mind, you really have to stick with one thing. Start with mindfulness. Keep one thing in mind and watch it carefully. Keep the breath in mind each time it comes in. If you catch yourself wandering off, bring the mind right back. And pay careful attention to how the breathing feels. Where in the body do you notice the … 
  7. Investment Strategies
     … something that helps you stash away good qualities for the future, because conviction comes down to the idea that the training of the mind can make all the difference in the world. As you’re sitting here focusing on the breath, you’re developing qualities that will be very useful, such as mindfulness and alertness. In other words, when you see the mind moving … 
  8. Verbal Fabrication
     … You’re trying to get the mind to settle down. Any speech beyond that is not really necessary. We’re trying to speak in ways that lead the mind to a place where it doesn’t have to speak. As for whether you’re going to be gentle or harsh with yourself as you speak, that depends on how you read your own mind … 
  9. A Mental Fortress
     … And also, once these things get into your mind, if you notice that something unskillful has gotten into the mind, you have to remember to get it out. So this is not just mindfulness on its own. It’s also alertness. Then who else do you have inside the fortress? Well, you’ve got your right effort. Those are the soldiers: the realization that … 
  10. The Garden of Enlightenment
     … And even though we’re working with natural things in the mind, and there’s a natural quality of goodness in the mind, there’s also a natural quality of not-goodness in there. So we can’t be complacent. The practice is not just letting the mind go along with its own ordinary flow, because what’s the ordinary flow of the mind … 
  11. The Cool Fire of Jhana
     … It’s actually good for the body, good for the mind, and it brings light into areas of the mind that have long been dark. You can read your mind because the flame is steady. Of course, it’s still burning. This is where the image of nibbana comes in. That’s where there’s no fire, no burning at all, even the cool … 
  12. Three Levels of Effort
     … There’s greater clarity in the mind, greater understanding. Your powers of mindfulness, alertness, concentration, and discernment: They all grow. Ultimately, this brings the mind to a point—what we might call the third level of skillful effort—where there’s really nothing more to do. If skillful qualities are developed, there’s a great sense of balance in the mind—stability. There’s … 
  13. Moods Are Not-Self
     … So the first order of business is get the mind in the right mood to be with the breath on good terms. To begin with, the Buddha recommended that you try to make your mind like earth. Think of the part of the mind that can just be with anything, no matter what, and not feel upset or elated by it—because that part … 
  14. The Dhamma Wheel
     … And then, to get the mind into concentration, you have to let go of unskillful mental qualities and develop skillful ones. You have to have an establishment, a place where you can settle the mind. That’s what the establishings of mindfulness are for. You connect with the body in and of itself, or feelings in and of themselves, mind states, mental qualities in … 
  15. Your Inner Teacher
     … Subconscious events are events going on in the mind all the time when you’re not paying attention, or that you—consciously or subconsciously—willfully ignore. You go into denial. This is why it’s so difficult to train the mind. The mind has this tendency toward denial, to block things out. What we’re doing as we meditate is to put the mind … 
  16. A Gentle Touch
    Give the mind a chance to settle down, and try to learn just the right amount of pressure to put on the breath to keep it there. For a lot of people, if you could take a picture of what they’re doing to their mind as they’re practicing concentration, it’s as if they’re strangling it, which is why the mind … 
  17. Matters of Life & Death
     … So you want to develop the quality of mind that will serve you as a refuge when you’re old, when you’re ill, when you’re dying. This is why we meditate with so much emphasis on developing mindfulness, concentration, and discernment. Mindfulness is not being aware. It’s keeping certain things in mind, especially keeping in mind the idea that you really … 
  18. Your Own Karma
     … When the mind is concentrated, it’s easier to be more careful about your speech and your actions. When you understand how you’re causing stress and suffering, it’s easier to get the mind still. All the different elements of the path work together. So you can’t do just mindfulness practice. That old attitude of. “All you need is mindfulness,” doesn’t … 
  19. A Path Rooted in Desire
    Make up your mind you’re going to stay with the breath—all the way in, all the way out, each breath as it comes in, as it goes out. Notice when you breathe in: Where do you feel it in the body? When the Buddha talks about breath, he’s not talking about the tactile sensation of the air at the nose. He … 
  20. The Path Requires Effort
     … And you have to respect the necessary work, because actually, in the process of getting the mind to settle down, you learn a lot of interesting things about the mind, just through this effort of coming back, coming back. You learn a lot of unexpected things about the mind. It’s easy to read books about Buddhism and say, “Well, ultimately you have to … 
  21. Oozing Bodies, Oozing Minds
     … One is effluent, something that comes flowing out of the mind. Usually in English we think of an effluent as something dirty, and that gives a pretty good idea of the implication in Pali as well. It’s something that defiles the mind, something unclean. Another translation is fermentation, something that comes bubbling up out of the mind. Either translation is effective in getting … 
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