Search results for: "The Mind"

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  2. 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 … 
  3. Feeding Frenzy: Dependent Co-arising
     … Dependent Co-arising October 23, 2006 The Pali word for the worlds we create in the mind is bhava, which literally means becoming. We keep creating these worlds. If you look at dependent co-arising, you see that they’re based on two things. The immediate prerequisite is clinging, upadana; and clinging in turn is based on craving, tanha. But both of those words … 
  4. Right View, Right Attention
     … Because this is a state of mind that allows you to watch the mind and not feel hungry for jumping at whatever. If the mind is hungry, then anything that comes along looks like a good snack. If it’s been engaged in something unskillful, it’ll try to distract itself with whatever. But here you’re engaged in something skillful, with a sense … 
  5. Stubborn Clinging
    Stubborn Clinging July 26, 2011 The term “becoming” refers to the mind’s habit of taking on an identity in a world of experience. This can refer to our sense of the world outside and our identity within that world, whether it’s the social world or the physical world. But “world” can also refer to worlds in the mind. As you meditate, you … 
  6. The Practice of Right View
     … It may be idle in its intent, but it actually has an impact on the mind. It’s something you’re doing, and it leaves kammic traces. Just as the Buddha discouraged idle, aimless speech, he also discouraged idle, aimless thinking. So learn how to look at your thoughts in terms of what they do, the impact they have on the mind. The Buddha … 
  7. Trustworthy Intentions
     … So when you’re meditating here and you notice the mind slipping off to other things, the first step is just not to follow it. Make it a rule that wherever the mind goes in the course of the hour, you’re going to bring it back to the breath. Immediately. As for the other currents in the mind, you just let them be … 
  8. 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 … 
  9. Sophisticated Dhamma
     … This is a very important principle in learning about the mind and seeing exactly where your defilements are. If you don’t say No to the mind, everything seems to flow, and there’s no problem at all. “Who says there’s such a thing as defilement?” The part of the mind that even resists having any of its thoughts called defilement: That’s … 
  10. Pleasant Practice, Painful Practice
     … to get to the point where the mind is neither taken with attractiveness or unattractiveness, to realize these are perceptions you apply that are not all that useful. When you can get past them, the mind is freed from a lot of worries and a lot of concerns. This is a method of practice that’s really important. Now, it’s not pleasant. As … 
  11. Your Game Leg
     … This is something you stamp with ‘like’; this is something you stamp with ‘dislike.’” The different parts of the mind agree on those labels. Well, learn how to question those agreements—these little pacts the mind has with itself—so that your looking and listening at the very least don’t damage the state of the mind and can actually can become part of … 
  12. Where the Mind & Body Meet
    When you’re focused on the breath, you’re focused where the mind and the body meet. It’s through the breath that the mind is aware of the body, aware of having a body, and it’s through the breath that the mind exerts influence in the body; it can get the body to move around. And right here is where the Buddha … 
  13. Part I : Basic Instructions
     … We mentioned earlier today that the big issue is the way the mind fabricates things, and you get to know how the mind fabricates things by fabricating good things first. We’ve been fabricating all kinds of ignorant things that lead to stress and suffering, so now let’s fabricate something good: a state of concentration in the mind. Make way for the things … 
  14. Testing Insights
     … So even in the process of getting the mind to be still, getting the mind to be concentrated, there already has to be an element of discernment. Then, once you really are settled in there—you’ve gotten to the point where you’re skilled at getting the mind into that state, getting it to stay there, getting it settled in—then see if … 
  15. Nourishment from the Breath
     … We feed on rapture like the radiant gods.” We look for the mind’s nourishment in the sense of well-being, the sense of fullness that can come from concentration, but we have to give it our full attention for it to work. Often we get the mind in a nice place, and then we think, “Okay, let the mind go on automatic pilot … 
  16. Truth as Medicine
     … It means simply that you have to learn how to think and speak and act in ways that are medicinal, that help cure the mind. And don’t be too impatient to get the results. After all, we’ve been harming the mind for how many years, how many lifetimes? When the time comes to turn around and heal the mind, it’s not … 
  17. Speech for the Sake of Stillness
     … That’s how you get the mind snug with its object, how you get the object just right for the mind. You’re focusing on the breath. Where do you feel the breath right now? Do you know when it’s coming in? Do you know when it’s going out? Does it feel comfortable? If it’s not comfortable, this is where you … 
  18. The Real World Isn’t for Real
     … When you look at the breath, you’re very close to looking at the mind. When you look at the breath you give yourself a good foundation—a place to stand so that when you look into the mind and see things you don’t like about the mind, you’re not blown away. So try to develop a sense of ease, well-being … 
  19. Comfortable With the Truth
     … There are lots of currents flowing through the mind. The Buddha calls them asavas or fermentations, effluents, things that come flowing out, and if we’re not careful they become floods overwhelming the mind. You’re sitting here telling yourself you’re focusing on the breath and all of a sudden you’re far away someplace else. The mind’s been carried away by … 
  20. The Power of Choice
     … the part of the mind that’s working with the breath and is enjoying it. This is called being selective in what’s skillful and what’s not. It’s an exercise in discernment, and you’re using your discernment to get the mind to settle down. This is the ideal way of meditating. If your concentration contains an element of discernment, it’s … 
  21. Shoulds & Desires
     … But when the mind settles down, it does have an energy. That energy radiates out. And when the mind settles down, it’s a lot less likely to be hungry to act on greed, aversion, and delusion. So again, you’re giving safety to other beings. We’re looking for happiness in ways where there’s no clear line between who benefits and who … 
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