Search results for: "Mindfulness"

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  2. Basic Meditation Instructions
     … In the course of focusing the mind on the breath like this, you’re developing good qualities of the mind that will help in this direction. The very first one is mindfulness, the ability to keep something in mind. In this case, you’re keeping the breath in mind, and at the same time you’re keeping in mind the idea that you want … 
  3. Grasping the Snake
     … It’s the same with mindfulness. Sometimes mindfulness comes after discernment and sometimes before, which means in the practice that the causal influence can go either way. With each of these two pairs—mindfulness and discernment or concentration and discernment—each side of the pair helps the other side along. As your mindfulness gets better, your discernment gets more expansive, because you can remember … 
  4. The Boundaries of Mindfulness
     … Again, this goes against what’s normally taught about mindfulness, that it’s a nonjudgmental state of mind. But as you’re looking at the present moment, you have to be very clear about what you need to keep in mind in order to encourage skillful qualities, and what you need to keep in mind to abandon unskillful ones. This is how mindfulness and … 
  5. The Rewards of Cleanliness
     … It’s the same with the mind. When greed, anger, and delusion come into the mind, if you just let them come in, come in, come in, you don’t really notice them, after a while they seem to be the normal way of the mind—almost as if they are permanent inhabitants. But you try to keep the mind clean every time something … 
  6. Mindfulness, the Gatekeeper
     … You keep them in mind in everything you do. That’s what mindfulness is all about. You’re very selective. You’ve got some duties that you keep in mind. Each time you breathe in, each time you breathe out, mindfulness gets based on any one of four things: either the body in and of itself, or feelings in and of themselves, mind states … 
  7. Developed in Body & Mind
     … We’re here to develop good qualities in the mind, which of course means that the mind needs more good qualities. As the Buddha said, as long as you haven’t reached the end of suffering, don’t be satisfied with your level of skill. See what you can do to learn more. We’re practicing mindfulness, alertness, ardency, trying to bring them all … 
  8. Games the Mind Plays
     … You want to learn how to master all the tricks of the mind and turn those tricks on the defilements. Don’t let them have all the tricks. Talk to your mind. This is another misunderstanding: the idea that somehow the non-verbal part of your mind is wiser; and as for the conditioned part of the mind, the language, just get rid of … 
  9. The Mind in Good Shape
     … An important first step in succeeding in the meditation is getting your mind in a state where it really wants to do it. You see the importance of having a trained mind. You see the dangers of not training the mind. That should inspire you to want to meditate, to want to get the mind under control. After all, the mind is what determines … 
  10. Off to a Good Start
    When you meditate, you want to get your body in place and your mind in place. And actually, in both cases getting in place is simple. It’s staying in place that’s going to be a little harder. To get the body in place, you sit straight, hands in your lap, face straight ahead, and close your eyes. To get the mind in … 
  11. How Much Concentration Is Enough?
    How much concentration is enough? Enough is when you can observe your own mind in action. And because the actions of the mind exist on many levels, there are going to be many levels of concentration. As a general rule of thumb, the more concentration, the better—as long as it’s mindful. Sometimes you hear that mindfulness and concentration are two separate states … 
  12. Survival Tactics
     … But here he’s talking more about the survival of the mind, the good qualities in your mind. When you’re careless, the good qualities in your mind die. And when they die, what do you have left? There may be brute survival of the body, but it’s not worth all that much. When we come to practice the Buddha’s teachings, we … 
  13. Concentration Isn’t Dumb
     … Getting my mind to be quiet required a lot of figuring out. It required some intelligence. I’d learned many lessons about how important it was to get the mind quiet as an intelligent way of administering your mind, you might say. If you’re going to think, you want to have the mind rested so it can think clearly. The images they give … 
  14. Death Is Normal
     … You’re training yourself in mindfulness—the ability to keep something in mind; alertness—the ability to know what you’re doing and the results of what you’re doing; and a quality called ardency, which means putting some effort into this to do it well. Because after all, your mind’s happiness depends on its training. If the mind is untrained, it can … 
  15. Training for Happiness
     … In other words, you want to be more and more sensitive to what the mind is doing. And you find, over time, that you can catch it more quickly. This develops two qualities: mindfulness and alertness. Mindfulness is the act of keeping something in mind. Like right now: You’re going to keep the breath in mind. You tell yourself that that’s what … 
  16. Contentment
     … Look at the mind. What is the mind doing that’s causing suffering? What could it do to cause less suffering? To see this clearly, you’ve got to get the mind very, very still. And whatever way you get the mind to settle down in the present moment clearly, with mindfulness and alertness, try to develop those skills within the mind, develop those … 
  17. Fabrication Theory
     … When you’ve mastered that, you’ve mastered the ways of the mind. That’s when you’re really in charge. After all, the biggest danger in life is a mind out of control. And who does it harm? Well, the first person it harms is the particular person whose mind it is. If your mind is out of control, it’s like giving … 
  18. Tranquility, Insight, & Concentration
     … As he said, the themes of right concentration are the four establishings of mindfulness. For example, the body: “Keep focused on the body in and of itself—ardent, alert, mindful—putting aside greed and distress with reference to the world.” That’s his description for how you get the mind into concentration. You focus on one topic, keep it in mind—that’s mindfulness … 
  19. Why We Practice the Way We Do
     … As the Buddha said, to maintain skillful qualities in the mind requires energy, requires nourishment. This is where mindfulness and concentration come in. Here the Buddha defines the factors that lead you from mindfulness to concentration, and he lists them in another place as the seven factors for awakening. You start with mindfulness, in other words, you keep in mind the fact that you … 
  20. Analysis of Qualities
     … They basically show how, starting with mindfulness, you use your discernment to get the mind to settle down. They explain how right view gets you from right mindfulness to right concentration, or how discernment fosters concentration. Now, the Buddha has other lists of teachings where things happen the other way around. You get the mind focused on establishing mindfulness, from which you then develop … 
  21. Into Position
    Get your body in position and your mind in position. The body in position: your legs folded, right leg on top of the left. Keep your spine erect, lower your shoulders to the back, place your hands in your lap close to your stomach, so that you don’t lean over. Close your eyes. That’s the body in position. The mind in position … 
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