Search results for: "Mindfulness"

  1. Page 71
  2. Contentment vs. Initiative
     … This is especially important when you’re dealing with the obstreperous voices in your mind, the ones you know are unskillful. To fight them off, you have to analyze them: Where do they get their strength? In other words, if there’s a quality of the mind that you know is unskillful, what is it that you like about it? Often the mind will … 
  3. The Four Precepts
     … Remember, the word “meditation” in Pali, bhavana, means developing the mind. And you don’t develop the mind solely when you sit here with your eyes closed, not doing anything. You also have to develop it while you’re doing things—while you’re acting, while you’re moving, while you’re speaking. It’s like learning how to chew gum and to walk … 
  4. Refreshment
     … The same applies to the mind. It’s nourished by its food, but it’s also subject to abrasion and wearing down. We live in a world where there are lots of very unpleasant things, things that threaten to wear the mind down. We have to figure out some way to find the strength not to be worn down by them. With the body … 
  5. Mange in the Mind
     … You see the intentions of the mind, the activity of the mind, because that’s where the suffering comes from. It doesn’t come from your body—although the mind can create a lot of suffering around the body. The body gets sick, you get upset. The body is growing old, you get upset. The body is getting ready to die, you feel abandoned … 
  6. The Power of Your Actions
     … The mind needs to rest. You could spend some time sleeping, but that’s not necessarily skillful. This is why he says that you want to bring the mind into concentration. That’s where we get the third of the strengths, which is mindfulness. What the Buddha calls the establishings of mindfulness are not exercises in simply being aware of what’s happening or … 
  7. A Master of Your Thoughts
     … You want your alertness and mindfulness to be more in charge. This is the meaning of the word faculty: something in charge, or* indriya *in Pali. The word is related to *Indra, *who was the king of the gods—the dominant god. You want to turn mindfulness and alertness into dominant factors in the mind so that they’re in charge rather than just … 
  8. Fire
     … Try to find a spot right now where there’s a sense of stillness in the mind, and do your best to nourish that because, whatever the dangers, what you’ll need to face those dangers will be the quality you build into your mind. When dangers come, you have to think quickly. You can prepare and prepare and prepare and get all your … 
  9. The Long-Distance Meditator
     … If your mind obeys only when you come down really hard on it, it’s going to look for times to slip away, because you can’t come down hard on yourself all the time. The mind will rebel. Or if it’s a matter of learning how to read what your mind needs, think of the different kinds of horses that the horse … 
  10. Ardency
     … Over time, you get more mindful and your powers of concentration develop. So this quality of ardency is really important in the practice. Mindfulness is something we all have to some extent or another. We can keep some things in mind. The question is, are we keeping the right things in mind? In the same way, to some extent we already have some alertness … 
  11. True Values
     … It comes from having power over your own mind, your own ability to say No to your defilements. The more you can let go of your attachments, the more you can let go of your cravings and clingings, then the higher the level of your mind. The more you can bring the mind to concentration, the higher its level will be. Even more so … 
  12. Views & Vision
    The mind spends a lot of its time talking to itself. And so when we come to the practice, it’s important that we learn how to use that habit in a skillful way, so that it actually helps the practice and doesn’t get in the way. If you’ve read any of the texts, you know that when the mind gets into … 
  13. The Brahmaviharas Are Not a Complete Practice
     … You could hold in mind the perception that your mind is not just one mind. It’s like a committee. Sometimes the committee’s like the Chicago City Council. It’s got lots of politics; lots of deals are being made in the back rooms. But the fact that an idea has appeared to the committee doesn’t mean that you have to go … 
  14. How to Really Depend on Yourself
     … We want to learn about our minds. In some ways, our minds are all alike; in other ways they’re personal, individual. So it’s going to take some exploration to figure out: Where is your mind like Ajaan Lee’s mind? Where is it somewhat different? Or is it like Ajaan Maha Boowa’s mind? Ajaan Mun’s mind? Where is it different … 
  15. Contentment
     … So the breath gives you a good vantage point, and you can use the breath to soothe the body, to make the body more healthy; and at the same time to soothe the mind and to allow the mind to get to know itself. There’s so much ignorance in the mind about its own self—all those hidden corners and closed rooms in … 
  16. Single-minded
    Concentration is defined as singleness of mind, which gives rise to a question: The first jhāna has five factors. It’s as if you have five pots on the stove that you have to take care of all at once. So how can you be single in your mind? But look carefully at those five factors. Two of them are results of the other … 
  17. A Heart & Mind of Goodwill
     … The mind just wanders around. But here we’re trying to bring the mind under control. The world “mind,” in Pali, citta, can be translated into English both as “mind” and as “heart.” So we’re trying to bring our heart into this as well—in other words, both wanting to do it and having our reasons. The reasons are because we want happiness … 
  18. Behind the Scenes
    One of the reasons why we start the meditation with thoughts of goodwill for all beings in all directions—along with thoughts of compassion, empathetic joy, and equanimity—is to put the mind in the right frame to meditate. Otherwise, we bring the issues of the day into our meditation. Instead of focusing on the breath, we focus on what we did or somebody … 
  19. Teachings to Rahula
     … This is why mindfulness practice has to shade into concentration practice. You can’t say, “Well, I held this particular object in mind for a few breaths and then I noted something else and then I noted something else.” If you practice that way, you’ll never know what happens if you really do hold one perception in mind. You don’t know the … 
  20. Right Resolve, Right Concentration
    Every time you make up your mind you’re going to meditate, it’s a form of right resolve. You’re looking for a happiness that’s not dependent on sensuality, not dependent on ill will. There are forms of happiness dependent on ill will, when you like to think about all the exquisite pain your enemy is going to go through. But here … 
  21. Strong-hearted
     … Then you will to keep these lessons in mind, because you realize that if you learn these things and then forget them or apply them haphazardly, they don’t really accomplish anything. It’s as if you never learned them. So you’ve got to keep them in mind all the time. That’s the strength of mindfulness, and that requires having some priorities … 
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