Search results for: "The Mind"

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  2. Pain & Distraction
     … It’s the same with the mind. When the mind deals with physical and mental sensations but isn’t hungry for them because it has something else that’s much better, then you can trust it to do the right thing. This is how purity of heart is attained: by putting the mind in a position where it doesn’t have to feel hunger … 
  3. Learning from the Precepts
     … It’s when you act on impulses that are skillful that the mind is a lot more open to itself, more open to judging the results of acting on those impulses, to see how harmless they really are. In this way, you’re training both the heart and the mind at the same time. You’re training the heart in the desire to be … 
  4. The Food of Feelings
     … If you feed on them, it’ll be toxic for the mind. Feelings of sadness, feelings of depression, feelings of anger, discouragement: All these things can really weaken the mind if you feed on them. That’s why a large part of the practice is giving us other food, better things to feel on. Conviction can be food for the mind, as can persistence … 
  5. Second Wind
     … Is the body sitting in the mind? Is the mind sitting in the body? Where is your mind in relationship to the body right now? In other words, be curious of what’s going on right here, right now. Begin to take things apart so that you can see how you put it all together. When there’s distraction, we drift off in other … 
  6. The Flamethrowing Mind
     … Where do the flames come from? From inside the mind. The mind is a flamethrower. It scorches everything we look at, listen to, smell, taste, touch, think about. Then we complain that things are hot. We have to look around and see: Why are we setting things on fire? Look in here for the source of the problem. If we can put out the … 
  7. The Psychology of Harmlessness
     … So when the Buddha analyzes the mind, it’s all for the purpose of putting an end to suffering. When he’s analyzing suffering, he points out that it’s coming from within the mind. It’s caused by the mind, and is suffered by the mind. So a lot of his teachings about psychology—how to understand the mind—differs from Western psychology … 
  8. Doubt
     … The cure for doubt, he says, is to look into the mind and apply appropriate attention to the question of which events in the mind are skillful and which are not. This means watching what’s going on in the mind when you give rein to certain states of mind. Or if you think in terms of the committee of the mind, what happens … 
  9. A Centered but Broad Awareness
     … One of his terms for a mind in concentration is the mind that’s enlarged or expanded. The Pali word is mahaggata citta, the enlarged mind; the expanded mind. Having the mind expanded like this is important in several ways. One, it helps keep you from falling asleep. Sometimes it’s all too easy when the breath feels comfortable and you’re focused on … 
  10. Questions in the Practice
     … We start with the breath as our basic focus as a way of developing very basic mindfulness, very basic alertness, and also to pull our basic mindfulness and alertness close to the mind itself. All too often we’re sensitive to things happening miles away but miss what we’re doing, what we ourselves are doing, right here and now. The mind has an … 
  11. Strength Training
     … It’s the same with the mind. The mind has its anatomy: the way it clings, the way it craves, the way it creates suffering. It’s good to understand how these things come about, so you want to read up, not just to master theory for its own sake, but also to get a sense of what the possibilities are, what the problems … 
  12. Admitting Mistakes
     … When the mind does come to a certain measure of stillness, you have to watch out for sleepiness. So how do you prevent that? Well, you expand your range of awareness, give the mind work to do with the breath, to keep yourself alert, to keep yourself awake, so that you don’t just drift off into the extreme of restlessness or the extreme … 
  13. The Inner Monitor
    Ajaan Lee used to like to say that as you meditate, you’re developing three qualities or treasures in the mind. He uses the Thai word sombat, which means treasure. First you’ve got the breath, which is the object treasure. In other words, it’s the right object to settle on, because it’s very close to the mind. And among all bodily … 
  14. The Pleasure Principle Made Noble
     … Ajaan Fuang once made the comment that the rapture in the first and second jhanas is like a lubricant for the mind. The mind needs that lubricant, just as an engine needs a lubricant: If it’s lacking in the lubricant and just keeps running, running, running, it’s going to dry up and seize up, and that’ll be the end of the … 
  15. Inconstancy
     … At least that’s what the mind tells itself when it decides it’s going to go along with the desire. There are all kinds of reasons the mind can produce for its actions, but you’ve got to learn how to look past them and ask yourself, “What does this desire actually do to the mind?” This is not just a matter of … 
  16. Dissolving Narratives
     … When you can think in those terms, it’s a lot easier to settle down, because every time the mind starts to leave the breath again, you run into that same big, immense body of pointlessness. We’re here; we have a point. There’s a purpose. We’re trying to train the mind, realizing that the only way out of that whole mass … 
  17. Restraint
     … You breathe in and out in a way that gives rise to rapture, gives rise to pleasure, that gladdens the mind, concentrates the mind. You can breathe with a sense of the whole body breathing in, the whole body breathing out. This expansive sense of well-being and awareness is what gives the mind alternative food, so that it’s not so hungry to … 
  18. Meditation as a Skill
     … But you realize it’s going to take a little time for the mind to settle down, so you protect the meditation. You’re very careful not to let the mind wander off and take up with other desires. You do what you can to help nurture a state of mind that’s willing to settle down, because sometimes even with the best breath … 
  19. Moving Between Thought Worlds
     … So just because there’s a feeling there, doesn’t mean that it has to be the focal point of your sense of who you are, because many feelings that come into the mind are actually destructive. This is why meditation is such an important skill in keeping the mind healthy. The mindfulness allows you to recognize when you’ve slipped from one state … 
  20. Expanding Your Skill Set
     … You’ve got to look within, to see what skills you can develop to foster the properties of the mind, the resources, the potentials of the mind that can lead to true happiness. So we’re here because we honor that desire for happiness, and we take it seriously—not in a grim way, but simply realizing that if you want to be happy … 
  21. Understanding Happiness
     … But the prime purpose of the generosity is to cleanse the mind, to open up the mind, to make the mind broader. It’s like living in a house. If you’re living in a very narrow room, it’s very confining. But if you’re living in a wide-open room with lots of sunlight and lots of space, you’re very comfortable … 
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