Search results for: "The Mind"

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  2. 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 … 
  3. 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 … 
  4. 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 … 
  5. 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 … 
  6. 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 … 
  7. 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 … 
  8. 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 … 
  9. 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 … 
  10. 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 … 
  11. 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 … 
  12. 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 … 
  13. 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 … 
  14. 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 … 
  15. 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 … 
  16. 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 … 
  17. 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 … 
  18. A Slave to Craving
     … The mind, when fostered with discernment, is released from all its effluents, in other words, all the things that come bubbling up out of the mind that make us go flowing out looking for happiness outside. When discernment is fully developed, it frees the mind. It’s no longer a slave to craving. There is a dimension that can be touched at the mind … 
  19. Your Breath, Your Territory
     … So while you’ve got them functioning, learn to create a space inside where the mind can talk to itself, the mind can reason with itself, the mind can understand itself. I heard an unexpected story the other day. It turns out that back when Nixon was president, he went to Thailand and had an audience with the king. As he reported later, one … 
  20. Capable
     … Our desire right now is to get the mind to settle down. So what can you do to get the mind to settle down? The Buddha gives his instructions in his description of right mindfulness. You keep focused on the body in and of itself—ardent, alert, and mindful—putting aside greed and distress with reference to the world. So you stay with the … 
  21. Values
     … Value for what? Value in that it allows you to observe the mind, to understand what drives the mind, and particularly what drives the mind to create suffering. We all want pleasure. We all want happiness. Yet we find ourselves doing things that lead to unhappiness. And even though we may know better, we tend to persist with our old bad habits. This is … 
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