Search results for: "The Mind"

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  2. 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 … 
  3. 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 … 
  4. 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 … 
  5. 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 … 
  6. 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 … 
  7. 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 … 
  8. 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 … 
  9. 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 … 
  10. 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 … 
  11. 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 … 
  12. 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 … 
  13. 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 … 
  14. 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 … 
  15. 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 … 
  16. 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 … 
  17. Potentials for Awakening
     … Whatever pleasure you can get from concentration is going to be a good thing, because unlike sensual pleasure or the pleasures of sensual fantasies, the pleasure of concentration puts you in a state where you can actually see the mind clearly and feel nourished as you’re looking at what’s going on in the mind. That would be a bright quality or a … 
  18. Factors for Awakening
     … This puts you in a better position to look at the mind. Again, your basic foundation is the breath, and you watch the mind from the position of a very comfortable, very refreshing, very fulfilling way of breathing. You see the mind in a very different light than if you were looking at it from a feeling of being all tensed, tight, and wound … 
  19. Alone & with Others
     … They’re there to do something to the mind. So you want to see: What do they do? What do they help you let go? And when you’ve let go, what happens next? Does the mind jump in and build a lot of pride around it? Or is there a string of letting goes? This ability to hold back judgment and be a … 
  20. The Uses of Pleasure
     … So what are the uses of this pleasure? One is to give the mind a place to rest. When you’re doing your work of analyzing what’s going on in the mind, there come times when the analysis gets dull. The traditional image is of a knife. If you use it again and again and again, it’s going to get dull. You … 
  21. Large-hearted Goodness
    When you settle down with the breath, and the mind is willing to stay here watching the breath consistently, making it smooth all the way in, all the way out, it’s food for the mind. And it’s good food. It’s food inside, not food out in the world. You get a sense of well-being, a sense of ease, of being … 
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