Search results for: "Mindfulness"

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  2. Noble Treasures
     … All living beings are the owners of their actions.” All these things are good to keep in mind so that you can call them to mind when you need them. Generosity is generosity of spirit. You can express it through giving material things, giving your time, giving your energy. It’s an expansive quality of mind and it brings with it a sense of … 
  3. Samvega
    There’s a series of suttas in the Canon where monks are out in the forest meditating but letting their minds wander in different places, doing things they shouldn’t be doing, thinking about things they shouldn’t be thinking about. Devas come and call them on it. Probably the most famous one is the one of the monk who’s going bathing, and … 
  4. The Desire to End All Desires
     … Where do you start when you change your actions? You start with your mind because your mind is what’s making the decisions. This is why, when we meditate, we focus on the mind in the present moment. Now, you can’t focus directly on the mind as you start out, so you focus on something that’s really close: the breath. You do … 
  5. A Happiness Based Inside
     … You need a combination of tranquility and insight to get the mind firmly established in a good dependable state of concentration and to keep it there—and to realize that if you’re going to have a foundation for happiness, it lies in this direction and not outside. That means, one, steadying the mind with a sense of the breath and learning how to … 
  6. Control from Within
     … He was using this incident to illustrate the difference between the magical mind and the religious mind. The magical mind wants to control everything, whereas the religious mind realizes there’s a lot that’s not under our control. Of course, in some religions, there’s somebody else in charge. But in the Buddha’s teachings, there’s nobody in charge. That’s one … 
  7. Look in the Mirror
    Ajaan Lee talks about using the breath as a mirror for the mind. As you focus on the breath, you’ll notice that if you’re putting too much pressure on the breath, the breath feels uncomfortable. You want to give the breath as much freedom as possible to flow throughout the body—and that requires a light touch. Even though he talks about … 
  8. Values of the Noble Ones
     … The word for refuge in Pali, saraṇa, also means something you keep in mind. This is the mindfulness practice that will carry you through. I was reading today about high school students taking mindfulness courses. The way mindfulness courses are taught here is basically that you’re aware of whatever comes up and you accept it—don’t do anything about it. They discovered … 
  9. A Frame of Reference
     … Mindfulness means keeping something in mind, as when you remember to stay with the breath no matter what. Alertness means noticing what’s actually happening. What’s the breath like right now? What’s your mind doing right now? Is it slipping off? If you find it slipping off to other distractions, just pull it right back. You don’t have to define what … 
  10. The Context for No Context
     … So in that sense, while we’re meditating, we’re trying to get our minds outside of their normal context. But getting the mind outside of that context requires a certain kind of context as well. When the Buddha talks about the ability to put the mind in this position where you’re seeing things arising and passing away, it requires a whole series … 
  11. Lessons in Fabrication
     … Breathe in a way that gladdens the mind. Breathe in a way that concentrates the mind. Breathe in a way that releases the mind. So even in something as simple as how to breathe, the Buddha gives instructions. The same with how to talk to yourself: All the different suttas are instructions telling you that this is a good way to think about this … 
  12. There’s Work to Be Done
     … The activity of mindfulness is not just being aware of things or accepting things. It means keeping something in mind, and there’s actually quite a lot to keep in mind: first, the object you’re going to stay with, and then learning how to recognize when you’re doing it well and when you’re not doing it well. This is a sensitivity … 
  13. Understanding Happiness
    Focus your mind on the breath. Try and be on good terms with the breath. After all, it’s the energy of life. And if the energy feels healthy and nourishing, it’s going to nourish both the body and the mind. It’s probably the most important thing in life, and yet we very rarely look at it. We’re always concerned about … 
  14. Standards for Thinking
     … So learn to talk to yourself about the breath in a way that’s helpful, so that you can breathe in a way that feels refreshing, that releases a lot of the tension, that can gladden the mind when it’s depressed, can steady the mind when it’s all over the place, can release the mind from its burdens. These are things we … 
  15. Discernment Is in the Doing
     … Then you’re mindful, which means you call to mind your memory of what you’ve done in the past, what’s worked, what hasn’t worked. Then when you find yourself presented with a problem, you ask yourself, “What is the nature of this problem?” Say that something unskillful comes up in the mind: “Is this something I should accept? Or something I … 
  16. Timeless Practice
     … This is how you develop mindfulness. Remember the Buddha’s image for mindfulness is of a gatekeeper in a fortress who has to be very careful about who he lets in and who doesn’t let in, who he lets out and who he doesn’t let out. We sometimes hear mindfulness defined as a very open and choiceless awareness. But that’s not … 
  17. 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 … 
  18. Over the Pass
     … After all, what are the causes of suffering? The cravings of the mind—which, as the forest ajaans say, are things that flow out of the mind. And you’ve got to cut the flow. When your mind flows toward unskillful behavior, you’ve got to cut the flow. This, of course, is based on the realization the mind is not innately good. The … 
  19. A Load of Straw
    A Load of Straw April 8, 2004 The mind has a habit of loading itself down with all sorts of unnecessary garbage. It’s like a phrase they have in Thai, “the old woman loading herself down with straw.” The story goes that she thought that someday she might find herself in need of some straw, so everywhere she went she carried a huge … 
  20. Timeless Dhamma
     … You set up that intention and then you have to develop mindfulness and alertness to maintain it. This is where training of the precepts begins to shade into training of the mind. Without mindfulness and alertness, you forget the precepts and you don’t really notice what you’re doing. Then it’s very easy to break the precepts. So you’ve got to … 
  21. A Taste of Freedom
    When you meditate, you’re taking advantage of the fact that the mind can choose its objects, choose its preoccupations. It’s not the case that you have to go running with whatever comes floating up into the mind in the present moment, because a lot of thoughts come in from the past—your past kamma, your old habits. And the reason we’re … 
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