Search results for: "The Mind"

  1. Page 76
  2. Papañca
    As you sit here focused on the breath, you get some hands-on experience in seeing how the mind relates to objects. On the one hand, you have the object that you intend to stay with: the breath. And you’ve got to ask yourself: Where are you in relation to the breath? And what does it mean to keep the breath in mind … 
  3. Comfortable with Yourself
     … See what really feels good for the body right now—and feels really good for the mind as well. Some types of breathing maybe relaxing for the body but just they’re a little bit too slow and blurred for the mind to focus on. So, make adjustments for that, too. This is a very immediate way of showing goodwill for yourself. There’s … 
  4. A Magic Set of Tools
     … And that’s the whole purpose of getting the mind to stay steadily here in the present moment: so that you can read what’s going on in the mind. In the beginning, the steadiness requires some protection, just like the candle here. If the wind outside started to flare up more than it is right now, we’d have to put a glass … 
  5. Fabrication at the Breath
     … These are the elements that create states of mind that inhabit both the body and the mind. So keep remembering, reminding yourself: It’s just these three types of fabrication. This is how concentration helps you gain insight into the mind, first in the process of getting the mind to have a sense of well-being and fullness and stability in the present, then … 
  6. Noble Contentment, Noble Discontent
     … This is one of the areas where you’re encouraged to develop, as much as you can, the conditions for allowing the mind to settle down so that it does have a good, solid place to stay. Then you apply the same principles to the mind. What in the mind can you change? What can you not change yet? Any unskillful qualities that come … 
  7. The World Does Not Endure
     … You have it within your power to shape your life.” The mind is not just a result of physical events. As the Buddha said in the very first verse in the Dhammapada, the mind is the forerunner of all things. All things are achieved through the mind. It’s the mind that comes first. That’s the opposite of what a lot of people … 
  8. Perception
     … This is one of the reasons why we have to meditate — to get the mind still enough so you can see these subconscious thoughts in action. You have to understand that the mind’s not divided into two sections: the conscious mind and the unconscious mind. It’s just that there’s conscious behavior in the mind and unconscious behavior, conscious events and unconscious … 
  9. See Yourself as Active Verbs
     … Even before we see things, hear them, smell, taste, touch, or think about them, there’s already a lot of activity going out from the mind. The Thai ajaans call these the currents flowing out of the mind. Your intentions, your perceptions, your plans for things: All of these have an impact on how you’re going to receive that outside contact. These activities … 
  10. The Uses of Concentration
     … A part of the mind resists this, a very strong part of the mind. We like to think that our intentions are good, that there’s nothing wrong with our intentions. Yet a huge part of the practice requires seeing where our intentions are not skillful. The only way you’re going to look at your own intentions with any degree of fairness or … 
  11. Study to Practice
     … When the mind is sluggish, what do you do to gladden it? When the mind is scattered, what do you do to steady it? When the mind is burdened with anger, what do you do to release it? He gives you ways to think: That’s verbal fabrication, different ways of thinking about anger—like his statement that there’s only one thing whose … 
  12. Strength for Your Goodness
     … We’re going to get the mind into concentration, and for the mind to stay in concentration, it has to have a pleasant sensation to stay with. So make the breath pleasant. You don’t have to force it, just think of allowing it to be pleasant. When the needs of the body change, the breath can change as well. As the mind settles … 
  13. You Are Not a Textbook
     … Then you take that sensitivity and you apply it to the mind, because in order to have the strength to do the right thing you need to get the mind into concentration. And the question is, where are you right now with respect to concentration? Are you north of it, south of it, east, or west? Left or right? In other words, which direction … 
  14. Artillery All Around
    Artillery All Around August 16, 2011 The mind is such an old hand at fabrication that it doesn’t really notice all the fabrication it’s doing all the time. You sit here watching the breath and you think it’s just awareness with the breath, pure and simple. But the type of awareness you bring is already fabricated, and the breath itself is … 
  15. Appropriate Attention
     … noticing it every time it happens and bringing the mind back. Try to be quicker the next time in noticing when you’re distracted. See if you can sense the warning signals, the hints in the mind that let you know that the mind is about to go someplace else. Try to be very, very alert. The powers of mindfulness and alertness are things … 
  16. Coming into the Present
     … The Buddha picked out the concepts and perceptions that really are helpful and said that they should be developed because they do have an impact on the mind—a beneficial, salutary impact on the mind. The practice of concentration he calls a perception attainment. In other words, you gain concentration by holding onto a particular concept, perception, or label in the mind. Even though … 
  17. Actualizing Your Potentials
     … Even though things in the world can get pretty dire, the mind isn’t totally in there in that world of the dire. Your awareness can step back and look at it, realizing that the perceptions and feelings of that world, if you pull them into the mind, can cause you to suffer. But you don’t have to pull them into the mind … 
  18. Goodwill for the Breath
     … It’s by adjusting the breath, getting sensitive to how your mind interacts with the breath, and then learning to do it in a more and more friendly way, more sensitive way, so the mind and the breath get along together: That’s how you come to know both the breath and the mind. So, notice how the breathing feels as it comes in … 
  19. Just-Right Concentration
     … That means reading the body, reading the mind, getting a sense of what they need, learning to provide it, then learning to protect what you’ve got. Value what you’ve got. There’ll be a voice in the mind that says, “I want to move on faster.” Well, where are you going to go? Study what you have right here, right now. Settle … 
  20. Skills for Awakening
     … We learn how to breathe in a way that calms the body, calms the mind; we think in ways that calm the body, calm the mind. And these are skills we can develop to benefit the mind. But they’re not the whole story. In spite of what you may have heard, we cannot relax our way to awakening or decree that awakening means … 
  21. Marshalling the Emotions
     … What can be done with the mind as you focus it on the breath? What can be done with the breath? How can you learn to relate to the breath in a way that allows you to settle down and see what’s going on in the mind? Be curious. Find out. When you meet up with obstacles, you need the sort of inquisitive … 
  22. Load next page...