Search results for: "Mindfulness"

  1. Page 78
  2. Subduing Greed & Distress
    The Buddha’s instructions on mindfulness are basically instructions on how to get the mind into concentration. They describe two activities: One is remaining focused on a particular frame of reference in and of itself. Like right now we’re focused on the breath: That’s the body in and of itself. The second activity is subduing greed and distress with reference to the … 
  3. Detail Work
     … It stirs up your interest in details, and that stirs up the energy in the mind, because it’s easy to slough through the different contemplations and go to sleep. But if you tell yourself, “I’ve got to think about this in detail, try to figure things out,” then it stirs up some energy in the mind so that the mind is ready … 
  4. Your Inner Coach
    The mind is like a committee: lots of different opinions, lots of different agendas, lots of different roles in the committee meeting. One of the important roles is the commentator, who comments on the actions of the other committee members, like the commentator at a sports event, the difference being that the commentator at this event is someone that everybody inside the mind gets … 
  5. The Allure of Sensuality
     … There’s a part of the mind that will be willing to do almost anything, and there are parts of the mind that will do anything, to get that pleasure back—which is why you can’t trust it. But the pleasure of concentration makes the mind much more trustworthy because you know you’ve got something good right here that doesn’t require … 
  6. Karma as an Island
     … But the word itself isn’t as important as the quality of mindfulness—that ability to remember, to keep things in mind. This is where your refuge is. The Buddha talks about taking yourself as a refuge or making yourself an island. He says you do that by developing mindfulness—right mindfulness. We have that reflection on aging, illness, and death to remind yourselves … 
  7. Feelings Not of the Flesh
    When you read the Satipatthana Sutta, the discourse on establishing mindfulness, it’s easy to miss the fact that it’s an incomplete description of right mindfulness. But actually, the Buddha announces that fact right from the beginning. He gives the formula for right mindfulness—keeping track of the body in and of itself, ardent, alert, mindful, putting aside greed and distress with reference … 
  8. Papañca
    We sit here just with the body and the mind, focused on bringing them both together in the breath. Sometimes it can get frustrating. The body doesn’t do what you want. It’s not always doing what you want. It gets sick without asking permission. Your voice gives out without asking permission. Your mind starts wandering around without asking permission. It can be … 
  9. Do, Maintain, Use
     … You begin to see how the mind slips off, how you can get it back again, how a little thought begins to form, and then the mind denies that it formed. Then it waits until your mindfulness slips, your alertness slips, and it’ll take over. So you have to watch out for that. This is how concentration begins to develop discernment, and how … 
  10. Judicious vs. Judgmental
     … Just bring the mind back to the breath, bring the mind back to the breath. Why? Don’t ask questions right now, just bring the mind back to the breath. But be observant while you do it, because as you catch the mind going off, you can learn some very interesting things. You come to a point where you can see the mind beginning … 
  11. 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 … 
  12. A Legacy of Strengths
     … It’s because of a lapse of mindfulness. You realize that getting the mind trained, developing skillful qualities like mindfulness and alertness, is something that will be good for you and for the people around you. You want to remember that so that you can stay here. This will then help you with any task you have. We have to keep things in mind … 
  13. Bowing & Chanting
     … So, as we meditate, it’s not just us sitting here, right here, right now, each individually working on our minds. That’s part of it—after all, you have to do the work for your mind, other people have to do the work for their minds—but we do have values in common. Thinking about that can strengthen you as you engage in … 
  14. The Reflective Self
     … It’s also the case that you can make a lot of progress in one area of the mind and then you have to wait for the rest of the mind to catch up. So you have to learn how to read the ups and downs of the mind, to know when it needs to be pushed a little bit, when it needs to … 
  15. Withstanding Pleasure & Pain
     … It’s in a state like this that the Buddha says you’re developed in body and developed in mind. Now, “developed in body” doesn’t mean that you’ve done a lot of physical exercise. It means, instead, that you’re resistant to pleasure. “Developed in mind” means that you’re resistant to pain. The pleasure and pain don’t overwhelm the mind … 
  16. Beyond Likes & Dislikes
     … The movies that play in the theatres are nothing compared to the productions we can create in our minds over and over and over again. We’re really good at it. We get our entertainment that way. It’s a game we like to play. There are two parts of the mind: the part that likes to fool itself and the part that likes … 
  17. Right Speech, Inside & Out
     … You’re here to work on your own mind. A similar principle applies to internal chatter. You find the mind chatting away about all kinds of things: attitudes about yourself, attitudes about the practice. You particularly have to be wary of attitudes that tear you down. We were talking earlier today about low self-esteem and how sometimes that’s the mind’s way … 
  18. Practicing from Gratitude
     … These are things that come flowing out of the mind: greed, aversion, delusion, flowing out of the mind. Our desire to be this or that: That comes flowing out of the mind. Discernment, when it’s fully developed, as the Buddha says, can cut these things, cut the flow, and the mind is no longer flooded by suffering. This, too, is a gift you … 
  19. Gratification
     … The mind is constantly wandering on. The mind is constantly wandering off. You see this little train of thought coming into the mind and you jump onto it. Then it begins to lose steam, so you catch the next train and then the next train, and the next train. Who knows where you’ll end up? Try to get skilled at bringing the mind … 
  20. Inner Civil War
     … If you can notice where the activity of following through with that defilement is churning away, not only in the mind but also at a spot in the body, find that spot. Breathe through it. If none of these techniques work, put your tongue against the roof of your mouth and, as the Buddha says, crush your mind with your mind. In other words … 
  21. Right Next to Ignorance
     … The mind resists. You keep coming back. If the mind resists for a long time, you might have to find another way of getting the mind to settle down. The Buddha talks about there being a fever in the body or a fever in the mind, which means you’re getting antsy and you don’t want to settle down right here. Well, you … 
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