Search results for: "The Mind"

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  2. Stay
     … giving the mind a firm post fixed to the ground so that you can see the movements of the mind. In other words, when the mind moves, it usually can’t see its own movements. But if you give it something nearby to focus on, then you begin to get a sense of when the mind is present and when it’s going off … 
  3. The Buddha Defines Wisdom
     … As for the ability to control the ways of the mind and to get the mind into jhana, those both come from two very simple principles. One is the realization that the mind needs to be trained. You can’t just sit there and watch it coming and going, thinking this, thinking that, and then thinking that wisdom lies in \ allowing the mind to … 
  4. Limitless Thoughts
     … You forget that what determines the pain and pleasure in the mind, the stress and ease in the mind, the sorrow and happiness in the mind, comes from our actions. It doesn’t come from things. So as we’re meditating, we’re learning how to focus on our actions to see what we’re doing, to see where there are slips in our … 
  5. Taking Apart Suffering
     … There are also issues in the mind. Here, too, this ability to take things apart is important. When you have a certain mood in the mind—say, there’s impatience or irritation—learn how to take it apart. A good way to approach it is to assume that the mind is like a committee. There’s not just one person in there talking or … 
  6. Stepping Back
     … A slight chemical imbalance in the body and the mind gets really depressed. It can’t seem to pull itself out of the depression. Or it starts hallucinating. There are all sorts of things the mind can do, all kinds of things the brain can do. It’s important to keep a distinction between the mind and the brain. The brain is the physical … 
  7. Attahi Attano Natho
    The nature of the mind is that he likes to feed on things. It feeds on pleasures from outside, on the support we get from other people. But it can also feed on its own inner qualities—if you develop them. If there’s nothing much there, there’s not much to feed on. And if there’s nothing much inside to feed on … 
  8. Factors for Awakening
     … You’re here because you see that the mind needs to be trained. Part of the training is to get the mind to settle down, so you want to remember that. Don’t forget. If you forget, the mind will wander off and then it’ll take a long time to come back. So keep reminding yourself: “right here, right here.” The second quality … 
  9. In Restraint Is Strength
     … And it’s good to think of training the mind as a way of developing the mind. For one thing, thinking in this way reminds you that it’s not something that happens only when you sit here with your eyes closed or when you’re doing walking meditation. The mind can be developed at any time. And the exercises that develop the mind … 
  10. Leaving Meditation
     … Where does the mind go when you loosen up the leash a little bit, when you let it out of the pen? What things does it go running to? Okay, those are big issues. Learn to notice how the mind engages them, and how they engage the mind. You’ll start seeing how the mind is not simply the victim of outside events, but … 
  11. Stay with the Breath
     … So it’s healing for the mind simply be able to stay here with this comfortable sensation of the breathing. Whatever thoughts come to the mind, you don’t have to pay them any attention. Your only duty is to stay right here and allow this process of being with the sensation of comfortable breathing to heal both the body and the mind. The … 
  12. The Opportunity to Be Quiet
    There’s a part of the mind that may sometimes tell you, “If only this task gets done, then I can really rest.” But then, how many tasks have you done and found that there are more tasks to be done? The work of the world is never done. When people retire, it’s not because their work is done. It’s because either … 
  13. Gather Around the Breath
    We’re practicing mindfulness of breathing—and because it’s a mindfulness practice, some people think it means just following the breath wherever it’s going to go or following the mind wherever it’s going to go; being non-reactive; non-judgmental. But mindfulness means keeping something in mind. In this case, you keep in mind that you want to stay with the … 
  14. The Luminous Mind
    There’s a passage in the Canon where the Buddha says that the mind is pabhassaram: luminous or radiant. He says that when people don’t realize this, they can’t develop their minds; they can’t train the mind. When you realize that the mind is luminous and that its defilements are visitors, then you can train the mind. In other words, if … 
  15. The Hall of Mirrors
     … What he’s saying is that a lot of what we see in life is simply a reflection of the mind, but we mistake it for something else. We don’t understand where it came from, so we go chasing after things that are simply the mind’s own creations. We’ve got to learn how to catch the mind in the act of … 
  16. Skills for Living & Dying
     … That’s an important insight, and it’s why the first verse in the Dhammapada is, “The mind is the forerunner of all things.” In other words, the mind, your awareness, is not just the side effect of physical events in the body. The mind is what’s actually driving things. Which means, of course, that when the body dies, the mind doesn’t … 
  17. Equanimity After Victory
     … When the mind has come to discernment—the discernment that comes as you peel away layers of fabrication on the mind—then you can arrive at equanimity. But you don’t stop with equanimity in the practice of concentration. You use that equanimity to look more carefully into the mind, to see the subtler defilements that come up, that are apparent when the mind … 
  18. Putting Out the Fires
     … That’s the Buddha’s basic image for what we’re doing here as we train the mind: trying to put the fires out, to free the mind from its attachment to the various kinds of fuel it latches on to. Even though we may think that things outside provoke lust, greed, or anger, the potential for lust, greed, and anger is there, just … 
  19. Analysis of Qualities
     … But even then, if you thought skillful thoughts for 24 hours, it would tire the mind. When the mind is tired, it’s more likely to go back to unskillful thinking. This was when he realized that he should bring his mind to concentration to get it calm and still. But even getting the mind into concentration requires that you do some questioning. And … 
  20. Warrior Knowledge
    Warrior Knowledge October 13, 2000 There’s a constant dialogue going on in the mind: “This is this.” “No, it’s that.” “This should be this.” “That should be that; you like this and you don’t like that.” All kinds of voices — and in many cases the voices are totally untrained. They’re just things we’ve picked up from here or there … 
  21. A Home for the Mind
     … Where do your actions come from? They come from the mind. And if the mind isn’t well trained, it can destroy its own happiness very easily. That’s why we’re here training the mind. These are the values of the Buddha, the Dhamma, and the Sangha. This is what the Buddha discovered in his awakening; this was the Dhamma he taught. This … 
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