Search results for: "The Mind"
- Page 81
- Refuge… So when things come bubbling up in the mind, you have to ask yourself, “Is that really so?” You might put a “Really?” next to every thought that comes up and see what reasons the mind tries to give you to persuade you that, yes, this really is so. Learn how to take a detached, somewhat skeptical attitude toward what they have to say …
- Solid in the Face of Death… That’s why death is one thing you might want to think about, to help the mind settle down and get to work right now. Ajaan Lee often talks about getting the mind to settle down not so much with a sense of ease but from what the Buddha calls *samvega, *which can mean a sense of urgency or a sense of terror. When …
- One Person… That’s how the mind works. You could be thinking suddenly of Siberia or Australia, the South Pole, Ethiopia. Recipes for tomorrow’s meal. All kinds of random bits and pieces, like a packrat’s nest: lots of random stuff in there. The mind can go very fast and switch directions very quickly. That’s precisely what we’ve got to learn how to …
- Endurance… Instead of getting yourself upset and worked up, perceive things in a way that helps you to calm the mind and keep its focus on what really is important. Calming the mind doesn’t mean you simply say, “Well, I’m just not going to do anything at all.” You get the mind calm so that you can do the work that needs to …
- Wealth Worth Holding Onto… That gives you strength, it gives you an extra argument to use against the more unskillful voices in the mind. That, of course, develops your discernment. So in sticking with the precepts, you’re getting the mind ready to settle into concentration complete with mindfulness, alertness, and ardency. Those are the kind of precepts that are pleasing to the noble ones, that incline the …
- Inconstancy… So why is it that when it’s all put back together, you can see it as attractive? The mind can easily lie to itself. When you realize the mind can lie to itself—and how much it does lie to itself—that’s good protection against distracting thoughts. The same with thoughts of inconstancy: Whatever you can think of that would pull you …
- Speaking Truth to Defilement… And this is what’s going on in the mind. We have these images that we send to different parts of the mind, and the different parts have agreed, okay, that this image means that, and that one means this. And we’ve learned how to lie to ourselves with these images. We can send ourselves false messages. For instance, you might crave a …
- Unattractiveness… Ask yourself, what else do you have beside the body? Of course, what you’ve got is the mind. That’s what we’re focused on as we meditate. You realize you want to be able to put the mind in good shape before it has to leave the body. Or even before then: You want the mind to be in good shape as …
- Top Priorities… It’s the training of the mind that has to take first priority, because everything good comes out of that. At the same time, when it has first priority in that way, it can develop a momentum because it becomes more and more continuous. The training of the mind becomes 24/7. There’s a continuity, a momentum that builds up, which you can …
- The Perfection of Freedom… Not only that, but given the fact that the mind is always feeding, concentration gives you something good to feed on, a sense of well-being that comes from within, that doesn’t depend on people outside or anything outside, doesn’t take anything away from anyone. When the mind is well fed, it’s more willing to look at alternatives, to look at …
- Guardian Meditations… This is why the Buddha has lots of meditation techniques, lots of meditation topics for dealing with the mind when it’s out of balance. We take the breath here as our home—it’s called vihāra-dhamma, the home for the mind—but sometimes you have trouble finding your way home, because the mind is way off in the wilderness some place: the …
- Working from the Inside… It’s activities of the mind that you’re looking at. It’s not that you’re just openly aware to everything that’s coming through the senses in the present. You want to focus specifically on what you’re doing and the results of what you’re doing. This is a teaching on action. Meditation is about action, the actions of the mind …
- The Second Noble Truth… And the mind gets weaker and weaker as it decides that it can’t survive without having this pleasure or that pleasure. The more you depend on the environment to be just so, the weaker you become. This pulls the mind down. The second craving is craving for becoming itself. We like to take on certain identities. There’s the self-image we enjoy …
- Asking the Right Questions… First you’ve got to get the mind into concentration. In other words, you first use the fabrications, to get a sense of the mind as still as possible. And then, when it’s still, you try to maintain it. That’s when you look for any ups and downs in that level of stillness, the level of ease, the level of fullness, or …
- The Lightning Bolt… It’s to get you to stay heedful, that there is important work in training the mind, and you don’t want to put it off to tomorrow or next week or even just the next breath. You’ve got this breath right now. What can you do to train the mind with this breath? What work needs to be done? Make that your …
- Keep Your Options Open… This is why he said later on that the mind is luminous. That statement is sometimes interpreted to mean that the mind is innately pure, innately awakened. But in context, it doesn’t mean that. He says, “It’s because the mind is luminous that it can be developed.” In other words, it can watch itself. A thought comes through the mind and you …
- Mindfulness: Get with the Program… You have to remember each bend of the mind. Because after all, you’ve got a program. And to get with the program, you have to notice which things work with the mind and which don’t. The program, of course, is right effort, or the strength of persistence: preventing unskillful qualities from arising, or if they do arise, learning how to abandon them …
- Be Observant… When you gain an insight, watch what happens next in the mind, to see how the mind reacts to the insight, what it does with the insight, or what the insight does to the mind. And then watch again, watch again. Don’t jump to conclusions. This is how, bit by bit by bit, you’re going to overcome your delusion, and how you …
- Feeling & Intention… This is what the mindfulness is for: You keep in mind the principle that regardless of whether you like somebody or not, you will not act in ways that are harmful for them. This is an important distinction, because many of us know that there are people out there we have grudges against, people we don’t like, and we feel guilty because we …
- Determined on Awakening… It also gives training in discernment, because in order get the mind to settle down, you need to understand the mind to some extent, to know, when it’s settling down, why it’s settling down; when it’s not settling down, why it’s not. You’re basically getting hands-on practice with the process that the Buddha calls fabrication. Or rather: He …
- Load next page...
