Search results for: "The Mind"

  1. Page 85
  2. Wandering Aimlessly
     … That, the Buddha said, contains a lot of the problem right there—not in the attempt to concentrate the mind, but in the fact of wandering. That’s all that samsara is. The mind wanders pretty aimlessly. It has its aims, but if you were to draw a map of its aims, the lines would head off in all sorts of different directions. This … 
  3. The Karma that Ends Karma
     … On the other, you keep track of how the mind is relating to it. Learn how to catch any warning signals that the mind is about to go. It may take a while for you to catch them because they’re subtle and quick. The only way to see them is to stick with your original intention and keep yourself warned: “Okay, the mind … 
  4. Choosing Freedom
     … Even though there are things in the world that are beyond our control, we can control where we’re focusing our attention and how we move the mind around, what we can adjust, what we have to accept. Knowing those things can take a huge burden off the mind right there. The meditation is largely an exercise in using your freedom of choice. The … 
  5. Cherish Your Friends
    Cherish Your Friends March 12, 2005 Try to make the mind quiet. Try to make the body quiet. There are lots of levels to that quietness. One means sitting quietly — but, of course, the body isn’t the only thing making noise and chattering away. The mind is, too. And just as when you want to hear something very subtle you have to sit … 
  6. Old Kamma & New
     … There’s not much we can do about it, except that we can change the state of mind in the present moment so that what comes in from the past, if it’s negative, doesn’t have to have a huge impact on the mind. To do that, the Buddha said to develop the mind in virtue—in other words, learning how to say … 
  7. Work with It
     … Why doe this thing arise in the mind? It’s going to be through one or more of those three kinds of fabrication. It may be through the way you’re breathing, or the way you’re talking to yourself, or a combination of the perceptions and feelings you have. You may notice that when the mind tends to go for lust, there’s … 
  8. Stop Shooting Yourself
     … You want to learn how to analyze what it is about them that really pains the mind. As it turns out, it’s not the actual sensation of the pain or the painful words, but what the mind does with these things. That’s really what makes deep inroads into the mind, which is why training the mind is such an important part of … 
  9. Jhāna & Discernment
     … As you’re getting the breath comfortable, and you’re getting the mind to settle down, there will be some talking inside. We sometimes think that with meditation you have to get the mind absolutely quiet. But there’s some thinking you have to do before it gets quiet, so that you can get the mind subtly and snugly with the breath. Then, three … 
  10. The Dignity of Restraint
     … You look at the things that would pull the mind out of its stillness, out of its independence, and you realize they’re just not worth it. In the past you were training the mind in a sense of hunger — that’s what we do when we keep giving in to impulses: We’re training ourselves in hunger. But now you train the mind … 
  11. The Mind Undefined
    The Buddha’s teachings are all about training the mind, but he never defines what the mind is. This is, apparently, a deliberate strategy on his part, because as he says, if you define yourself, you limit yourself. If you have a certain set idea of what your mind is or what you are, and you hold on to that idea, it places limitations … 
  12. Feeding on Open Wounds
    We’re born into this world in a position of weakness, because we have to depend on the world for our food—not only for physical food, but also food for the mind. The Buddha lists three kinds of mental food: contact at the senses, consciousness at the senses, and then what he calls intellectual intention, which basically comes down to your intentions in … 
  13. Dhamma in Vinaya
     … Here you are, trying to get the mind to settle down, and it’s an important skill you’re trying to develop. If the mind wants to sneak out and catch a few flicks, have a few snacks, ask: for what purpose? That’s the intention. Then you look at the perception: the different ways you perceive the breath. If the mind is unwilling … 
  14. Tranquility & Insight Through Jhāna
     … So, when you start with something obvious—say lust comes into the mind—you want to see how it originates. And the origination is not to be found out there, in the sensory experience; it’s to be found in here, in the mind. What is it about the mind that goes for these things? Then you see how it passes away when the … 
  15. Limitless is the Buddha
     … Tell yourself, “In five minutes I’ll make the decision for five minutes from now, but right now I’m deciding for now, and the decision is No.” Each time you can say No like that, you’re strengthening the mind—strengthening the mind and learning to take delight in the fact that you’re strengthening the mind. That way you find it easier … 
  16. Well-armed Efforts
     … And if you can learn to think to yourself, talk to yourself in new ways about the issue, you can weaken the ill will so that it doesn’t have so much power over the mind. Now, the same three kinds of fabrication also apply to the path. For instance, when you’re getting the mind in concentration, you’ve got the breath, which … 
  17. Pleasures & Pains on the Middle Way
     … At the same time, it doesn’t intoxicate the mind; it doesn’t befuddle or cloud the mind. It actually makes the mind a lot clearer. So that’s the physical pleasure of the breath. Then there’s the mental pleasure of working with the breath energies in the body and seeing that you can make changes in how the body feels from within … 
  18. Time Well Spent
     … He said that all good things that the mind can do come back to this ability to just keep the mind coming back, coming back, coming back to what it wants to focus attention on. So try to have a continuous attention, try to have a continuous practice, developing your attention. Mindfulness is an essential to that in the sense of keeping something in … 
  19. A Room of Your Own
     … Ignorance creates walls in the mind—or ignorance is itself the wall. And it’s supported by desire, ill will, all the unskillful habits we have of not wanting to be honest with ourselves about our intentions or not wanting to be honest about the results of our actions. It’s when the mind is still and at ease that it can start becoming … 
  20. Goodwill as Restraint
     … You can’t think that the mind is naturally good and so therefore you can trust everything that comes out of it when it quiets down. The mind has all kinds of potentials inside. Just because something feels natural or normal doesn’t mean that it’s going to be good for you. It’s just what you’ve been accustoming yourself to. So … 
  21. Heedful of Death
     … This is your real protection, this solidity of the mind. So make the mind dependable. As you keep digging deeper and deeper in the meditation, there does come a point where you find the opening to the deathless. But it’s only through this ability to dig regardless of the conditions. That’s why the Buddha says that mindfulness of death leads to the … 
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