Search results for: "The Mind"

  1. Page 86
  2. Insight Is a Judgment Call
     … So he saw that thoughts based on sensuality, ill-will, and harmfulness would bend the mind in the wrong direction, whereas thoughts based on renunciation of sensuality, non-ill-will, i.e., goodwill, harmlessness, i.e., compassion, would bend the mind in a good direction. The first ones were not even worth the effort to think. So whatever effort went into stopping them was … 
  3. Fabricating against Defilement
     … So you have to admit, yes, these things do defile the mind, they make it darker, they make it more obscure, and some of them require real work before we can get rid of them. But once you get the hang of it, it’s pleasant work as you’re developing mindfulness, alertness, concentration, discernment. These are good qualities to have in the mind … 
  4. Discernment
     … So try to get the mind still enough to allow your discernment to get more and more refined, more and more subtle. It works in stages. The more still the mind can be, the more refined your discernment can be, the more subtleties you can see—and the more you can put an end to your suffering. Ajaan Fuang used to say that the … 
  5. Peace Requires Character
     … This may go against the grain, but when you begin to realize that there’s a happiness there, it raises the mind above its ordinary level. Similarly with virtue: You realize that there are ways of finding happiness that would cause harm to others, but you come to see them as beneath you. You’re beginning to raise the mind up above its feeding … 
  6. Free Like a Wild Deer
     … They’re much more nourishing for the mind than having a lot of things, and they don’t involve fighting with anyone else. So, try to make your wisdom the wisdom of qualities of the mind instead of the wisdom of things—knowing this thing is that way and that thing is this way—and try to learn what are the qualities the Buddha … 
  7. Pleasure on the Middle Way
     … It’s a pleasure that has a good impact on the mind, it comes from good activities in the mind, and it leads to good results in the mind. Learn how to open yourself up to the possibility that simply sitting here and breathing can be really satisfying, for the sensitive parts of the body, and then it will go deep into the mind … 
  8. Restraint
     … These thoughts then go out looking for more food to strengthen their hold on the mind. And sometimes you’re willing to give in to them. That’s what you’ve got to watch out for. If you give in to them, they become more and more habitual. There’s that voice in the mind, say, when lust comes up, that tells you, “If … 
  9. Here to Learn
     … how to bring the mind to stillness, how to keep the mind mindful and alert. But sometimes it goes faster than we want; sometimes it goes slower than we want. It doesn’t fit in with our preconceived notions. The problem is often that instead of changing our notions as a result of what we learn, we simply judge what we like and don … 
  10. Mind Control
     … They’ll churn away in the back of the mind, but just let them be there in the back of the mind. You’ve got your breath here in the foreground. You’ll find that, after a while, as long as you stay with the breath, that thinking will just gradually drop away, drop away, because it was feeding on your attention. If you … 
  11. Freedom Through Painful Practice
     … Which parts of the mind would actually be lighter? Which parts of the mind would actually feel less burdened? Even the things around which you create a very strong sense of your goodness as a person: It’s good to imagine them gone. Then, of course, there’s the body. A lot of people say they’re not attached to their body, so they … 
  12. Creativity & Play
     … You’re trying out new things, you’re enjoying the fact that the mind can create something and can think of new ways of doing things. Look also at the different approaches to playing. Some games are played without rules, but a lot of games have rules. In fact, the more rules, the more fun the game is, the more of a challenge. When … 
  13. No Happiness without Restraint
     … What suffering are you causing for yourself? So learn to bring the mind into concentration. That’s allow you to focus on this issue—and by focusing here, you can solve the problem. And when this problem is solved, then there’s nothing else to be a problem. All of this comes from learning how to restrain the mind and keep it focused on … 
  14. In Accordance with the Dhamma
     … Learn how to know when to put the mind on a long leash and when to put it on a short leash. The long leash is for times when the mind is thinking things that are actually useful, things that are harmless. When it starts thinking of things in ways that are not going to be good for your practice, when it starts falling … 
  15. The Energy You Broadcast
    The Energy You Broadcast November 2, 2020 One of the distinctive teachings of the Forest tradition is its emphasis on how proactive the mind is in its engagement with the senses and with the world. We’re not just on the receiving end of sights, sounds, smells, tastes, tactile sensations coming in. We don’t simply respond to the stimulus of other people’s … 
  16. The Energy in the Body
     … That’s when you can really do important work in the mind. As you develop greater and greater sensitivity in reading the breath, you also become more and more capable of reading the mind: what the mind is doing, the results of what it’s doing. You see the events of the mind in terms of cause and effect. This is how the insight … 
  17. Terror & Revulsion
     … Now the Buddha has you develop this feeling as the mind has developed concentration. Through the practice, you’ve been learning these strengths of conviction, persistence, mindfulness, concentration, and discernment, these strengths that nourish the mind. As you practice, you want to feed on these things. But ultimately they put the mind in a position where it’s so strong that it doesn’t … 
  18. Faith in Awakening
     … The texts talk quite a bit about the wealth that will eventually come from being generous but also about the wealth that comes to the mind right now by being generous. There’s a spaciousness of the mind. When the Buddha described mundane right view, one of the first things he said was, “There is giving,” which seems obvious. But he’s underlining the … 
  19. Selecting from the Teachings
    Allow the mind to settle down with the breathing. Think of yourself as gathering the mind in from all the places it’s been roosting in the course of the day, like a big flock of birds. It’s been thinking about this, thinking about that, all over the place. Now all the birds are going to come down on the same telephone pole … 
  20. Patience
     … If the mind is going to get into any dialogue, engage in a dialogue about how the breath feels right now, reminding yourself to stay with breath, catching the mind when it’s going to slip off. There’s a lot of work to do, even when you try to keep it simple, just keeping the mind with the breath. As for whether the … 
  21. Breathing Skillfully
     … Remind yourself that all the important things you’re going to learn about are right here, where the mind and the body meet at the breath. After all, it’s right here that you’re creating whatever suffering weighs down the mind. If you don’t create suffering here, nothing else weighs down the mind. We’re not here to try to figure out … 
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