Search results for: "The Mind"

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  2. Sensuality
     … It’s easy to look at ourselves when we’re really angry at somebody, or have a lot of ill will and see that the mind is on fire. It’s not a pleasant place to be. The drawbacks of sensuality, though, are harder to see. This is where the mind gets really resistant to the Buddha’s teachings on putting aside sensuality, learning … 
  3. Developing Discernment
     … You’ll find that the committee of the mind has some members who are happy to be here, and other members who are not. This is why the Buddha says there are two duties that you *do *as you get the mind to settle down with right mindfulness and into right concentration: One is to keep track of the object you’re determined to … 
  4. Dispassion
     … See renunciation as a true way of finding peace in the mind. And in renouncing, we don’t give up our feeding just by starving. We give up feeding because we find something in the mind that doesn’t need to feed. This is one of the reasons why awakening happens in stages. You gain your first taste of the deathless with your first … 
  5. A Slave to Craving
     … It’s something very quiet and cool here in the mind. It requires training to experience the pleasure that’s really dependable and blameless, one that doesn’t harm you, that doesn’t harm other people, doesn’t lead to intoxication. It’s cool pleasure. It comes simply allowing the mind to be still for a while, not yanking it around. Or you can … 
  6. The Return of Chickens from Hell
     … You realize that it’d actually be better for the mind to stop fabricating. You see that even the eggs have their drawbacks, because they can’t feed you forever. You incline the mind to something better, and at that point, the mind can actually attain the deathless, a state that doesn’t need to feed. So this is why we’re trying to … 
  7. Pain
     … And because they’re separate, they don’t have to weigh the mind down. So remember, you want to maintain that original intention—not that the pain go away, but simply that it not invade the mind and remain. You’re here to find perceptions that calm the effect of the pain on the mind; ways of talking to yourself, questions that you want … 
  8. To Be Trustworthy
     … Get as sensitive as you can to the breath, because that’s going to help the mind settle down even more. Make yourself a connoisseur of the breath. But ultimately, even breathing gets laborious. As the mind gets very, very subtle, the breath gets more subtle until it stops. But you’ve still got the body. You’ve got the breath energy filling the … 
  9. Faith as a Virtue
     … They build on virtuous qualities in the mind. Look in yourself. The fact that you’re sitting here meditating means that you have some sense, at least, that what the mind does is important. It’s not just on the receiving end of things. I gave a talk on karma a couple of years back up in the Bay Area. After the talk, a … 
  10. There Is This
     … This is what concentration is for, to get the mind resilient. We practice it day-in day-out, day-in day-out, so that it becomes more and more the mind’s natural way of being, so that it doesn’t jump to conclusions. It watches—for the sake of understanding, and then for going beyond. I had a student talk to me recently … 
  11. Not Pained by Pain
     … Now, his explanation here is focused on how to give rise to a sense of pleasure, and then refine that pleasure in the course of getting the mind concentrated. Give rise to a sense of energy, and then refine the energy to have a calming effect on the mind—to get the mind into good strong concentration. But you can also use the same … 
  12. The Power of Your Actions
     … And as the Buddha noted, as you try to be constantly skillful, you’re safe, but it wears the mind down. The mind needs to rest. You could spend some time sleeping, but that’s not necessarily skillful. This is why he says that you want to bring the mind into concentration. That’s where we get the third of the strengths, which is … 
  13. Your True Responsibility
     … So when you’re meditating, part of the issue is learning how to answer the proper questions. “Why can’t I see things clearly in my own mind? Why is everything a mess?” Because the mind’s not quiet enough. What do you do to make it more quiet? Work on this question. Then as the mind begins to settle down, settle down, what … 
  14. A Home of Your Own
     … But as the mind settles down, the more obvious areas calm down, and then the other areas become more apparent. And you want to think of everything in the body flowing smoothly together. You can hold an image in the mind of the breath flowing down the spine, down the legs, the energy flowing through the blood vessels, around through the body; whatever helps … 
  15. Virtues & Values
     … And it’s the same with the mind. When you’re here in the present moment and the mind is still, you can hear the different voices of the committee or the corporation of the mind. You can sort out who’s responsible and who’s not responsible, who can be relied on and who can’t be relied on. In that way, your … 
  16. Drowsiness
     … If it does come on while the mind is beginning to settle down, do what you can to make the mind active. That’s the important principle. Give the mind work to do, here in the body or with some other Dhamma topic, and experiment to see what works for you. The fact that you’re actually discovering something on your own makes it … 
  17. Happiness Without Conflict
     … It’s that the mind is unreliable. And the mind is also shaping our experiences. The Buddha said, “All phenomena are rooted in desire.” Everything we experience is shaped by our desires, which come out both in terms of our intentions, what we want to do, and in terms of our attention, what we want to look at and pay attention to outside, what … 
  18. How to Leave Concentration
    As you’re sitting here trying to get the mind into concentration, the natural thing to talk about is how to get in: what to let go of as you leave the world outside, how to focus, how to work with your breath, and how to work with your mind, your awareness right now, so that it’ll be willing to settle down. It … 
  19. Conserving Your Strength
     … This is why we work on concentration to build up strength of the mind. The Buddha compares concentration to food for the mind. In other places, he compares it to a home for the mind—in other words, a place where you can rest, gather your strength, and nourish the mind. But simply having strength is not enough. You have to learn how to … 
  20. Virtue Contains the Practice
     … You look at the results of the actions you’re doing right now to see if there’s any connection between what you’re doing and the fact that there’s suffering in the mind. This is why the Buddha says that uncertainty is overcome by looking at skillful and unskillful qualities in the mind. To begin with, you’re focusing your attention on … 
  21. Lift Up Your Mind
     … And it’s in getting the mind concentrated that way that you can see things a lot more clearly. You can’t get the mind into jhana without at least some insight into how the mind fabricates things. Then as the mind settles down, it can see things more clearly—allowing you to settle down more deeply, more profoundly, and see things more clearly … 
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