Search results for: "The Mind"

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  2. Perceptions as Targets
     … This is very important because the mind tends to flow after its perceptions. The Buddha uses the word anusarati, which means to flow after or to drift after. And the Thai ajaans talk an awful lot about the currents of the mind flowing out to a particular object. And we tend to flow out to a target, to something that attracts us. It’s … 
  3. Endurance
     … There’s an area in the mind where you have to learn to be intolerant. When the Buddha talks about the various ways of training the mind, there are some areas where you are tolerant, specifically of things that come from outside: sights, sounds, smells, tastes, tactile sensations, ideas you hear from other people, ideas that come up in your mind. But you have … 
  4. Filling in the Buddha’s Outline
     … In what direction is the mind headed? Is it sleepy? Is it drowsy? There are ways of counteracting that. If you find that a particular topic puts you to sleep, change the topic. If you’re focused on the breath, try changing the way that you breathe—or changing to another topic, something that engages the mind more, such as the contemplation of the … 
  5. Training in Happiness
     … When you realize that meditating will make you happy, make the mind solid, trust worthy, reliable, then you learn how to talk yourself into wanting to meditate. Even though part of you may say, “Gee, I don’t like this,” remember that the mind is like a committee. There are lots of voices in there. You don’t have to trust every voice that … 
  6. Trading Up
     … Now, simply meditating, getting the mind into concentration, will not be enough to go past sensuality. Even with this pleasure, it’s very easy to fall back, because our sensual attachment is very deep rooted. This is where another quality has to come in, which is tenacity—realizing that even though the mind may slip back, that’s not the end. Even though the … 
  7. Turn Off the Automatic Pilot
    Turn Off the Automatic Pilot December 5, 2011 The part of the mind that keeps shaping experience is something that lies very deep. And it’s something we often don’t pay attention to. We’re more interested in the effects outside—so interested in things outside that we lose touch with where they come from. The part of the mind that shapes things … 
  8. Working Through the Breath
     … One is that you want a place for the mind to stay as it goes through aging, illness, and death. And, of course when you die, the breath won’t be there to focus on after death. So they say, “Why don’t you focus directly on the mind?” Part of the reason is because it’s hard to focus directly on the mind … 
  9. Discernment Through Ardency & Evaluation
     … You notice that what we’re doing here as we get the mind concentrated is that we’re pushing against those three characteristics, trying to find something that is constant, full of ease and well-being, something you have under your control. You keep pushing and pushing, and you find that you can get the mind quite still, very still, very solid, with a … 
  10. Like an Athlete in Training
     … So look at things that encourage good qualities in the mind. Listen to things that encourage good qualities in the mind. As for things that will be bad for you, you can close the windows, close the doors. Be careful about what you let out into the world as well, because that’s the other side of restraint: restraint in body, speech, and mind … 
  11. Willing & Observing
     … You’ve got to keep watch over the mind to see when it wanders off, and then bring it back. And in the mean time, you’ve got to learn what the mind likes to stay with. Ask yourself: “How can I keep the mind fully engaged in the present moment?” And here you’ll find that there are two aspects to the concentration … 
  12. The Economy of Goodness
     … It soothes the body and it can also soothe the mind. When the mind is here with a sense of well-being, then when any thoughts come up that would lead to anything unskillful, you see them clearly as they arise. And you see them for what they are: something you don’t want to get involved in because you’re feeding the mind … 
  13. Don’t Believe Everything You Think
     … You don’t have to sing along with what Ajaan Mun calls the mind’s song. The fact that an idea or a thought comes through the mind doesn’t mean that it has any real meaning or any importance. Sometimes it’s caused simply by the way the blood flows through the body or through the brain, or by a certain rhythm of … 
  14. Imagine
     … You use some of the eggs to eat, while the others you crack open and take apart.” In other words, part of the role of concentration is to keep the mind nourished on the path. The other part is to give you something to take apart, while at the same time putting the mind in a position where it can take these present states … 
  15. Your Inner Coach
     … So the part of the mind that’s always looking for excuses or wants to blame things on the past, blame things on things outside of you, that’s the part of the mind you just can’t let be in charge. You have to realize, if the training is going to happen, it’s going to happen right now. And right now. And … 
  16. A Load of Straw
    A Load of Straw April 8, 2004 The mind has a habit of loading itself down with all sorts of unnecessary garbage. It’s like a phrase they have in Thai, “the old woman loading herself down with straw.” The story goes that she thought that someday she might find herself in need of some straw, so everywhere she went she carried a huge … 
  17. Focus on the Doing
     … In doing this, you’re developing all the various skills that are required to get the mind staying solidly with the breath. You’re learning a lot about the mind and how to deal with issues in the mind a lot more skillfully. This is where insight comes. It’s the insight of someone mastering a skill, not of someone who’s memorized a … 
  18. Prevention
     … It was an issue of perception, the images we have that we hold in the mind. And why does the mind go for these perceptions? What makes it create perceptions that it knows deep down inside are going to create trouble? It was by doing this process over and over again that he was able to see very clearly the process of how the … 
  19. There’s Work to Be Done
     … It starts with the directed thought and evaluation, and it continues as you get the mind into deeper and deeper states of concentration. It’s going to involve noticing what the mind is doing that’s excessive, ferreting it out, and then dropping just that, without dropping everything. Some things you have to hold on to. Even in the state of nothingness, you have … 
  20. The True Cause of Suffering
     … What are the right places? The right places are in developing good qualities of mind, so that the mind can be trained to handle whatever comes up and not suffer from it. When good things happen, we don’t suffer from the good things. When bad things happen, we don’t suffer from the bad things—because the mind has its own independent source … 
  21. Dealing with Confusion
     … What’s going to develop the mind? Well, the mind’s going to develop the mind—but it’s only through this constant process of settling in and watching what your intentions are, what your actions are, what the results are. That’s how you develop the quality of learning how to be more and more reliable to yourself, more and more your own … 
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