Search results for: "The Mind"

  1. Page 94
  2. Elemental Normalcy
     … You can use the breath to help give the mind a more pleasant place to stay as you’re sick, as you find that the body’s beginning to fall apart, even as you’re dying. Of course, you’re going to have to leave the breath at the moment of death, but the skills you’ve gained in learning how to get the … 
  3. One Thing Only
     … If you notice that things are inconstant in the mind, especially if the level of stress or ease in the mind is inconstant, look at what you’re doing. When the level of stress goes up, what did you do? When it goes down, what did you do? When things seem to be perfectly still and perfectly at ease, try to maintain that stillness … 
  4. One Thing Clear Through
     … lots of sensual pleasures, good things that come from good qualities of the mind. But those good things are not nearly as good as the qualities of the mind. If you focus on feeding on things outside, even the good things of the heavenly world, the mind deteriorates. You can imagine what it’s like living in a land where there’s nothing but … 
  5. The Reasonable Path
     … That’s a state in which the mind can really see itself in action. The whole point is seeing how intentions of the mind shape things, and to see precisely where those intentions cause stress, and where that stress is unnecessary. That requires a great deal of balance, a great deal of skill. It’s an art. The whole path is an art. And … 
  6. Goodwill for All Beings
     … And if it doesn’t get enough, the mind changes as well. It can start thinking of doing things that it ordinarily wouldn’t think of doing at all. So you owe it to yourself and to the people around you to find a source of happiness for the mind that, to begin with, doesn’t have to feed outside, Ultimately, you want to … 
  7. Hobo Mind
     … When they’re allowed to experience a sense of fullness like this, that’s what nourishes them, energizes them, so at the very least, the physical energy in the body is wholesome, helpful, healing, and it can’t help but have a good effect on the mind. So when you can get out of the chatter in the mind, reverting simply to the basic … 
  8. Abusing Pleasure & Pain
     … It may seem strange to say that we’re ordinarily passionate for our pains, but we do allow the mind to get colored by them, as pain in the body becomes anguish in the mind. If something has the mind upset, causing it anguish, that’s a kind of passion, a kind of coloring of the mind. And it’s not necessary. So we … 
  9. Proactive with Pain
     … Worries may arise, but try to look at them from the point of view of someone outside the mind. It’s just a worry about something you’re going to have to let go. We practice letting go now, while we’re still strong, so that the attachments won’t weigh on the mind as the mind and body get weaker. We want to … 
  10. Metta Meditation
     … And where do the actions come from? They come from the mind, from your intentions. So you have to train your intentions if you want to make sure that the results that are going to come out are the ones you want. Otherwise, the intentions of the mind pull you in all directions unless you train them to pull in one direction, which is … 
  11. In Harmlessness Is Strength
     … This is our motivation for developing the mind, because all our actions do come out of the mind. Many of us come to meditation for rest and respite. But we stay because we see that once the mind has rested, it can be a lot more skillful in dealing with situations around us. It’s just important that you keep in mind the fact … 
  12. In Training
     … And its main terms of analysis are basically the processes of the mind. We’d like to produce lots of things in the mind, but we’re not really that sensitive to the process of production in and of itself. But that should get us fascinated. Why is the mind so fascinated with creating things? We create stories as we go through the day … 
  13. Wilderness Wealth
     … You can actually use the perception of fire to warm yourself up, or at least warm the mind up. You can think of the fire element permeating the whole body, not only around the skin, but down into the organs. The potential for warmth exists in everything. Sometimes using that label can accentuate that particular property, so the mind is less concerned about the … 
  14. In Touch with Your Fabrications
     … They function as the actions in the mind, actions in the body, that are putting things together to create feelings, to create states of becoming. As you learn how to do this with knowledge as you’re getting the mind into concentration, then you can apply that knowledge to other areas of life. And the mind will be a lot healthier and happier as … 
  15. A Refuge from Karma
     … If you make your mind unlimited here in the present moment, then no matter how bad the karma is from the past, it doesn’t have to have an impact on the mind. In other words, you may be experiencing the physical results of past actions that were unskillful, but the mind doesn’t have to suffer from them. As you enlarge your mind … 
  16. Developing Discernment
     … being mindful to stick with it consistently, so that you begin to see things in the mind that you didn’t see before. A lot of the mind’s subterfuges lie in the gaps. As Ajaan Lee once said, there comes a point when the mind just passes out and suddenly you find yourself in a different world. What happened in the moment of … 
  17. Resistance
     … People often believe that we’re trying to learn how not to think, or trying to get the mind away from its conditioning simply by stopping any language from going through the mind. But the Buddha’s instructions on meditation involve a lot of thinking, training the mind to think in skillful ways. But unlike psychotherapy — which tries to trace your thoughts back to … 
  18. Questions of Skill
     … Well, here you’re fabricating a big fabrication—the fabrication of the mind in concentration. As Ajaan Fuang used to say, “Don’t go looking at things outside. The big problem is inside.” When the mind says that things are inconstant, stressful, not-self, the problem is not the things. It’s in the mind that’s making these comments. That’s what you … 
  19. Start with Yourself
     … So when you’re training the mind, you’re not just training it in terms of ideas. You’re training it with the raw material of emotions. The first set of raw materials is your breath. When an emotion takes over in the mind, it’s going to have an effect on the breath, the breath will have an effect on the body, and … 
  20. Neither Here nor There
     … It requires mindfulness, ardency, alertness to hold the mind in this one spot. Then we can see what it means to stay here. But of course, once you make up your mind to stay right here, there will be movements in the mind to go someplace else, but you have to say No. And it’s in your ability to notice them as you … 
  21. Two Eyes, Not Just One
     … You look at your feelings and perceptions as mental fabrications to see what influence they’re having on the mind. And then in both cases, you try to calm the effect. Try to fabricate more tranquil states in the body; try to fabricate more tranquil states in the mind. That’s tranquility. So you’re developing insight and tranquility at the same time. This … 
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