Search results for: "The Mind"
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- The Four Bases of Success… You’ll understand this only when you catch the mind in the act of catching the noise and complaining about the noise—just make sure that you don’t believe the complaints. That way you come to notice how the mind grabs onto things when it really doesn’t have to. And that way, by sitting in a noisy place, you learn something about …
- Xtreme Drama… And the mind does need refreshing. You’ve got to find ways of dealing with its moods without giving in to them, and realize that you don’t have to think in extremes. There are ways of enjoying some of the pleasures of the senses, because they gladden the mind. That’s one of the duties we have in the meditation. Look at the …
- Relationships… When you’ve got a clear conscious like this, it’s easy for the mind to settle down. And it’s the same with the connection between concentration and discernment: Once the mind is still, it makes sense that you see things a lot more clearly—when there’s a sense of well-being that comes from within, when you can be on friendly …
- Undividing the Mind… Where do your actions come from? They come from the mind. So you really do want to train the mind. The positive contemplations are the ones to remind yourself of what the Buddha was able to attain, what the noble disciples were able to attain. This is something really special. We’re fortunate that his teachings are still alive. The teachings of a Buddha …
- In Search of What is Skillful… How do you get the mind into concentration? You do it by practicing right mindfulness*—establishing* mindfulness. There’s a passage where the Buddha pretty much equates his description of establishing mindfulness with the first jhana. He describes the basic formula for right mindfulness, and then once the mind is settled in, he says to stay focused on, say, the body in and of …
- The Power of the Will… There may be some fluke times when the mind simply settles in, but you wouldn’t understand anything. You wouldn’t understand why causes and conditions came together at that point. But if you actively change the causes and change the conditions with an eye to seeing what in the mind adds unnecessary stress and suffering and what in the mind can take it …
- Barriers in the Heart… That helps to nourish the mind. When the mind is well nourished, it’s not interested in picking up those obstacles and making them into bigger obstacles than they have to be. When you remind yourself of the happiness that comes from giving, the interest in gaining sensual pleasures and feeding on sensual pleasures gets lessened. When it’s lessened, you find yourself less …
- Varieties of Mindfulness… If you wanted to, you could sit here and spend the whole hour thinking about facts that would make you totally miserable, but what does that accomplish? We’re sitting here to think about things that are useful for the mind, so remember the things that are useful for the mind, that will help it develop. As for the other voices coming in and …
- Three Weapons… The final weapon is discernment, where you understand more and more about what’s going on in the mind through what you’ve learned through concentration. Getting the mind to settle down, you can see more clearly where the mind creates its problems—problems that it doesn’t have to create at all—and you can learn how to undo them, untangle them, get …
- Solidly Here… It’s also right where the mind and the body meet. If the mind is going to have an impact on the body, it does it through the breath energy. And it’s through the breath energy that we sense the body. So the breath is like a checkpoint. Everybody has to go through right here. Your intentions go out through the breath, and …
- The Goldsmith… One of the things you want to keep in mind is that you’re trying to bring the mind into a balanced state of concentration. You have to figure out first where you’re out of balance and then bring things back into balance. The calming factors—like concentration, calm, equanimity—are for times when the mind is hyperactive and has too much energy …
- The Power is in Your Hands… And two, you have to recognize the extent to which it’s coming out of the mind. This is why the Buddha chose the word “origination.” Throughout the Canon, he uses this word primarily to talk about things caused by factors coming from within the mind. His analysis, of course, points us right here: The craving that causes suffering is not somebody else’s …
- Energizing Your Meditation… the rapture as a part of the mind; refreshment as a feature of the mind. You remember what fashions the mind: feelings and perceptions. So notice what kind of perceptions you have about the breath. As the Buddha said, once there is a sense of rapture or refreshment, you want it to spread to fill the whole body. Think of the bathman kneading moisture …
- The Buddha’s Standards or Yours?… It’s not that you’re going to do jhana and suddenly say, “Well, I’m going to do some directed thought and some evaluation.” The mind’s doing these things all the time. And then, of course, you’re breathing all the time, and the mind’s dealing with feelings and perceptions all the time. But the Buddha’s highlighting the fact that …
- Educating Equanimity… Try to get the mind as still and as centered as possible, and then from that improved perspective look into the way the mind is reasoning around its reaction. Ask, “Well, why do you feel this way?” The mind will say, “Of course, I feel this way.” “Why?” See if you can get some answers, and then test the answers to see if they …
- Still… Part of the mind will say, “What’s next?” After a while, you’ll have to say, “There’s this.” If it’s still, protect it. As for what level of jhana it is: I remember that when Ajaan Fuang was teaching, he never talked about the jhanas. Ajaan Lee would talk about them, but that was because he was teaching at a time …
- Mindfulness Gets Intimate… When the Buddha uses the word “origination,” he’s talking about things arising from causes in the body and the mind. And to see causes, you have to manipulate things. Only then will you know what’s a cause and what’s not a cause for a particular phenomenon in the mind. As he describes the different levels of jhana you can get into …
- The Power of Intention… He’s more concerned about the power of the mind. Mano-pubbaṅgamā dhammā: All experiences have the mind as their forerunner, they’re shaped by the mind, the mind is in charge. This is precisely where it’s in charge: in your intentions. So we’re learning how to use that power for good. As for equanimity, that’s only one aspect of the …
- Clinging & Its Cure… As he said, if there’s a sensual pleasure that you indulge in and it doesn’t have a bad impact on the mind, that’s okay. But if it requires that you break the precepts or if it has an intoxicating effect on the mind, that’s something from which you’ll have to restrain yourself. Now, the substitute the Buddha gives is …
- A Path Rooted in Desire… You think about the way you live in the world and if you see that you’re doing harm to yourself or other people, it’s hard to put those thoughts out of the mind. Or if you can succeed in putting them out of the mind, it becomes a blind spot, which is not conducive to insight. So realize that holding to this …
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