Search results for: "The Mind"

  1. Page 98
  2. Analyzing Anger
     … But the mind has this way of putting blinders on itself. It forgets its sense of shame and its sense of compunction, which are its protectors. And at the moment when you say, “I’m just going to go with this because I like it,” there’s part of the mind that’ll just brush everything else away. So you’ve got to take … 
  3. Endurance & Restraint
     … Finally, sacitta-pariyodapanaṁ, the purification of the mind, making the mind bright and pure, bright and clean: We train the mind to be pure in its thoughts and its words and its deeds, particularly through raising the level of the mind. Here, again, think about the fact that the word “mind” here, citta, can also cover the heart. We try to lift our hearts … 
  4. Goodwill in Heart & Mind
     … So to make metta a quality of the heart and the mind, you have to do more than simply metta practice. You’ve got to work on the problems inside—the way in which you’re creating unnecessary suffering for yourself—getting past any of the obstacles in the mind that refuse to admit that, refuse to see that. Because as long as you … 
  5. Cooking Skills
     … So we’re here to cure the diseases of the mind using the breath, to at least help alleviate some of the symptoms of the body in the present moment, but also to give the mind a good place to stay so that we can alleviate any bad symptoms in the mind. You use your directed thought and evaluation, along with your perceptions, to … 
  6. Endurance with a Purpose
     … What is the appropriate response? What would be the most effective thing to say or do right now? When the mind has developed its powers of endurance, it can think clearly to get good answers to those questions. If it can’t endure pain, the mind won’t be able to think clearly. You think of something, and it seems okay, and then after … 
  7. Fear of Death
     … This means realizing that there is something deathless that can be touched by the mind right where you’ve been experiencing the body. It comes not just through concentration, but also through working on the opportunities for insight that the concentration provides. As the mind gets more and more still, you begin to see the mind’s attachments. You can see them as activities … 
  8. Creating Your Environment
    Having a conducive place to stay is an important part of training the mind. Having conducive people to practice with is also important. It creates a good environment, an energy that helps to carry us along, especially during the times when, if we were on our own, we’d start flagging. Our energy would start having gaps. It would be nice if we could … 
  9. 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 … 
  10. 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 … 
  11. 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 … 
  12. 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 … 
  13. 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 … 
  14. 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 … 
  15. 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 … 
  16. 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 … 
  17. 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 … 
  18. 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 … 
  19. 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 … 
  20. 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 … 
  21. 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 … 
  22. Load next page...