Search results for: "The Mind"

  1. Heightening the Mind
    Heightening the Mind June, 2001 The Buddha concluded one of his most important talks with the phrase, adhicitte ca ayogo, commitment to the heightened mind. What this means is that we lift the mind above its ordinary concerns, as when we come here to practice meditation. Our normal cares of the day — looking after our own bodies, feeding them, looking after other people, being … 
  2. The Mind Comes First
    The first verse in the Dhammapada—“All things are preceded by the mind”: It’s good to take that seriously. You’re sitting right here, right now, with the body, the mind, and the breath. Put the mind first. Otherwise, you find yourself getting worked up because the breath doesn’t seem to be the way you want it to be, or the body … 
  3. Attached to the Body
    We like to think that the mind is in charge of the body, yet when you look at the way most of us live our lives, it seems like the body’s in charge. We worry about feeding it, giving it a place to sleep, all these other things that we decide that the body needs: food, clothing, shelter, and medicine. And that’s … 
  4. Delighting the Mind
     … If the mind is the problem, the Buddha gives two steps to begin with. One is being sensitive to the mind, and the other’s gladdening the mind. To be sensitive, you have to step back from the mind’s mood and look at it objectively. Which direction is it leaning to? Is it leaning into its likes, leaning into its dislikes, leaning into … 
  5. Craving & Clinging
     … Sending the mind outside, he said, was the cause of suffering. Suffering was the result of sending the mind outside. The mind seeing the mind is the path, and the result of the mind seeing itself was the cessation of suffering. His explanation fits in with a theme that you see again and again in the teachings of the forest ajaans: that the mind … 
  6. Observing the Mind at the Breath
    As we focus on the breath—trying to keep it in mind, bringing the mind back every time we realize that it has wandered off, and doing what we can to keep the mind there again—our focus is on the breath, but the mind is getting trained at the same time. When you catch yourself wandering off, that’s alertness. When you remember … 
  7. Food for the Mind
    One of the reasons we practice concentration is to make sure that the mind is well-fed, that it has the strength it needs to deal with things. And that it’s also in the proper mood for dealing with things. In other words, if we take on lots of issues in life, after a while the mind gets frazzled. It’s responsible for … 
  8. Learning Through Healing
     … The same with the mind: The more persistence you show in trying to get the mind to settle down, the more you’re going to learn about the mind. And especially if you’re doing the meditation not just while you’re sitting here, but also as you try to keep the mind centered, alert, and equanimous as you go through the day. You … 
  9. The Power of the Mind
     … Phenomena are preceded by the mind, ruled by the mind, made of the mind. This is the Buddha’s assertion of the power of the mind. We’re not simply on the receiving end of things. The mind is what shapes our experience. Sights, sounds, smells, tastes, and tactile sensations do come in through the senses, but we wouldn’t experience them if it … 
  10. Factions in the Mind
    Factions in the Mind September 14, 2003 When you stop to look at your mind, you begin to realize that there’s a whole committee in there: lots of different opinions, lots of different agendas. You see this especially when you’re trying to get the mind to settle down. One part of the mind decides to focus on the breath, but other parts … 
  11. Mind Reading
    As the Buddha said, even if you can’t read the minds of others, make sure at the very least that you can read your own mind. This is something you have to do at the beginning of a meditation. Get a sense of what shape your mind is in right now. One way of testing it is to get into the breath. See … 
  12. Defilements Are Real
     … This is where the concept of the committee of the mind is very useful. All too often we see the committee of the mind as a problem, in that the mind has so many desires, so many different wants, and there so much conflict inside. All those different voices can often get in the way of getting the mind to settle down and be … 
  13. The Goldsmith
    Ajaan Lee once said that training the mind is like training a child. When it cries, you have to learn how to decipher its cries. Sometimes it’s crying because it’s hungry. Sometimes it’s crying because it’s got a stomachache. And sometimes it’s crying simply because it’s ornery. It has its moods. And you have to learn how to … 
  14. Taking Your Own Medicine
    Meditation is like medicine for the mind. The mind gets a chance to rest, recover from its illnesses, recover from whatever damage that’s been done to it, just by allowing it to stay with the breath. There’s a passage where the Buddha said there’s no happiness other than peace. There’s no health for the mind, either, unless it has a … 
  15. Strong & Heedful
     … But as the Buddha points out, these things are not dangerous to the mind unless we latch on to the things that age, grow ill, die, and are subject to separation. Then that danger infects the mind. But if the mind doesn’t go out and latch on to these things, the mind itself is safe. So the real danger lies inside, in the … 
  16. Balance & Release
    Balance & Release January 27, 2011 When we focus the mind on the breath, we can observe both of them. Ideally, it’s good to be able to observe both of them together. Although some people find it easier to observe the breath, others find it easier to observe the mind. But it’s important to be able to watch them as they interact. First … 
  17. Doing, Maintaining, Using
     … The Buddha talks about three important skills in learning how to keep the mind centered. One is gladdening the mind, another is steadying the mind, and the third is liberating the mind. Whenever you find that a particular feeling has taken over, you learn how to pry the mind loose from that, from its grip, so that the mind is free even in the … 
  18. A Well-thatched Roof
    A night like this with a cold rain outside makes you think of that verse in the Dhammapada where the Buddha says if the mind is not well developed, it’s like a hut that hasn’t been well thatched. It’s going to leak. Rain can leak in. In the same way, when the mind is not developed, passion can leak in. When … 
  19. Informing the Whole Committee
    One of the strangest things about the mind is that it talks to itself. You’d think that if the mind were a single thing, it wouldn’t have to talk to itself. Everything it knows, it would know, without having to communicate. But the fact is there are a lot of different power centers or knowing centers here in the mind. It’s … 
  20. Toughen & Tenderize the Mind
     … So it’s the toughness of the mind that allows you to see things over the long term—and that means seeing patterns, which is what you’re trying to do with the mind. You want to see patterns so that you can read the mind and know instinctively that this is what the mind needs. Until you can see those patterns, there’s … 
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