Search results for: committee
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- A Handful of Leaves… It’s as if you have a whole committee in there: all the different identities you’ve taken on, which have worked to one extent or another. They’re all potentially there with their opinions on things. And many of them are very ignorant. But with the solidity that comes from concentration, you can begin to watch these identities in action and see that …
- The Skills of Truth & Calm… So as you’re dealing with the obstacles of trying to master this skill, and things don’t quite fit—the mind doesn’t fit with the breath, the breath doesn’t fit with the mind, different members of the inner committee seem to be rebelling—you have to have a strong sense that, yes, you can do this. You don’t let setbacks …
- The Wisdom of Self-regulation… Think about the committee of voices in your head telling you to do this, not to do that. They have lots of different ideas. To learn how to not listen to the unskillful voices, and to listen to the skillful ones and to recognize which is which: That’s a real skill. A lot of discernment has to go into that. It helps to …
- Dhamma Medicine… In other words, learning how to talk to the various committee members in your mind, and learning strategies. Some of the meditation techniques we have are strategies, and sometimes you have to practice them in advance. The teaching on goodwill: Sometimes you sit here thinking thoughts of goodwill and you notice that your heart isn’t in it. The mind has no problem thinking …
- Guardian Meditations… We talk about the committee of the mind with all its different voices, and you’ve been every one of those voices at some time in your life. That’s why the voice is there. You’ve adopted that view either from something someone else said, or just the tone of voice with which someone else said something to you, or sometimes you’re …
- Conviction in Charge… It’s like a committee. It’s got lots of different opinions in here: your own opinions, other people’s opinions that you’ve picked up. You have to keep in mind the fact that you have to be very picky about what you choose to follow in the mind. When you choose the right voices, the mind can settle down: Choose the voices …
- Many Desires, Many Selves… You’re just trying to create some order in this committee or this crowd inside, so that you can train the parts of the mind that can be trained to be focused on this one issue: putting an end to suffering. That’s where the unity lies: willing one thing above all other things and then submitting all your other desires to that. It …
- Invest in the Breath… It’s a good place for seeing all of the members of the committee of your mind, all the ones that tend to hide out and stay behind the scenes. If you sit with pain for a while, they’re going to come up to the surface. Sometimes it’s a little discouraging to see how your mind comments to itself on pain and …
- Decisions… It’s as if we have a committee inside. Or as someone once said, the mind is like a lot of different modules. When this particular task comes up, this module gets into the act. If another task comes up, another module gets into the act. All these different roles that the mind is ready to play, and after a while it gets bored …
- Heedfulness… One is, “I won’t let myself think those thoughts at all.” The other is, “No, I’m not going to follow those thoughts.” You can think of the mind as being like a committee. Some people in the corner of the room are talking, but you don’t have to get involved in their conversation. Just think of it as someone else talking …
- Getting Back on Your Feet… Don’t let those members of the committee be the ones who take over your eyes. Also look at the impact that whatever it is you’re looking at has on the mind. Here again, if you see that it tends to stir up trouble, that’s something you shouldn’t be looking at. The same goes with the rest of the senses. Or …
- Lessons of Right Resolve… This is why we talk about the committee of the mind. Just because something appears in the mind doesn’t mean that you want to follow it, that you want to pursue it. You’ve got to examine it: Where is this thought going to lead? This is what right resolve is all about—looking at where the thoughts lead. In fact, the Buddha …
- Hunting & Foraging… Of course, you’ll be dealing with all the voices in the committee of the mind that say you’ve got to think about this or here’s an opportunity to think about that. You’ve got a whole hour here: You could think about all kinds of things. You have to re-instate your resolve you’re going to stay right here. That …
Honest & Observant
… But if you’re honest, you begin to realize that there are traitors inside this committee of the mind. You’ve got to learn how to ferret them out. And the best way of doing that is trying to catch the distraction more and more quickly until you can see the moments where decisions are being made even before the thought is clearly a …- Using Your Many Minds… But if you look around in this committee you have in the mind, you find that you have all kinds of selves in here, some of which are skillful in one area, while others are skillful in another area. So you want to learn how to train them to work together. Take advantage of the strengths of the individual members. Years back in high …
- Quick on the Draw… More and more of the voices in your committee are suddenly echoing what it has to say. Like that old principle of the Big Lie. If it keeps getting repeated over and over and over again enough times, it seems to be the truth because that’s what everybody is saying. So you have to be careful. You have to be quick. As soon …
- Friends Inside & Out… As for other voices that come up, the other members of the committee, friends, true friends and false friends: You want to sort through them. This practice of recognizing who’s a true friend and who’s not, both internally and externally, covers a lot of the practice right there. We use the principle of appropriate attention to sort these things out. Which friends …
- Strong Through Commitment… This is the problem with dealing with the committee of the mind. If you ask, “Which one in there is you?” they say, “All of us are you. All of us are me.” It’s like that story that Ajaan Lee tells about Ven. Cūla Panthaka. He was a monk who was not all that bright. But, one day, when he was embarrassed by …
- The Duties of Happiness… So when you’ve got the safe space, you can get the whole committee to sit down around the topic of what kind of happiness is genuine. That’s when you can compare the allure of, say, the guilt or the remorse, with the drawbacks that you’ve seen: that at the very least, you weigh yourself down. It’s one thing to recognize …
- Doing the Right Thing… one, not seeing clearly; two, not having the strength even when you do see clearly; and sometimes, you can see clearly and have the strength, but you don’t have the wisdom to deal with the unskillful members of your mind’s committee. Boil it down to those three issues, and the training that the Buddha gives in virtue, concentration, and discernment helps right …
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