Search results for: committee

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  2. A Leap of the Heart
     … They’ve taken over that much of the mind, that much of the mind’s committee. You want to see them as soon as the first thought comes into one member of the committee. Why does it come? Sometimes you find that some strange physical sensation in the body kicks in these thoughts. Other times it’s when you’re tired. Other times it … 
  3. Dhamma Medicine for Free
     … Remind yourself that the mind is like a committee. There are lots of different voices in there, and you don’t have to pay attention to every voice in the committee. Just listen to the voice that says: “Stay with the breath. Stay grounded in the breath.” Then have a little dialogue with yourself over how the breath feels. Is it too long or … 
  4. Refuge & Strength
     … The mind is like a committee. There are lots of different voices in there, but you don’t have to listen to all of them. You don’t have to identify with them. Let them be other members of the committee. You identify with the member that wants to settle down with the breath. And then you just hold on to the breath. Even … 
  5. Book search result icon The Autobiography of Phra Ajaan Lee The Autobiography of Phra Ajaan Lee
     … However the money is to be collected, have it go toward the cremation until the committee in charge feels that it has enough. 2. If there is any money left over, appoint a committee to consider handing the excess over to the hospital. 3. If the committee doesn’t see fit, the money needn’t go to the hospital. When these three points had … 
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  6. Tranquility & Insight in Tandem
     … Even though you’re sitting here saying you’re going to meditate, only part of the committee in your mind has signed on. There are a lot of committee members waiting for you to leave a gap in your mindfulness so that they can go off and do what they want. So you have to be mindful, alert, watching what’s happening—reminding yourself … 
  7. The Riddle of Freedom
     … all the different levels of the committee members. And ultimately, you dig down to something that really is free: totally free in an unconditioned way. This is how exercising your freedom increases it and gives you greater insight into the possibility of freedom: why it’s possible. Then, ultimately, you get to something that’s even more important than that: the fact that there … 
  8. Suffering Is a Feeding Addiction
     … How do you protect that, that awareness of the breath, from all the other pushes and pulls in your mind and all the different committee members who tell you, “Now’s a good time. You’ve got a whole hour free, you could think about whatever.” How do you protect the mind? If you’ve had some experience with meditating, you can remember things … 
  9. Dealing with Confusion
     … simply, “Oh, yes, there’s that, too.” This is where the image of the mind as a committee is useful because you can see the voices in the mind as members of the committee, but you don’t have to go along with them. They may be campaigning. They may be trying to influence you in a particular direction and it may have been … 
  10. Choosing Your Allies
     … As I often say, the mind is like a committee. Sometimes it’s like the Chicago City Council: All kinds of deals are being made behind the scenes and they can get disruptive. Sometimes it’s like the national assembly they called in France at the end of the Old Regime. They were called in for one purpose and they ended up overthrowing the … 
  11. Your Hair Is on Fire
     … See: “Where is the allure of that kind of thinking? Which member in my mind’s committee likes that kind of thinking? Is that someone I want to identify with?” That’s another choice you have. As for the old issues that tend to get bubbling up to the surface as you’re meditating, this is where it’s good to think about the … 
  12. Growing Up Inside
     … The other quality is restraint, realizing there are a lot of things that you might like to do, and that the children in your mental committee might like to do, but if you give in to those impulses, it’s going to be bad; you’re going to suffer. This is another reason why we have the meditation to fall back on. The sense … 
  13. Negotiating with Death
     … The mind, you could think of as the entire committee of the mind that has made a decision. It’s on the side of greed or on the side of anger—or on the opposite side. Or you’re trying to get the mind to settle down, so you check your progress against the Buddha’s list. Either it’s concentrated or it’s … 
  14. Timeless Practice
     … If you think of the mind as a committee, you’re developing a new member, a skillful member, to take over the committee. But the important thing is that you develop a sense of well-being with this focus. You do that by being, as the Buddha said, ardent, alert, and mindful. Mindful means keeping things in mind. Alert means being very clear about … 
  15. Laying the Infrastructure
     … Just make sure that the main member of your committee is right here. As for the other members of the committee, they can be off in the corner talking about whatever they want to, but you don’t have to silence them. If you don’t pay attention to them, after a while they’ll fall silent on their own. Otherwise, if you keep … 
  16. Skillful Papañca
     … In the meantime, of course, you’re going to have lots of members of your committee inside, or your little family inside, that want to go other ways. You have to ask yourself, where are they leading you? Do you want to identify with those goals? When you take on a particular desire, what kind of person are you becoming? And what kind of … 
  17. Take Your Time
     … It’s good to be thinking about that for a while because you’ve got to strengthen those members of the committee, the ones that want to meditate. If you’re willing to take some time to sort things out like this, you’re developing a quality that actually gets useful in the practice of concentration: evaluation, learning to evaluate all the problems that … 
  18. Be Decisive
     … And you don’t have to humor all the other members of the committee. Just plow right through. At the same time, don’t put a lot of pressure on the body as you’re doing this. There only has to be a mental kind of pressure. It’s the decisiveness that keeps you here, keeps you here. Because we do have to make … 
  19. Wearing the Breath
     … The reason you don’t like it yet is because it’s unfamiliar territory, and the mind has those committee members who want instant entertainment. But when you can settle down and gain a sense of being fully planted in the breath, fully wearing the breath throughout the body, then there’s the sense you’re at the spot where you should be. Everything … 
  20. Nuts & Bolts
     … So it’s good to think of these voices in the mind as being members of a committee. Like right now, you’ve got many of the members all together here working on the concentration, working with the breath. You’ve got some other members, though, that have other ideas. They’re waiting for a lapse in mindfulness and then they’ll come out … 
  21. Realities Right Here
     … But for the committee members who are not on board, you’re just going to have to let them go, let them go. Don’t pay them any mind; don’t show them any interest. You’ve got to hold on to your intention to stay with the breath and to stay with your awareness right here. When you breathe in, ask yourself: Where … 
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