Let come what comes, and accommodate yourself to that, whatever it is. If good mental images arise, that is fine. If bad mental images arise, that is fine, too. Look on all of it as equal, and make yourself comfortable with whatever happens.
Each step along the Buddha’s path to happiness requires practising mindfulness until it becomes part of your daily life.
Don’t cling to anything and don’t reject anything.
By silencing the mind, we can experience real peace. As long as various kinds of thoughts agitate the brain, we don’t experience 100 percent peace.
No problem. You are not crazier than you were yesterday. It has always been this way, and you just never noticed.
Somewhere in this process, you will come face to face with the sudden and shocking realization that you are completely crazy.
The crucial thing is to be mindful of what is occurring, not to control what is occurring.
Meditation changes your character by a process of sensitization, by making you deeply aware of your own thoughts, words, and deeds.
Skillful thoughts, on the other hand, are those connected with generosity, compassion, and wisdom. They are skillful in the sense that they may be used as specific remedies for unskillful thoughts, and thus can assist you in moving toward liberation. You.
You can’t ever get everything you want. It is impossible. Luckily, there is another option. You can learn to control your mind, to step outside of the endless cycle of desire and aversion. You can learn not to want what you want, to recognize desires but not be controlled by them.
Be gentle with yourself. Be kind to yourself. You may not be perfect, but you are all you’ve got to work with.
A sense of failure is only another ephemeral emotional reaction. If you get involved, it feeds on your energy and grows. If you simply stand aside and watch it, it passes away.
Advanced meditators are generally found to be pretty jovial people. They possess one of the most valuable of all human treasures, a sense of humor.
What you are now is the result of what you were. What you will be tomorrow will be the result of what you are now. The consequences of an evil mind will follow you like the cart follows the ox that pulls it. The consequences of a purified mind will follow you like your own shadow. No one can do more for you than your own purified mind – no parent, no relative, no friend, no one. A well-disciplined mind brings happiness.
As you practice jhana-oriented meditation, you move over time through a series of mental states that become more and more subtle as you proceed through them. You start where you are now and you go far, far beyond. You move beyond the range of concepts and sensory perceptions.
Deep concentration has the effect of slowing down the thought process and speeding up the awareness viewing it. The result is the enhanced ability to examine the thought process. Concentration is our microscope for viewing subtle internal states.
Vipassana meditation is a process by which that concept is dissolved. Little by little, you chip away at it, just by observing it.
Distractions are really paper tigers. They have no power of their own. They need to be fed constantly, or else they die. If you refuse to feed them by your own fear, anger, and greed, they fade.
Building concentration is primarily a matter of removing certain mental factors that hinder its application.
Concentration should be regarded as a tool. Like any tool, it can be used for good or for ill. A sharp knife can be used to create a beautiful carving or to harm someone. It is all up to the one who uses the knife.