Try free for 7 days.

Mindfulness.com
Meditation
See all Meditation

Browse

Top articles

How to Meditate: Meditation 101 for Beginners

10 Science-Backed Benefits of Meditation

What is Meditation?

Mindful LivingSleep
Community

Already have an account?

Sign in

00:00

00:00

The Pith Instruction

Personalized support for learning how to integrate mindfulness into your life. Delivered fresh everyday by our world renowned experts. Choose meditation duration:

Hi, and welcome to your Daily Mindfulness. Today, I'm going to talk about the pith instructions when it comes to training our mind. So Buddhist nun and author Pema Chodron says the pith instruction is stay. Stay, just stay. Learning to stay with ourselves in meditation, she says, is like training a dog.

If we train the dog by beating it, we will end up with a somewhat obedient dog, but a very inflexible and rather terrified one. The dog might obey when we say stay, come, roll over, sit up. But it will also be neurotic and confused. By contrast, training with kindness results in someone who's flexible, confident, and who doesn't become upset when situations are unpredictable and insecure. So when we're training our mind, we want to remember this core instruction of kindness mixed with persistence in the practice.

This essence of gently encouraging ourselves to stay with whatever our present moment experience is. So if we're experiencing a restless mind, we gently encourage ourselves to stay present. If we're experiencing difficult emotions, we gently encourage ourselves to stay present. If we're feeling impatient, if there's pain in our body, if we're bored, if we're aggravated, lustful, doubtful, fearful. If the mind is telling us we're too busy to practice today, if we don't know what we're doing, if our mind is saying to us, this isn't working.

In all of these cases, again, we just gently encourage ourselves to stay present. So by bringing in the attitudes of kindness, patience, and persistence, we gradually cultivate a steadiness and a settledness in the minds that really anchors us to the depths of presence. Even when the waves of emotion and thought and impulse are moving on the surface of our being, the more time we can spend anchored in presence, the more we can familiarize ourselves with that way of being and the more we're able to navigate through life with more wisdom, calm, love, and courage. So we're going to explore these same some more in today's practice. So I invite you to settle in for that.

And as always, thank you for your practice and your presence here with us.

Melli O'Brien

4.8

The Pith Instruction

Personalized support for learning how to integrate mindfulness into your life. Delivered fresh everyday by our world renowned experts. Choose meditation duration:

Duration

Your default time is based on your progress and is changed automatically as you practice.

Hi, and welcome to your Daily Mindfulness. Today, I'm going to talk about the pith instructions when it comes to training our mind. So Buddhist nun and author Pema Chodron says the pith instruction is stay. Stay, just stay. Learning to stay with ourselves in meditation, she says, is like training a dog.

If we train the dog by beating it, we will end up with a somewhat obedient dog, but a very inflexible and rather terrified one. The dog might obey when we say stay, come, roll over, sit up. But it will also be neurotic and confused. By contrast, training with kindness results in someone who's flexible, confident, and who doesn't become upset when situations are unpredictable and insecure. So when we're training our mind, we want to remember this core instruction of kindness mixed with persistence in the practice.

This essence of gently encouraging ourselves to stay with whatever our present moment experience is. So if we're experiencing a restless mind, we gently encourage ourselves to stay present. If we're experiencing difficult emotions, we gently encourage ourselves to stay present. If we're feeling impatient, if there's pain in our body, if we're bored, if we're aggravated, lustful, doubtful, fearful. If the mind is telling us we're too busy to practice today, if we don't know what we're doing, if our mind is saying to us, this isn't working.

In all of these cases, again, we just gently encourage ourselves to stay present. So by bringing in the attitudes of kindness, patience, and persistence, we gradually cultivate a steadiness and a settledness in the minds that really anchors us to the depths of presence. Even when the waves of emotion and thought and impulse are moving on the surface of our being, the more time we can spend anchored in presence, the more we can familiarize ourselves with that way of being and the more we're able to navigate through life with more wisdom, calm, love, and courage. So we're going to explore these same some more in today's practice. So I invite you to settle in for that.

And as always, thank you for your practice and your presence here with us.

Melli O'Brien

4.8

Duration

Play in-app

Scan the following QR code with your camera app to open it on our mobile app

Get Unlimited Access

Start your mindfulness journey today.

A Mindfulness Plus+ subscription gives you unlimited access to a world of premium mindfulness content.

  • Over 1,800 meditations, sleep, calm music, naturescapes and more
  • Daily mindfulness video meditations 365 days a year
  • 100s of courses and tools to help manage anxiety, sleep and stress

Join our free newsletter

Discover exclusive events, first access to new features, community stories, and a monthly curation of our best mindfulness insights.

By continuing, you agree to our terms of service and privacy policy.

Email Missing

We couldn’t detect your email with the SSO provider you have selected.
or

Mindfulness Guarantee

We are here to make a positive impact on the world. We never want to sell you something that hasn’t helped you live a better life. That’s why if you’re unhappy with any purchase from us, you have 30 days to get a full refund and your money back.

If you subscribed to Mindfulness Plus+ and are unhappy with your purchase, please get in contact with us within the 30-day period and we’ll refund your purchase.


Learn more about our Mindfulness Guarantee.

Mindfulness

Bring balance into your everyday life.

We believe in a world where everybody has access to the life-changing skills of mindfulness.

  • 2,000+ Guided Meditations
  • Daily Coaching
  • Sleep Content
  • Mindful Exercises
  • Mindful Radio
  • 10+ Courses from world-class teachers

Private Browsing

Added to your cart!

Checkout

Thank you for joining us

Dive into the full library and enjoy all it has to offer!

Claim your free access

Create a mindfulness account and we’ll unlock this premium session in your account forever.

or continue with
By continuing, you agree to our terms of service and privacy policy.

Do you already have an account?

Start a free trial to play this session

7-Days free trial, cancel anytime.

Finish personalizing your account

Complete a few quick questions to make your own personalized mindfulness plan.

Sign up or login to your mindfulness account to proceed.

or continue with
By continuing, you agree to our terms of service and privacy policy.

Do you already have an account?

Mindfulness

One membership to gain access to a world of premium mindfulness content created to help you live happier and stress less.

  • 2000+ Guided Meditations
  • Courses from world-class teachers
  • Resources for Stress + Anxiety
  • Breathing exercises, gratitude practices, relaxation techniques
  • Sleep meditations, playlists, stories
  • Mindful talks, podcasts, music, nature sounds