Welcome to the Buddhist Boot Camp Podcast. Our intention is to awaken, enlighten, enrich, and inspire a simple and uncomplicated life.

Discover the benefits of mindful living with your host, Timber Hawkeye.

When talking about training the mind, it's helpful to at first pretend that the mind is outside of you. Just think of it as something you've been watching. Don't identify with it, you are not your mind and your mind isn't you.

It's something that you've been watching pretty much do whatever it wants,

especially if you've never trained it to listen to you.

In fact, there are times when you want to focus on something, but your mind keeps drifting away to whatever

it wants to think about, right? And there are other times when you really want to stop thinking

about something, but your mind can't help it.

So think of your mind as a spoiled rich kid

that you've raised to do whatever it wants whenever it wants to for however long

with no regard for consequence or gratitude and now that your mind is all

grown it never listens to you. So training the mind means being in charge of your decisions

instead of succumbing to cravings or so-called uncontrollable urges. And can you

think of a better method for training the spoiled rich kid than some serious boot camp?

First things first. Stop granting yourself everything you crave. That's like giving a little

kid a cookie every time it throws a tantrum, it essentially trains it to throw a

tantrum every time it wants a cookie, if that makes sense.

And please don't mistake this for deprivation.

That is not what I'm suggesting.

You can still have a cookie, for example, but only when you decide to not when a craving

quote-unquote takes over. There is a difference. So when a thought arises just watch it, don't react to it.

Oh, I really want a cookie, for example.

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