Search results for: "Focus"

  1. Page 105
  2. A Confident Ego
     … Our problem is that, as a society, we tend to focus on things that can be done instantly. You want to be a good cook, well, all you have to do is pick up a copy of Julia Child, and she’s done all the work for you. All you have to do is follow her instructions and you can come out with something … 
  3. Relating to Results
     … You can change the way you focus, you can change the way you breathe, and see what it does for the body. This gives you a sense of how much you really can change, how much you can learn by being observant. Because it’s by being observant, by developing more and more skill in our actions, that we’ll finally get to that … 
  4. Strength of Mindfulness
     … You remember what’s really important in life and you focus your efforts there. And as for any attachments that would pull you away from what’s important, you’re mindful to let them go. That’s when you see how important it is to keep your mindfulness strong—because in that way, it does become your refuge. Of the various qualities of the … 
  5. The Wisdom of Dualities
     … When is it useful to emphasize the pleasant aspects of something and when is it useful to emphasize the stressful aspects? When is it useful to emphasize the fact that you have some control over your actions, and when is it useful to focus on things being not-self? The whole purpose of these three perceptions—inconstancy, stress, and not-self—is to give … 
  6. Observe Your Concentration
     … It talks about how you can focus on the mind in concentration—and the five brethren were in concentration. It may be one of the topics that the Buddha had talked about in the period of time between the first and the second sermon. After all, in the first sermon, he mentions the five aggregates but doesn’t define them. He names the factors … 
  7. Right View about Right View
     … You can apply perceptions of inconstancy and stressfulness to the distractions that pull you away, but for the concentration, you want to focus on this question: What can you make constant here? What sensations can you develop in the body that are constant even as the breath flows in, the breath flows out? How do you make them easeful, pleasant? How do you get … 
  8. Overcoming Obstacles
     … And that, as the Buddha keeps saying, is anatta, anatta—it’s not-self, not-self*.* So focus on that issue. What you really have is this process of fabrication that’s work, work, work—all the time. And yet the work you do doesn’t produce any results that you can hang on to, unless you master what the Buddha said is that … 
  9. The Kindness of Body Contemplation
    The Kindness of Body Contemplation January 30, 2013 When we focus on the breath, we’re with the body in and of itself. What does that mean, “in and of itself”? The rest of the formula tells us that we’re “ardent, alert, and mindful, putting aside any greed and distress with reference to the world.” In other words, we aren’t looking at … 
  10. Dethinking Thinking
     … Ajaan Lee makes the point that when you’re sitting down here to meditate, you put the first two aside, and you focus totally on, say, the object of your concentration. But as you go through the day, there will have to be times when you have to think. When things are not going well in your meditation, you don’t just sit there … 
  11. Looking After Yourself
     … But try to test to see how little sleep you can get by on and still maintain your focus, still have a sense of ease in the concentration. We’re not here to push you into a neurotic breakthrough by denying you sleep. That doesn’t get you any closer to awakening. But you do want to learn how to use your concentration as … 
  12. Becoming Capable of Happiness
     … If you learn how to focus on your actions right now, instead of on the big results you’re hoping for at the end of the path, you’ll find that, over time, almost insensibly, you begin to change and your level of happiness begins to rise. Dogen, the Zen master, gave a comparison. He said it was like walking through mist. Even though … 
  13. The Essence of the Dhamma
     … This frees us to focus on that fourth custom of the noble ones. You would think—with the first three covering contentment with food, clothing, and shelter—the fourth one would cover contentment with medicine, but it doesn’t. It covers taking delight in developing and taking delight in abandoning: in other words, taking delight in developing skillful qualities of the mind and delight … 
  14. Strengthening Concentration
     … The Buddha talks about times when you’re trying to focus on the breath, and the mind says: “Oh, I’m not willing to settle down.” He calls it having a fever in the body or a fever in the mind, an unwillingness to stay settled. He doesn’t recommend just bulldozing through it. Instead, he says to switch over to something you find … 
  15. True Honesty
     … This is why the Buddha’s teachings focus on the four noble truths, because they’re right there in our actions: what we do that causes suffering, what we could do to stop suffering. Recently I’ve been reading some Dhamma talks where the teacher seems to think that the great part of honesty is to be honest about what a miserable meditator he … 
  16. A Complete Training
     … Then as you get more into developing the meditation—working with the breath, trying to get states of concentration, develop states of tranquility that can allow you to give rise to insight—you want to focus on the positive nature of concentration first, that it’s a restful place for the mind. You can sit around and think thoughts of goodwill all day, and … 
  17. In the Land of Wrong View
     … Is this person’s behavior a good example? A bad example? But your primary focus has to be on what you’re doing right now. That’s one of the questions the Buddha has the monks ask themselves everyday: “Days and night fly past, fly past. What am I doing right now?” And it’s a good question not only for monks but for … 
  18. From Anxiety to Confidence
     … You focus on those. One of the things that’s necessary is this attitude of generosity. It translates not only into a willingness to give up things but also a willingness to give up unskillful mind states. You don’t want anything that’s going to weigh you down. Then finally, there’s discernment. Of all the treasures, this is the most valuable. This … 
  19. Virtue Fosters Concentration
     … The things you let your mind focus on, the things you do: They develop habits that carry into the time when you sit down to meditate. This is why the Buddha put so much emphasis on the precepts and on restraint of the senses as important parts of the practice. These two topics come under a larger frame, called the four virtues of purity … 
  20. Learning by Doing
     … A lot of people focus on “arising and passing away.” They say, “This means that you just watch things coming and going.” But there is that adjective, “penetrative.” It means understanding that there are good things arising and bad things arising. And when things arise, some of them have an effect that lasts for a long time; some of them have an effect that … 
  21. Choices
     … Whereas if you focus attention on what you’re doing, on the choices you’re making, and getting more sensitive to them, you find something inside the mind that is not a choice, that is not conditioned, lying right next to your freedom of choice. This is where you’re going to find it. So learn how to exercise your freedom, exercise your power … 
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