Search results for: "Focus"

  1. Page 111
  2. The Graduated Discourse
     … The main message of the four noble truths is if you focus on this second kind of suffering—the suffering that your mind is creating for itself—then when you solve this problem, then the other kind of suffering is not going to weigh on the mind at all. So it really is within your power not to suffer. That’s the good news … 
  3. Precarious Knowledge
     … Even while you’re eating and working, you can meditate, you can focus on the breath. Try to maintain your inner center, choose a spot in the body that feels comfortable and try to maintain that sense of comfort no matter what you’re doing. An image in the Canon is of a person carrying a bowl full of oil on top of his … 
  4. Verified Confidence
     … And, as we all know, once you start thinking in terms of fabrication—that’s the way you breathe, that’s the way you think, talk to yourself, the perceptions you hold in mind, the feelings you hold, focus on; these things fabricate your sense of the body, they fabricate your words, they fabricate the mind: When you begin to see what you’re … 
  5. In Charge of Your Moods
     … Where do you feel the breathing in your body? Especially when the breath is long, you feel it down in the chest, in the torso, in the stomach… but wherever it’s clearest, focus your attention right there. Then ask yourself if long breathing is comfortable. If it feels good, keep it up. If it doesn’t feel good, you can change. You can … 
  6. The Need for a Purpose
     … Now, there are times when the Buddha would say to just focus on the present moment, but he also tells you why you’re focusing on the present moment: It leads to something beyond the present moment. First it leads to results that you’ll see now and on into the future: long-term welfare and happiness, and then to something even beyond that … 
  7. A Mind Like Earth
     … You change the way you breathe, you change the way you focus on the breath, you change the way you conceive the breath energy in the body, and there will be changes in how you experience the body here in the present moment. If there are pains in different parts of the body or there’s an old injury, think of the breath energy … 
  8. Refuge
     … It keeps looking for pleasure wherever it can, so you block off the unskillful avenues and say, okay, focus inside here because this is skillful. It’s going to require developing a skill. It’s going to take time, but after all, what are you being asked to do? Breathe. Breathe comfortably. Breathe in a way that feels nourishing. If your heart feels heavy … 
  9. Yes & No
     … So you focus on one corner of the orchard. Plant your trees there. And then, if they’re mangoes, you get the seeds from the mangoes, and then you can plant those seeds. Eat the mangoes and plant the seeds. Eat the mangoes. Plant the seeds. In other words, figure out what you’re capable of and then stick with that. Things will grow … 
  10. Discernment & Determination
     … now. You don’t have to be responsible for the rest of the hour. Take responsibility for what you’re doing right now. The step that can be done right now: Focus on that. When that’s done, you find that you’ve picked up a little bit of momentum. You can move on to the next step, and then the next. This is … 
  11. Mastering Pleasure & Pain
     … But it is important that you learn how to keep your focus, even in the midst of the pleasure. Otherwise, your concentration turns into drowsiness, or what Ajaan Lee calls delusion concentration. The mind is still, you’re not asleep, but you’re not very clear about where you are: concentration lacking in mindfulness and alertness. That’s what you’ve got to watch … 
  12. Good Work
     … It may not be absolutely there at the deathless yet, but at least it’s in better and better shape, and you’re depending on something that doesn’t have require you to focus outside. It’s right in here—in this skill you’re working on. So remember, we’re here in the present moment, but the present moment keeps moving. You want … 
  13. How to Change
     … They liked to focus on the tendency for a lot of people to say, “I don’t have the vasana, I don’t have the character traits, I don’t have the parami, I don’t have the perfections from the past in order to practice.” We here in the West don’t tend to think in those terms, but we think the same … 
  14. Housecleaning
     … When you really focus on what it feels like to be here, there’s tension here, tightness there, and pain in this and that spot. So you have to think of the meditation, especially when you’re just beginning to settle down, as housecleaning. Your first reaction may be, when you see the mess in the house, to want to run away again. But … 
  15. What Are You Doing in the Present?
     … We focus on the breath not for the sake of the breath, but for the for purpose of figuring out our own mind. The best place to observe the mind is in the present moment, and the breath is in the present moment. There’s no future breath that you can examine, no past breath, just the breath in the present. So as long … 
  16. Things as They’ve Come to Be
     … When you focus on breathing, it’s not just the air coming in and out of the lungs. It’s a sensation of energy that flows through the whole body, and you’re sitting in the middle of this vast breathing process that affects every nerve, every muscle. The whole experience of your body is related to the breath. The more you can perceive … 
  17. Abandoning Craving
     … about you or the object you want, or the state of being you want, or a particular narrative? If that’s where you’re going, you’re going the wrong place. Focus your desires on qualities of mind that will get you out: mindfulness, alertness, ardency, concentration, discernment. These are all good things to desire. That kind of desire for change is actually part … 
  18. Helping Others Is a Battle
     … easily knocked over by unskillful thoughts that come through the mind. Then you can deal with them. This is why we put so much emphasis on getting the mind into concentration: Focus on your breath. Breathe in a way that feels good, nourishing for the body. Soothing when you’re feeling frazzled. Energizing when you’re feeling tired. Relaxing when you’re feeling tense … 
  19. The Image of the Raft
    When we meditate, we choose one object to focus on—in this case, the breath. If we’re going to think, we think about the breath. What we’re going to watch is the breath. We gather all these different mental activities around the breath. This is how the mind can become one. Once you’ve chosen the breath as your object, you try … 
  20. Artillery All Around
     … Another cure for sleepiness that I’ve found is that if focusing on one spot in the body gets you really blurry, make up your mind to focus on one spot for three breaths, and then another spot for three breaths, and then another spot, and another, and another, and just keep chasing these spots around the body. That could wake you up. Or … 
  21. Directing Yourself Rightly
     … We try to develop the qualities that allow us to focus on that problem within so that we’re not getting into fights with anything at all. This involves contentment in an unusual way. On the one hand, you learn how to content yourself with whatever the situation is outside. At the same time, though, you don’t let yourself rest content with the … 
  22. Load next page...