Search results for: "Focus"

  1. Page 119
  2. Heedfulness is the Path
     … first, being honest with yourself, being truthful to yourself, and then, second, being careful to focus your attention on your intentions, on your actions, and on the result of your actions. He said to look at intention every time you act. What results do you expect from this action? If they’re going to be harmful, don’t do it. Here the important point … 
  3. More than a Sliver of Mindfulness
     … One of the first things I say is that I learned how to focus on the breath, not just being aware of the breath willy-nilly, but working with the breath to make it comfortable and developing a sense of well-being inside. Once you have that, then the mind is in much better shape for actually wanting to deal with unskillful emotions and … 
  4. Between Either & Or
     … In the beginning, it’s awkward because you find yourself choosing the wrong issues to focus on in particular situations at particular times. But over time, if you’re really observant and willing to learn and willing to listen, you get a better and better sense of this point of “just right.” It’s like people going to live in the wilds of Alaska … 
  5. Start with Yourself
     … But if you focus on gaining yourself—i.e., gaining the set of qualities inside that you learn how to trust—then if other people are attracted, if other people want to learn that same kind of trustworthiness, they’ll come on their own. You’ll be able to live together in a way that’s not a burden to anybody. That’s a … 
  6. To Discern Suffering
     … But we sit here with our eyes closed so that we can focus on what the mind is doing, how the mind is adding a lot of unnecessary burden on itself. The Buddha gives a long list of different ways in which we suffer. We suffer around aging; we suffer around illness; we suffer around death. Not getting what we want; getting what we … 
  7. Can All Beings Be Happy?
     … That’s when you have to develop equanimity so that you can focus on other areas where you can be of benefit. So again, it all comes back to your motivation. You keep reminding yourself again and again, “May all beings be happy.” And then you ask yourself, “Are my actions in line with that wish?” In that way, it becomes a test, a … 
  8. A Handful of Leaves
     … It seems to be a very narrow, almost selfish kind of concern for people to try to put an end to their suffering, and to focus on that as the main issue in the practice. But the Buddha was pointing to something that each of us is responsible for. We can’t be responsible for other people’s actions, and we can’t go … 
  9. Restraint
     … All I care about is right now.” The popular misconception that the Buddha teaches you, “Well just focus on right now, and don’t think about the future, don’t think about the past,” gives fuel to that idea. But the Buddha never taught that. He basically taught the distinction between what’s skillful and what’s unskillful. Our basic motivation for doing what … 
  10. Therapy for the Mind
     … This is where you actually have to focus on doing genuine therapy, and that requires some analysis. After all, the Buddha’s talking about cause and effect. If you sit and watch, you can see things arising and passing away. But if you sit there passively, that’s all you know: arising, passing away. That knowledge of arising and passing away doesn’t count … 
  11. Observant & Ingenious
     … Ajaan Fuang wanted me to focus more on my meditation, so I looked after the people who were coming, sunning their pillows and blankets, making sure the bathrooms had water. I would pitch in with the construction, though, whenever I was needed. We learned a lot of lessons. One was in the blasting for the foundation of the chedi. Ajaan Fuang had chosen a … 
  12. Rites of Passage
     … It’s hard to focus on your own mind when you’re running up against the contents of other people’s minds all the time. You’ve got to get away. You’ve got to get out — which is what we’re doing as we come here: finding a place of seclusion. We’re not totally cut off from other people here, but at … 
  13. Your Highest Aspiration
     … Oops, there it goes.” When it comes, you try to see how you can keep it in focus, how to stay as still as possible without squeezing the pleasure out of that stillness, without squeezing the fullness out of that stillness. This requires time and it takes effort, but it’s a skill that we can master, that we can develop. Once we have … 
  14. The Need for Agency
     … Be clearer about what you’re doing and the results you’re getting.” He gives you some advice as to where to focus your actions, what kinds of actions to master. But then he says that a lot of it is up to you. This is why he asks for students who are honest and observant. It’s also why he said that the … 
  15. Mindfulness as Refuge
     … That means you focus on an aspect of the body like the breath and you stay there. You hold on. You don’t let any thoughts of the world come in right now. If they do come in, you don’t pay them any attention. Or if you pay them attention, you’ve got to let them go. You put them aside again and … 
  16. Goodwill & Heedfulness
     … In fact, I was reading recently a Dhamma teacher saying that most people don’t have enough time when they’re on weeklong metta retreats to think about anybody else, so they should focus all of their goodwill on themselves as a healing process. If you have trouble wishing for your own true happiness, then you may want to spend extra time here. But … 
  17. Maybe the Buddha Knew Something
     … They just make you focus on the question of, “In what does your humor lie?” There’s a lot of really good humor in the world that’s based on telling things as they really are. So there’s no need to make things up just for a laugh. So, on the one hand, you’re strict in observing your precepts. That’s pleasing … 
  18. Trust in Heedfulness
     … In other words, when you see that the way you’re focused on your object is causing stress, learn to focus in a way that’s less stressful, that causes less disturbance to the mind. You can pursue this principle all the way through the various levels of concentration, even to the objectless concentration of awareness, where you’ve let go of the oneness … 
  19. Wisdom for Dummies Revisited
     … In other words, you focus on the practical details of making right effort, even if they seem mundane—that’s what the smelter stands for—and the gold will appear in your mind. There’s a lot in the meditation that you can’t anticipate. You can’t plan too far ahead. But you know: These are the steps. We’re lucky that we … 
  20. Anxiety
     … Either that, or you lose your focus and get into what’s called delusion concentration. So you’ve got to do something with that comfort. The act of evaluation tries to figure out what that is. Mindfulness helps. You’ve heard the directions about spreading the comfort around. Think of the breath energies going down the spine, out the legs, down the arms, out … 
  21. Limitations
     … You can choose what you’re going to focus on doing in training your mind. Although you may run into old habits that come from who-knows-where, and although you’re dealing inside with a whole committee of people who have lots of different opinions about where true happiness can be found, still there’s a way out. So, on the one hand … 
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