Search results for: "Focus"

  1. Page 123
  2. What You’re Bringing
     … This is why Ajaan Lee would often start his meditations with a vow, “I’m going to sit here and I’m going to stay with the breath.” Or, “I’m going to sit here and focus on this or that issue and not let the mind waver from it.” So make up your mind: You’re going to stay with the breath and … 
  3. Not Getting What You Want
     … We learn how to breathe skillfully; we learn how to talk to ourselves skillfully; we learn how to apply perceptions and focus on feelings in a skillful way. As you’re meditating right now, you’re focused on the breath, but in focusing on the breath, there’s already directed thought and evaluation. You’re directing your thoughts to the breath, and the Buddha … 
  4. Stay
     … But if you give it something nearby to focus on, then you begin to get a sense of when the mind is present and when it’s going off someplace else. So we take the breath as our point of reference, not only because it helps keep us anchored in the present moment, but also because, as you get more and more familiar with … 
  5. Sensitive to Fabrication
     … As we focus on the breath, we’re dealing directly with all three types of fabrication. You’ve got the in-and-out breath as your object. You’ve got your committee here talking about the breath and how well you’re staying with the breath. Some committee members will say, “Hey, listen, think about something else.” You’ve got to talk to them … 
  6. Avoidance
     … We have to focus on getting the arrow out because once the arrow’s out then you don’t care what kind of feathers it had. The real problem has been taken care of. Sometimes your defilements will come up and say, “This has to be taken care of and I’ve got to figure this thing out first,” or whatever comes with a … 
  7. A Connoisseur of Happiness
     … He talked for an hour about the four noble truths, with his major focus on the truth of suffering, suffering, suffering. Just a few minutes after he had finished, the senior monk from Bangkok finally arrived. So they asked him to get up on the sermon seat and give a talk, too. He hadn’t heard what the previous talk was. He got up … 
  8. The Dead Snake Around Your Neck
     … t have to look at them. You look away. You’ve got the breath. Thoughts don’t destroy the breath. And they’re not why you’re here to begin with. Focus in on the breath and, for the time being, let the thoughts have whatever corner of the mind they’re going to occupy. What you’re learning is how to use these … 
  9. Stake Out
     … So we focus on the breath and the breath energies in the body. As the Buddha says, you want to be aware of the entire body. Some people are going to interpret that as being entirely aware of the whole length of the breath, in which case they say that the word “body” there means the body of the breath as felt at the … 
  10. A Rite of Passage
     … they begin to seem a little bit too much, then you think of a more subtle level of energy in the body, a more subtle level of breath. It’s there. Focus in on that and let the movements of the rapture or the refreshment or whatever take care of themselves. Now, thoughts will come up as you’re doing this. In the beginning … 
  11. Accepting the Way Things Function
     … Then you can focus on the breath. Here, again, it’s not just awareness of the breath. There are also your perceptions, your visualizations. How do you visualize the breath to yourself? How do you visualize your relationship to your body? Do you feel comfortable in your own skin? Comfortable inside your body? If not, can you at least create a beachhead, some one … 
  12. Feeding your Attack Dogs
     … Or you can focus on people who are way better than you are, and get yourself down in the dumps. Why the mind does that? What sort of satisfaction it finds there? Maybe it wants to say, “Well, I can’t be expected to do such and such, because I’m nowhere near where that other person is.” That fulfills a nefarious role in … 
  13. Life in the Context of the Practice
     … Once he saw the pattern, then he could focus in on the present moment to see the same pattern there. Focusing on the larger pattern took a lot of the personal sting out of the particular problem or issue in the present moment. The same applies to you. After thinking about the happiness of all beings, and how the principle of kamma applies to … 
  14. The Challenge of Faith
     … The question is, what kind of happiness, what kind of pleasure are you going to take as your primary focus? What is something you’re not going to sacrifice? How high do you want to set your sights? What possibilities for happiness do you want to take into consideration? We have the testimony of the Buddha, we have the testimony of his noble disciples … 
  15. Respect for Happiness
    Face straight ahead, close your eyes, and focus on your breathing. Know when you’re breathing in; know when you’re breathing out. Notice how the breathing feels. Where does it feel comfortable? Are there parts of the body where it doesn’t feel comfortable? Sometimes the breathing may be constrained or tense. It can be too long or too short, or maybe too … 
  16. The Third Noble Truth
     … the four noble truths, the third—the cessation of suffering and stress—is the one we talk about the least, the reason being that it’s the result of the practice. Focus on the causes, and the results will take care of themselves. So most of our emphasis is on the path. But it’s good to reflect on where the path is going … 
  17. Working at Home
     … making sure you don’t get bored, making sure you don’t lose your focus, noticing when it begins to unravel, when it begins to fray, and learning how not to get complacent about repairing the little frayed ends. So as soon as the slightest leak develops in the roof, you’ve got to fix it. Otherwise mold sets in and the whole house … 
  18. Skillful Judgment
     … And also that your actions have consequences, so you want to focus more on the actions than on your sense of self or your sense of what you feel like doing. We have this tendency to believe that our feelings are our true selves: the part that hasn’t been socialized. But our feelings are fabrications just like anything else. You can learn how … 
  19. The Uses of Fear
     … Because it’s inevitable as you’re trying to focus on the breath that other things will come up. In the beginning you realize this only after they’ve taken you far away. You find yourself on the coast of Norway: “How did I get here?” But in the beginning, don’t try to trace it back just yet. Just say, “Okay, I’ve … 
  20. The Dhamma Eye
    Let’s sit and meditate. Focus on your breath. Know when the breath is coming in, know when it’s going out. And notice if it’s comfortable. If it’s not comfortable, you can change. If it feels too long or too short, too heavy or too light, you can change it so that it feels better: feels good coming in, feels good … 
  21. A Warrior’s Strengths
     … When the storms in your mind are blowing and they seem really strong, just say, “I’m going to stay right here with the breath and focus on that and not get involved in anything else.” As soon as you have the complicating thought or the proliferating thought that “I am the thinker,” then the thoughts become your thoughts and you’ve got to … 
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