Search results for: "Attention"

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  2. Analysis of Dhammas
     … In the factors for awakening, the discernment faculty, called analysis of dhammas—which can mean either analysis of qualities or analysis of actions—is fostered by paying careful attention to what’s skillful and what’s not skillful. Which thoughts side with the dark side of the mind? Which ones side with the bright side of the mind? Here again, there’s an assumption … 
  3. One Hand Clapping
     … But you want to pay continuous attention to the breath in the midst of all that. As for anything else that comes up, put it aside. The problem is that many of us think that when we’re getting the mind into concentration, there shouldn’t be any other thoughts, anything else aside from that one object. In the very high levels of concentration … 
  4. Adult Education
     … So listen to the true Dhamma and then, as the third step, apply appropriate attention, which means asking, “How can this be used to understand stress? How can this be used to understand the nature of the actions of the mind, to see where they’re causing stress, where they’re not?” This is so that you can identify the cause, and then learn … 
  5. Bewildered
     … Then the question is, what do you pay attention to? Are you paying attention to how much the pain hurts, or are you paying attention to what the mind is doing to fabricate ideas and other things around the pain? Here again, there are questions you can ask yourself: Where is the harshest part of the pain? Where is the point of the most … 
  6. Reflections on Kamma
     … They also apply to your sense of what you can accomplish in life, and where you should focus your attention to get there. You want to focus your attention on doing things skillfully, which means that you have to focus your attention on your intentions because they’re going to shape your life. This is why we practice meditation, so that we can get … 
  7. Concentration
    Concentration September 12, 2011 Focus your attention right here. The mind will be creating other “heres” to carry you away from right here. But you don’t have to go with them. Ajaan Lee’s image is of a post at the edge of the sea. The sea rises, but the post doesn’t rise with the sea. The sea ebbs away, but the … 
  8. Descartes’ Error
     … How do you go from being aware to forming thoughts? What are the steps in that process? You can’t see them unless you make the mind really still, unless you raise that question in your mind and turn your attention to making the mind still. So this is the proper role of thinking: directing your attention to important issues that are needed to … 
  9. Love for the Dhamma
     … When things aren’t going well outside, where are you going to focus your attention? Well, you could focus outside and just get upset about things outside, but that doesn’t accomplish anything. If you’re wise, you learn from the hardships the lesson that you’ve got to focus your attention more and more inwardly. If you’re going to find happiness, you … 
  10. Equanimity & Action
     … This is where appropriate attention comes in: the element of discernment in equanimity. You take stock of your actions—what you’ve been doing, what you are doing—and see what could be changed. Because that recollection on the fact that all living beings are the owners of their actions, etc., is also a reflection for giving rise to heedfulness, giving rise to saṃvega … 
  11. A Quiet Spot
     … Whatever you’ve been thinking about, whatever places your mind has been scattered, just let them drop, and bring your attention right in, right here, right at the breath. There’s a lot of unfinished business out there in the world, but it’s always going to be unfinished. One job gets done and another one comes right on it. A lot of the … 
  12. Gather Around the Breath
     … If you don’t pay them any attention, they’re going to hang around for a while but then they’ll go. And you’ve learned an important lesson—things that come up in the mind feed on the attention you give to them. So why pay them any attention? The fourth strategy is to notice that when a thought comes into the mind … 
  13. Potentials
     … It’s the act of being attentive to the breath that gives rise to those pleasant feelings to begin with. So make sure that you keep producing them by being attentive, and the feelings will take care of themselves. That’s how you learn to be with pleasure but not be overwhelmed by it. Some people feel that to avoid being overwhelmed by pleasure … 
  14. Quiet in Every Way
     … If you pay attention to all the vagrant chatter in the mind, of course it’s going to keep on going. Sometimes simply paying attention to the extent of telling it to stop actually encourages it, so you have to try another approach, which is to direct your verbal tendencies to the breath. Think up questions about the breath. In general, that’s how … 
  15. Meticulous
     … That’s because we’ve gotten so used to throwing up barriers in the mind and pay attention to something only when it’s full-blown. But it’s important as a meditator that you get to look at the process earlier and earlier on. And how do you do that? Well, not by simply just watching everything arising and passing away, because what … 
  16. Modest in Manner, but Not in Goals
     … You don’t attract attention to yourself. It seems that in the world nowadays everybody’s trying to attract attention to themselves. But what do they do with that attention? Do they deliver messages that are of use to humanity, or do they just sound off? Wait until you have something really genuinely good before you start sharing your knowledge with others. Even then … 
  17. How to Listen
     … This goes into the fifth factor for how to listen, which is appropriate attention*—yoniso manasikāra*. It’s basically a matter of asking the right questions. When you first get the mind to settle down, your thought is, “How can I make this last?” There’s nothing wrong with that thought. Learning how to appreciate the pleasure of getting the mind into oneness, finding … 
  18. Perceiving the Breath
     … You have to learn how to ferret out what you want to pay attention to and consciously ignore anything else.” In the same way, you find that a lot of these thoughts, if you don’t pay them any attention, begin to lose interest. They’re like stray cats and stray dogs. They come to you for a little food. If you pay them … 
  19. Beyond Inter-eating
     … The first is the food of what he calls appropriate attention, devoted to trying to develop good qualities in the mind, such as the factors for awakening: mindfulness, the ability to analyze things, persistence, rapture, serenity, concentration, and equanimity. These require the food of appropriate attention, which means looking at things in line with such questions as, “What’s skillful? What’s unskillful? What … 
  20. Basics
     … The more careful your attention, the more sensitive you are — and the more you start to see here. You also try to be attentive to the mind. Pay attention to what kind of breathing really helps the mind to settle down, what kind of breathing doesn’t. Once you notice that, you can make changes. In other words, be observant. Watch carefully what’s … 
  21. Shame & Compunction
     … We’re here to develop appropriate attention, attending to how our behavior can impact the world, to the fact that our actions are real and they have an impact. And the impact is based on the quality of the mind. As the Buddha said, the two factors of admirable friendship and appropriate attention are the most beneficial things outside and inside for gaining stream … 
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