Search results for: "Attention"

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  2. All-around Knowing
     … Their attention is centered right in the middle of their body, and then it spreads out evenly in all directions because. After all, the animals they’re hunting could be in any direction, the tracks they’re looking for could be in any direction, so their attention has to be all around. If you don’t like the image of hunting animals, you can … 
  3. All-around Alertness
     … Where do you not ordinarily focus on breath sensations in the body? Have you ever spent much time with your right flank, or your left flank, or your tailbone? Give them some time, give them some space, give them some attention. They might have some potentials you haven’t thought of before. Then, from the sense of well-being in the body, it begins … 
  4. Virtue Contains the Practice
     … Those actions have life-shaping consequences, so you need to pay attention to what you’re doing and to the consequences you’re creating. This leads to a series of shoulds and should-nots: actions you should do and actions you shouldn’t if you want to put an end to suffering. The if there is crucial. The Buddha’s shoulds are conditional in … 
  5. The Long-Distance Meditator
     … You’re just moving your attention, changing your frame of reference, and then learning how to keep your frame of reference right here. This is why the Buddha talks again and again and again about establishing mindfulness. Once it’s established, then you’ve got to keep it established. This has a lot to do with learning how to talk to yourself, which is … 
  6. Happy to Be Here
     … If there are any thoughts that go wandering off, you don’t have to pay them any attention. You’ve got lots of choices in the present moment, so make the most of them. This is an important principle to keep in mind. Some people think that we’re taught that everything we experience in the present moment is totally determined by past karma … 
  7. A Graduated Discourse
     … That teaching actually downgrades the attention that we pay to our actions, and it focuses attention on getting in good with whoever’s making the real decisions. But if you realize that your actions are what determines everything, you’re going to pay a lot of attention to your actions: what you’re doing, saying and thinking. Try to be really careful about it … 
  8. A Message for the Universe
     … As the Buddha said, inappropriate attention looks at the same things as appropriate attention, but it focuses on different details. The details may be true, but they’re not helpful. You’ve got to look for details that are true, beneficial, and timely. Remember the Buddha’s standards for what would be right speech, the kind of speech that he would say: It had … 
  9. Questioning Your Unconscious Actions
     … Now, if you can bring awareness and appropriate attention to this process, you can prime the mind in another direction. Appropriate attention is a matter of asking the right questions. Remember, the questions are not, “Who am I?” or “Where am I?” The question is: “What am I doing?” That’s how you prime the mind in another direction. Think about the Buddha on … 
  10. It’s Good to Talk to Yourself
     … Which ones are you going to pay attention to? Which ones can you pay attention to? That’s a useful question. Which ones are clear enough so that you can maintain your focus all the way through the in-breath, all the way through the out-, for many, many breaths? Search around in the body and find some breathing sensations that look like they … 
  11. Expanding Your Skill Set
     … That’s the property of mindfulness, reminding yourself of what’s important to pay attention to, what’s important to remember. For the time being, there’s only one thing you really have to worry about, and that’s staying with the breath coming in, the breath going out, noticing where you feel the process of breathing, so that it’s not just the … 
  12. Focal Points
     … Find some out-of-the-way spot in the body that’s been neglected and place your attention there. Whether or not you feel the breath there isn’t the issue. Just remind yourself that there is breath there, so whatever you feel there qualifies as breath. You don’t have to make it move or do anything special. Just notice it. Aside from … 
  13. The Best Work Around
     … The second is through our own appropriate attention: asking discerning questions about our likes, questioning our assumptions. Dogen once described the practice as, “dethinking your thinking.” In other words, it’s not just that you stop thinking, it’s that you question your attitudes, your assumptions about, “This is good and that’s bad.” Well, look at what’s actually appearing in the mind … 
  14. Complexities of Karma
     … That’s why we meditate, focusing our attention on the present moment, because what we do in the present moment is going to make a big difference. Not everything is determined by the past. Sometimes we hear a simplistic idea of karma, that what you do in the past shapes the present moment, what you do in the present moment will shape the future … 
  15. Safe at Home
     … Now bring your attention back to the present moment. What have you got right here? What are the resources you’re going to develop? You’ve got the body sitting here breathing, and you’ve got the mind thinking and aware. Put all those things together. It’s by putting them together that they develop. Think about your breath and be alert to how … 
  16. Lean into the Present
     … The Buddha did it, many other members of the noble Sangha in the past have done it, and what’s the difference between your breath and their breath? It’s the same thing—the difference is in the attention they paid to the breath itself, and the attention they paid to questions around the breath. So pay attention to the breath. How’s it … 
  17. Reclaiming the Breath
     … This is the basic glue that keeps the mind and body in touch with each other and keeps us alive, yet we don’t pay much attention to it. Our attention goes outside. As soon as we come back in, we’re not familiar with the territory. It can seem confusing at first because there are lots of different types of energies going on … 
  18. Clearing a Space
     … They’re really good at screaming for your attention, demanding your attention, saying, “This has to be dealt with right now, do you hear?” As for the practice, getting the qualities that you need in the mind, that has to learn to be vocal, too. And it has to be strong as well so that it can make room for itself, push these less … 
  19. Five Precepts, Five Virtues
     … You don’t have to pay them any attention. They’re there, you know they’re there, but you don’t have to make them your focus. Your focus is on the sensation of breathing in your body. To do this, you’ve got to develop some good qualities in the mind: Mindfulness is the first one. You’ve got to keep in mind … 
  20. The Shape of a Circle
     … In other words, when you’re doing your formal meditation, try to give it all your attention. Even if you can only manage five minutes out of the day, make sure you give it full attention for the full five minutes. And as you’re going through the day, try to keep in touch with the breath as much as you can. Try to … 
  21. Not Getting What You Want
     … It’s the seeds that you water—i.e., you pay attention to them: Those are the ones that will sprout first—and the act of paying attention is part of what the Buddha calls fabrication. We take these potentials and we turn them into a present-moment experience. Fabrication has three types: There’s bodily fabrication, which is your in-and-out breath … 
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