Search results for: "Focus"

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  2. Persistence
     … The effort begins in trying to maintain a very continuous focus. We hover around the focus as we try to adjust it. That’s what the terms “directed thought” and “evaluation” are all about: trying to adjust the mind and the breath to get them just right for each other. And you need to maintain a sense of the observer that’s watching what … 
  3. Hunker Down
     … In fact, it’s best to focus 99.44% of your attention on the breath. Leave just a little bit for the talk. If something is relevant to your situation, relevant to your meditation, it’ll come right in, without your having to send your mind out to focus on the talk. As for anything that’s not relevant to your meditation, just let … 
  4. Crossing the River
     … That’s why we focus on the breath. Or you can focus on thoughts of goodwill—anything you find is easy for the mind to stay with, congenial, and gives you a sense of being firmly supported in the present. Even before you get to the meditation, there’s the teaching on refuge. We’ve got the Buddha, the Dhamma, and the Sangha as … 
  5. What You’re Choosing to Do Right Now
     … That’s why we’re here, trying to focus on the breath to stay in the present moment, so that we can see what our choices are. One of the purposes of the practice is to alert you to how much you are actually choosing to do things, think things, and say things here in the present moment. You have the power to use … 
  6. Samvega for Samsara
     … So you focus on the negative side of things you could wander to. If you focus on the positive side, you’re going to keep wandering around as long as you like, letting them pull you around by the nose. If you focus on the negative, though, you have a chance of getting free from them. That’s what this is all for. It … 
  7. Using What You’ve Got
     … No better way of getting confidence than to learn how to control your mind, to have it focus on what you want it to focus on and learn to have it stay focused there. When you can do that, you feel up to bigger challenges. After all, as the Buddha said, pain and suffering are things you want to comprehend. Our normal reaction to … 
  8. The Broken Gong
     … It requires sustained focus, which can be tiring. This is why the strategy in meditation is to focus on other parts of the body first, to see if you can make them comfortable with the breath. This is one of the reasons why full-body awareness, full-body breathing, is an important part of the Buddha’s toolbox. If you focus just on the … 
  9. Preparing for Death
     … Then you can focus directly on the awareness itself. You can focus on a sense of space; you can focus on awareness itself. There seem to be no bounds to them. You realize that this pleasure is even greater than the pleasure that came from being with the breath. It’s more peaceful, more spacious. This helps overcome your attachment to the body. You … 
  10. Strong Against Anger & Fear
     … What are you going to do?” “What else can I do but focus on the practice of the Dhamma?” This is our refuge—it’s called the strength of conviction—realizing that the most important thing you can focus on is being skillful in your thoughts, skillful in your words, skillful in your deeds. You maintain that conviction, and you see that it’s … 
  11. Calm in the Storm
     … You focus it on one thing, and then you can back up, and observe it as it stays focused. That’s when things begin to be clear. So focus on the breath. Have a sense that the breath is bathing you. When you breathe in, remember: It’s not just the air coming in and out through the nose, it’s the whole sense … 
  12. Ask the Right Questions
     … So you want to focus on the actions of the mind—this is why we get the mind really quiet: not to find out who we are, but to see exactly what actions are happening in the mind, which ones are causing stress, and which ones are helping put an end to it. When we focus on the actions, we’re not saying there … 
  13. Sowing Good Seeds
     … Be as continuous as you can in your focus on the breath. The continuity of your focus is what makes all the difference. It’s like a needle in a record—back in the old days when they had records. If the needle stayed in the groove continually, you could actually here what was on the record. And it sounded nice. If it was … 
  14. Like an Athlete in Training
     … Where does it feel good? Where does it not feel good? Focus on the areas that you can make good by the way you breathe, and hold in mind the right perceptions that allow that to happen. For example, be careful not to squeeze the end of the in-breath or the end of the out-breath to mark the difference between the two … 
  15. Common Ground
     … Say you’re going to focus on the breath. It’s just the breath right here. That’s the aspect of the body you’re going to focus on, and everything else related to the body as it functions in the world, you just put it aside. You don’t have to worry about how you look to other people, whether your body is … 
  16. Look Around as You Follow the Trail
     … There are people who complain, “Nibbāna is something that has nothing to do with the body, so why are we focusing on the breath?” If you want to catch the mind, you have to give it something to focus on, and the breath is one of the best things to focus on. It’s right here. Of all the physical things in the world … 
  17. Focus on the Doing
    When you focus on your breath, it may seem a strange thing to do with your mind. After all, the mind is for thinking, and you could spend the whole hour thinking all kinds of thoughts. But the question is: What you get out of it? Occasionally you get some use out of your thoughts. Thoughts aren’t all bad, but there is a … 
  18. Pain
     … It avoids you—especially if you learn to make your focus the kind of focus that doesn’t bear down on things. You want a focus that’s more open and diffuse. As when you’ve been working with the breath: You’ve learned that if you want to keep the breath comfortable, you don’t put too much pressure on it. You stay … 
  19. A Special Time
     … When you notice that you’re not paying attention, you focus your attention again. When you’re focused, when you’re paying attention, you try to be as sensitive as possible to how the breath feels. This way, you develop two other qualities that are important for concentration. The first is directed thought. You keep thinking about what you’re doing. You’re actively … 
  20. Compassion for People on Fire
     … So we’ve got to develop a sense of samvega toward our desires, and focus our desires in a different direction. In the beginning, that’s why we focus on concentration. Instead of focusing on desires for sensuality, we focus on desires related to form, inhabiting the form of the body. It lifts the mind. You’re looking for a happiness in a place … 
  21. Broad, Tall, & Deep
     … Then he’d have you focus on the sensation of space. You’d begin to realize that the space you were focusing on had no limitations. When you’re focused on the body, things go out to the skin, or maybe just a little bit beyond the skin, to include the energy cocoon around the body. But with space, there are no limits. After … 
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