Search results for: "Focusing"

  1. Page 18
  2. Three Levels of Concentration
     … One is to stay focused on the same spot you’re always focused on, and just broaden your sense of awareness — the range of your awareness — so that it encompasses the whole body. Then you allow the breath to adjust so that it feels good, as good as possible, throughout the whole body. Another way is to go through the body, section by section … 
  3. A Path Under the Trees
     … What angle can you take on that problem of aging, illness, and death that would actually get you to something that doesn’t age, doesn’t grow ill, doesn’t die? He finally realized that by focusing on the problem of suffering—what is suffering, what causes suffering: That was the way out. The teachings of other teachers of that time all talk about … 
  4. In the Context of the Path
     … He kept focused on his task, which was to teach people the path of practice that, when they followed it, would lead to the end of suffering. His teachings are amazingly focused that way. So always keep that analogy in mind, keep that image in mind. We’re following a path. We want to stay on the path. Don’t wander off to the … 
  5. Right Effort
     … So your desire for awakening has to get focused on the steps that lead there. Realize that there are steps you can follow bit by bit by bit, and they lead to something that’s more than the sum of the steps. Some people say, “Well, focusing on the path like this distracts you from the deathless, which is all around you.” But it … 
  6. Calm
     … But you want the mind to be more focused, less scattered around than it has been. If you’re going to calm the mind, calm the body, you have to realize the extent to which you fabricate your experience of mind and body. In other words, influences come in from your past karma, and you shape them into how you’re experiencing your body … 
  7. Meditation as a Skill
     … You’re not focused on any one point to the exclusion of others. You’re intent on the whole range. This is the quality of concentration you want to bring. You’re centered, but there’s a softness around the edge of the center, so that when you’re focused on something, you’re focused on it relaxing it and allowing the breath sensations … 
  8. Focus on the Doing
     … There’s the way of your focusing. There’s the way the breath is going. There’s the place where you’re focusing. There’s the concept you have of the breath. Sometimes we have weird ideas, cartoon ideas about how the breath comes in, how the breath goes out, and we try to breathe in line with those cartoon ideas, and that goes … 
  9. Putting out the Flame
     … This is why the Buddha says, when you’re meditating, that right concentration starts with right mindfulness—staying focused on the body in and of itself—ardent, alert, and mindful—putting aside greed and distress with reference to the world. The same with feelings in and of themselves, mind states in and of themselves, and mental qualities in and of themselves. These things, in … 
  10. Make the Most of Right Now
     … There’s something you have to do to get the mind focused, as opposed to simply allowing it to be peaceful and still. Well, peaceful and still but not focused means that you’re just drifting around. You can’t clone awakening. You hear about awakened people being at ease, but you don’t get there by taking your ease all the time. Ajaan … 
  11. Perceptions of the Breath
    Perceptions of the Breath March 23, 2010 To bring the mind to the breath, you need to have a perception—a label or a picture in mind—as a way of reminding yourself where you want to stay, and exactly what topic you’re focusing on. That’s because all the states of concentration up to the dimension of nothingness are called perception attainments … 
  12. Single-minded
     … So one of the essential steps in meditation is to find a spot in the body where you find it most natural to be focused, or a spot that’s really good for getting you out of your head, if you find yourself too much into your thinking. Ajaan Lee recommends some of the points that in other traditions are called chakras. When you … 
  13. Samvega
     … The mindfulness here means that you keep your mind focused on what’s really important right now, which is basically letting go of unskillful qualities. The acceptance here would be accepting that they’re there, but you don’t let them stay there. The Buddha gives different techniques for getting rid of unskillful qualities. The first is that if you know that your mind … 
  14. Think of the Consequences
     … After all, right view is focused on the problem of suffering. The fact that the Buddha was focused on that problem and not on other problems is a sign of his goodwill. He saw that beings are suffering. He wanted to give them a teaching that would get them past that, to help them to escape from the suffering they were causing themselves. So … 
  15. How to Read the Dhamma
     … As you notice, right now you’re sitting with your eyes closed, focused on your breath. You’re not focused on a book someplace. But what you’re going to do as you’re focused on the breath is shaped by what you’ve read, what you’ve heard. It’s simply a lesson in how to take what you’ve heard and read … 
  16. Indecision
     … That’s why the Buddha focused on straightening out the mind. He said that if you solve this problem, then people don’t create suffering for themselves. On the one hand, they benefit; on the other hand, people around them benefit, too. That’s why he focused on this. If we can get rid of our greed, aversion, and delusion, we benefit and the … 
  17. Cooking Skills
     … This is why we meditate, why meditation focuses on what the mind is doing in the present moment. It focuses on the three things that we’re in a good position to adjust in the present moment: the three kinds of fabrication. There’s bodily fabrication: the in-and-out breath. Verbal fabrication: directed thought and evaluation—in other words, the way you talk … 
  18. Directly & Indirectly to the Breath
     … This is how the reflection, once it calms you down, gets you focused back in on the breath, back in the present moment. Because this is where the Buddha gained his awakening: focusing on the breath. The same with the members of the Sangha. How did they overcome their frustration? By finally sitting down and being willing to look at their minds and give … 
  19. For the Cessation of Dukkha
     … So the big separation line right now is between focusing on the breath and focusing on anything else that’s not related to the breath. Hold on right here. Try to make your sensation of the breath fill the body as much as you can. If you can’t feel the breath in the body or the subtle breath sensations in the body, focus … 
  20. The Body In & Of Itself
    When you focus on the breath you’re focusing on the body in and of itself. That’s your frame of reference, and you want to hold to that frame of reference. Take that as the world you’re inhabiting right now. As for the outside world, just let it drop away. Friends, family, issues at work, issues at school—you don’t have … 
  21. Self-Correct
     … One of the ways of focusing on the body in its own terms is to focus on the breath. When you breathe in, where do you feel it? Focus your attention there. And be alert to the fact that this may not be where you ordinarily might think you should be feeling the breath. We know the air comes in through the nose, goes … 
  22. Load next page...