Search results for: "Focus"
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- Calm & Insight… In some places it’s more prominent than others, and you want to focus your main attention there. Then eventually, as that area becomes more comfortable, you want to think of that comfort spreading throughout the body. Your awareness spreads throughout the body, so that you’re bathed in breath and awareness. As for insight, the questions are: “How do you view fabrications (the …
- Stick to Your Duties… As Ajaan Lee pointed out, this is the most difficult part of the path, because it requires that you really focus on developing a skill. As for the part of the mind that likes to figure things out, try to figure out concentration. If the mind has trouble settling down, try to figure out why. Then, once it settles down, try to figure out …
- Meditation as Play… Try to get a sense of what it means to focus. Can you focus without tensing up around the focal point? And when you focus, are your eyes involved in the process? Can you do it without** involving the eyes? In other words, be aware of the chest **in the chest. Be aware of the stomach in the stomach. Be aware of the eyes …
- Dhammacentric… Why does he focus instead on keeping in mind the body in and of itself, feelings, mind states, mental qualities in and of themselves, with no direct mention of the duties of the four noble truths or the duties with regard to skillful and unskillful qualities? Now, there is indirect mention in the quality of ardency. Ardency is what knows its duties and tries …
- Honesty… You focus on the effort, you focus on the causes, and the results are sure to come. If they’re not coming, then you reflect on what you’re doing and what you might be doing wrong. You can consult with other people, but ultimately you have to be the judge of what’s working and what’s not. The other quality you bring …
- A Noble Warrior’s Path… So you focus on the form of the body; you focus on the breath, as you feel it. Breathe in a way that gives rise to feelings of well-being and ease. Hold a perception of the breath in mind and try to adjust the perception so that it allows you to breathe in a way that’s really comfortable. You have to question …
- Strength of Discernment… You have to focus on where you should pay attention. Because we’re trying to give rise to discernment, and discernment lies in knowing which things are fit for attention and which things are not fit for attention. That’s the diversity of these things. You have to ask yourself: “What are my duties right now? Where am I responsible?” And you focus there …
- Ripples Go Far… But then when you see the larger pattern, you understand what’s going on and where to focus your attention. That’s the second knowledge that he gained on the night of his awakening: seeing all beings in the cosmos being reborn in line with their karma. And that’s when he began to focus in on the karma his mind was doing in …
- Inner Baggage… So you can experiment to see with what level of breathing sensations you want to focus on. Which ones are more comfortable? Which ones are more stable? Which levels of focus are more stable? Looking at this, you can see very simply how the way you relate to the breath can have a big impact on how you experience the breath. If you weigh …
- Tranquility, Insight, & Concentration… Wherever it’s clearest—that now the breath is going in, now the breath is going out—focus your attention there. Then ask yourself if long breathing is comfortable. If it is, keep it up; if not, you can change. You could try shorter breathing; or in short, out long; in long, out short; fast, slow; heavy, light; deep or shallow. Try to find …
- A Small, Steady Flame… We tend to overlook it and focus on other things, but our primary sensation is right here. It’s breath. As we meditate, we’re learning to get back in touch with that primary sensation so that eventually we can use it as a mirror for the mind. Because, as I said, it’s where the mind and the body meet. It’s the …
- Your Breath, Your Territory… It’s one of the reasons why we focus on the body. It gives you a place to stay so that you can do this sort of work. Now, to stay here, you want to feel at home, in the same way as moving into a house. You want to put up some artwork, you want to bring in some furniture you like. Arrange …
- Mindfulness Island… And although the Buddha does recommend that you focus on the present moment, it’s not for the present moment for its own sake. It’s not to say, “Narrowly focus here.” You focus on the present moment because you know there are things in the future you’ve got to prepare for and you’ve got to keep in mind that you need …
- How to Think about Death… You can use those verbal fabrications to focus back on the breath, ground yourself, and say I’ve got this breath, what can I do with it? In fact, it’s because of death that we focus on the present to begin with. The Buddha never talks about focusing on the present because it’s a wonderful moment, or that it’s the Eternal …
- Wise Choices… But the wise choice is to focus on things that have a good potential, things that are conducive to long-term happiness. As the Buddha once said, wisdom begins by asking that question: “What when I do it will lead to my long-term welfare and happiness?” It’s wise because you realize that the question of happiness and suffering is the big issue …
- What Should & Shouldn’t Be Done… I think he could read their minds and figure out what they were doing, so he would say, “Don’t focus there, focus here.” If something came up, he would tell them whether to pay attention to it or not. And listening to him teach and seeing all the many different problems that people could come up with, I began to realize that the …
- Exercising the Mind… the good qualities you develop as you focus on the breath. The more you exercise mindfulness and alertness, the stronger they get. It’s like going down to the gym and exercising. You may work with the weights, but you’re not there because you’re really into the weights, it’s because you want strength. So you focus on learning how to lift …
- The Teacher Inside… He says to focus on the body in and of itself—in other words, your sensation of the body right here, right now, not in reference to whether you like it or not, but simply to what it is. If you focus on the body in reference to the world, all sorts of other issues come up—the question of whether it’s as …
- Respect Your Center… So you’ve got three things to focus on. In addition to that, of course, there’s the ability—once you have a comfortable spot—to focus on the breath energy, learning how to allow that comfortable energy to spread throughout the body. Again, you work with this first while you’re sitting so that when you’re spreading energy through the body, you …
- Genuine Goodness… What are the best ways to bring the mind to stillness? What are best ways to gain a sense of well-being in the mind? Focus on the breath, see how it feels. What kind of breathing feels best? In focusing on the breath, you’re also learning about the mind. As Ajaan Lee says, the breath is like a mirror for the mind …
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