Search results for: "Focusing"
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- Look Around… Each of us has his or her duties that we’ve taken on, and sometimes we get so narrowly focused on them that other things that should be looked at don’t get looked at, places that should be cleaned don’t get cleaned, places that should be straightened out don’t get straightened out. You might say, “Well, it’s no big deal …
- Equanimity on the Path… One is to apply it to anything that’s not directly related to the path—issues that have nothing to do with putting an end to suffering—as a way of keeping the mind focused. Remember that the Buddha himself would put issues of that sort aside. No matter how many people would try to force him to answer questions that were not related …
- Concentration: A Balancing Act… Developing samvega is basically a way of preparing the ground so that when you’re focused on the breath and anything else comes up, you will have already seen through it. You will have developed the attitude that it’s no place you want to go back to. This is one of the functions of the contemplation of the body. You go through the …
- Hindrances Based on Delusion… And it’s by checking your results that you can cut through your uncertainty and you see that, Yes, focusing in this way is useful, focusing in that way doesn’t work. You begin to get a sense of the skill of meditation: what yields results and what doesn’t. That’s the knowledge that cuts through uncertainty. So in all the cases of …
- Questions in the Practice… So focusing on the breath is not simply a beginning exercise that you drop later for other things. It’s bringing the mind to the point where it should be: right here in the present, right where the body and the mind meet. The immediate question is: Are you skillful in staying with the breath? What is the most skillful way of focusing on …
- Freedom, Conditioned & Not… So he focused on actions, your intentions. What do you expect to happen as the result of your actions? And then you check, while you’re acting: Are you getting the results you expected? In other words, are they harmless? After acting: Did you actually get harmless results? If not, you can change. Keep circling around these choices you have right now, and your …
- Breathing Easy… It just made it much more important that you be really careful to stay focused on the breath. In other areas of life, we learn how to stay focused on something even though there are other things that seem to be clamoring for our attention. I remember when I was young, I’d be reading a book, and my mother would come in, and …
- Happiness Without Conflict… If your desires are focused on sensual pleasures, you’re going to find yourself in conflict with somebody else whose desires are focused on the same sensual pleasures. This is where renunciation is a type of goodwill. In other words, you’re going to look for happiness in a place that nobody else is going to lay claim to. And you’re not taking …
- Breath by Breath… Like right now, you’re focusing on the breath. And what results are you getting? In the beginning, it may not seem like much. But the important point is that you’re patient. There are a lot of things in this world that grow gradually, and one of them is peace of mind. If you’re impatient, it gets right in the way of …
- The Power of Human Effort… These are intentional actions—like when you’re focusing on the breath right now. The in-and-out breath is called the bodily sankhara. It’s one of the few processes in the body that you actually can exert some conscious control over, and it shapes your experience of the whole rest of the body. There’s verbal fabrication: the things you say to …
- Admirable Friendship… But when you’re meditating, you’re directly focusing on the mind in and of itself. You start first by focusing on something right next to the mind: the breath in the body, how you sense it right here in and of itself, right here in the present moment. This is something each of us has to take responsibility for. Nobody else can focus …
- The Wisdom of Dualities… It is possible to get the mind into formless states, and they are much more refined and quiet than focusing on the body. But, as Ajaan Lee points out, it’s like having worked and then living off your pension, whereas focusing on the body is working and getting a salary at the same time. As long as you’re working, the salary doesn …
- Adjust the Flame… When we meditate, we’re trying to adjust the flame so that it’s steady, focused on one thing: the breath here in the present moment. Try to stay with it consistently. Start with a small flame. Find one spot in the body that’s sensitive to the breath, one that feels really good when the breath is just right, and not so good …
- Present Kamma… You do that by focusing on the breath. In the beginning, it may not be all that still as you try to focus on the breath. But that’s the important place you want to focus right now. Put your attention on the breath and try to stay with the breath as much as you can. And whatever you need to do to stay …
- Sitting & Walking… So you try to gather your mind together, keep yourself focused, say, in the middle of the chest or wherever your favorite spot is in your body. Get up and make sure that you’re going to maintain that center all the way from here to your walking meditation path. Dividing the task up into sections like this is an important part of the …
- Time to Heal… If you’re focusing outside all the time – helping this person, worried about that person – there’s not much time for yourself, not much time to look after the mind itself. So it gets squeezed into weird shapes and parts of it get starved. So here’s a chance for your awareness to become all-around. You stay focused on the present moment, try …
- Allowing the Breath to Spread… Or, if you want, you can stay focused there, with the thought that if any sense of ease can come out of it and seep through the body, you’ll be open to the idea that it can happen. Don’t chase it around, don’t push it here, don’t push it there. Just think: Okay, there’s a sense of ease, and …
- Adjusting the Flame… The mind starts focusing on the pleasure instead of the breath, and things get blurry. This is when delusion concentration sets in. This is when drowsiness sets in. To counteract that, you’ve got to give the mind work to do. Try some very detailed work through the bones of the body, the breath around the bones. How does the breath around your spinal …
- Reflect on Your Actions… You’re sitting, focused on the breath. Is it going well? Are you actually with the breath? If not, what can you change? You can change either the breath or the way you’re focused. In other words, the changes can be either in the body or in the mind. What are your range of options? Some of these you’ve learned from the …
- The Wisdom of Ardency… Like right now, you’re focused on the breath. You’re alert to what the breath is doing, and you’re also alert to what the mind is doing as it tries to stay focused on the breath. The ardency here is to keep at this. If you find yourself wandering off, you come right back to the breath. Mindful means keeping something in …
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