Search results for: "Focus"
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- Attention & Intention… Your focus narrows down, but not in a way that’s confining. Instead, it’s getting more and more to the point, the whole point of what the Buddha taught. That’s why the Buddha said that the path is nourished by commitment and reflection. You commit yourself to doing it. You focus your intentions on really following the path, and then you reflect …
- Go, Do Jhana… What this means is you can focus anywhere in the body where it’s clearly telling you, “Now the breath is coming in, now the breath is going out.” And notice how you’re maintaining that focus. Is it a comfortable place to stay focused? Are the sensations themselves comfortable sensations? What can you do with the breath to change them if they’re …
- Your Quiet Corner… You play in the practice room so that you can master your technique, so that you can focus your attention fully on what you’re doing. Then the next step is learning how to develop the same techniques, use the same techniques, and have that same kind of focus in more and more difficult situations, where people are listening, people are watching, more and …
- Set Your Heart on the Breath… Just maintain that focus, that sense of Oneness. If the rapture seems too strong, make your focus more refined. Again, stay with the breath, the very subtle feeling of energy in the body. After a while, the stronger, disturbing side of the rapture will go away. Then there will just be ease. Your mindfulness will be really strong. Your alertness will be very strong …
- The Brightness of the World… We tend to think that the Buddha’s teachings focus on the negative side of the world. There’s that chant we have: “The world is swept away, it does not endure, it offers no shelter, there’s no one in charge.” This is a point that even newspaper writers are beginning to admit. I read a column today where the author was saying …
- Part II : Common Problems… So, focus on the breath. Get it really comfortable. Give the mind the energy it needs in order to watch the pain, to understand it. Sometimes, at the beginning of the meditation, there’s already pain in your body. This means you first have to focus instead on another area of the body where there’s not so much pain and things are more …
- A Willingness to Learn… If the mind’s been thinking too much, all you need to do is focus on one thing: the breath, the sensation of the breath coming in, the sensation of the breath going out. And make it comfortable. If the mind’s really been tired, that’s all you have to do for the hour. Just try to remember to stay with as much …
- Respect for Heedfulness… So when the Buddha has us focus on the stress and the suffering that come from clinging, it’s not that he’s trying to bad mouth the world or to deny pleasure. It’s just that there’s something better than this. And the way to find that something better is to focus on the way the mind reacts to pain. If you …
- Food for the Mind… So as you focus on that one small spot, try to keep it as steady as possible. As Ajaan Lee said in one of his talks, big things start from small things. So you focus on one spot to begin with. Once that spot is steady, then you try to take that quality of steadiness and let it flow throughout the body. In the …
- Vows… You set a goal that’s realistic but challenging, you figure out what causes, what actions, will get you there, and then you focus on those actions. You can’t practice without a goal, for otherwise everything would fall apart and you yourself would start wondering why you’re here, why you’re meditating, and why you aren’t out sitting on the beach …
- Cooking Food for the Mind… There are lots of ways you can play with the breath energy, lots of places you can focus. You can focus on your little toes if you want to. You can focus on the base of the spine—anywhere in the body, as long as you open your imagination, with the realization that breath is in every part of the body. The property of …
- Success Through Maturity… This means that you have to have an immediate focus on the present at the same time you take a long view. The immediate focus is for making sure you give full attention to what you’re doing. The long view is for learning how to read the results of your actions without getting upset over setbacks. Accept the fact that there will be …
- The Equanimity of a Victor… accepting the reality of the situation and so that you can focus on what you really want, what really needs to be done to get what you want. One of the images for equanimity the Buddha uses is an elephant in battle. It’s surrounded by all kinds of horrible things: horrible sights, sounds, smells, tastes, tactile sensations; seeing other animals being taken down …
- Fabricated Path, Unfabricated Goal… You’re here to focus on the breath, not to focus on jhana. You’re here to focus on the breath, creating a mind state that allows you to see what’s going on in the mind. And whether it reaches jhana at this particular time or not, that’s not the issue. The issue is: Can you get the mind still enough to …
- There is This… Where are those cool sensations? Which part of the body feels cooler than the others? Focus on that. As you stay with that sense of coolness, notice: Can you spread it around? This way you learn how to make use of what’s there. There is this, there is warmth, but there’s also the “this” that’s not so warm. Or you can …
- Where Perceptions Can Take You… All you have to do is focus on one of them. If you really get to know that one very thoroughly, then the other four will come running in right there: The insights you gain into the one will then apply to the other four. Very often the ajaans focus on perception as the big culprit that’s creating trouble in the mind. You …
- Heedful, Attentive, Mindful… To have appropriate attention, you focus inside—where the main dangers are, although the Buddha does recognize there are dangers from outside. But they’re not the ones you might ordinarily expect. It’s not that other people can harm you—that is a danger but it’s not the real danger. The real danger is when someone gets you to behave in ways …
- Flexibility… You focus on the causes, and the result will have to come. It’s like the sense of ease that you gain in the meditation, the sense of fullness, rapture, refreshment: As long as you focus on the cause, you’re okay. If you leave the cause and just try to hold on to the rapture, it’s like trying to grab hold of …
- Mindful All the Way… It’s just a matter of learning how to focus them on what you’re doing right here, right now. As long as what you’re doing is skillful, you don’t have to worry about the future. Just make sure you remember the good lessons you’ve learned from the past. So the main focus is right here, but it connects past and …
- The Not-Self Discourse… Just focus on the aggregate. Why is it important to focus on the aggregates? Because in the first sermon, the Buddha had already identified the aggregates, when you cling to them, as suffering. One of the ways in which you cling, of course, is through your sense of self. In fact, all the other forms of clinging can be directly related to that sense …
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