Search results for: "Focus"
- Page 21
- 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 …
- Healing Breath… He doesn’t say where you focus on the breath. Actually, you can focus anywhere in the body where you feel the sensation of breathing. And you try to become sensitive to variations in the breath, noticing when the breath longer, when it’s shorter, when it’s deeper, or when it’s more shallow, when it’s heavier or lighter. Notice the effect …
- Don’t Limit Yourself… As for concentration, you keep your focus. With concentration, you’re trying to keep your focus going as long as possible. And again, it enables you to see things you didn’t see before. It gives strength to the mind, gives a sense of well-being to the mind. You start knowing things about the mind that you didn’t think you could know …
- Reflect on What You’re Doing… One, you focus on an object in and of itself, like the body in and of itself or the breath in and of itself. And two, you put aside greed and distress with reference to the world. In other words, you focus exclusively on the breath, as it is right now, without reference to anything outside at all. Just what have you got here …
- Mind Reading… You can focus on one, and the lessons you learn about one particular aggregate will then seep into the others. Perception tends to be the aggregate they focus on most. What image are you holding in mind? How do you understand what’s going on there? Which images are you holding that are useful, which ones are you holding on to that are not …
- 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 …
- 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 …
- 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 …
- 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 …
- Load next page...
