Search results for: "Attention"

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  2. Self-Reliance
     … You don’t have to pay any attention to their meaning, don’t have to get involved with them. Just give as much attention as you can to the breathing. This way, you’re giving less food to those thoughts. Sometimes even paying attention to the thoughts to the extent of wanting to blot them out: That feeds them. So here you’re starving … 
  3. Encouragement
     … So this reflection focuses your attention on your actions. Your actions are going to make the difference between whether you suffer or not. Then when the Buddha recommends that you extend the reflection out to all beings everywhere, he said that it gives rise to the path. In other words, you develop a sense of what’s called samvega, a strong sense of dismay … 
  4. Hypocrisy
     … It’s interesting to notice how much attention the Buddha gives to the little things. This is why we have the Vinaya for the monks—all the rules that, at first glance, seem really obsessive. But they point to an important issue: that if the mind is really well trained, if the mind really is in a solid state of well-being, that fact … 
  5. Centered in the Body
     … Will that first man allow his attention to be distracted by the beauty queen or by the crowd? The answer, of course, is No, because he knows he would die. We should try to practice our mindfulness of the body with the same attitude: If our mindfulness slips, our goodness will die. Whatever the situation, keep yourself in the body, be in touch with … 
  6. Concentration & Renunciation
     … As the Buddha said, it’s active attention to the breath, consistent attention to the breath, that allows the breath to become more smooth. And as the breath grows smoother, then the energy that comes from the in-and-out breathing that suffuses the body gets more and more refined. The more refined it is, the more it can penetrate. Ajaan Lee’s image … 
  7. Hunker Down
     … In fact, it’s best to focus 99.44% of your attention on the breath. Leave just a little bit for the talk. If something is relevant to your situation, relevant to your meditation, it’ll come right in, without your having to send your mind out to focus on the talk. As for anything that’s not relevant to your meditation, just let … 
  8. Responsible for Your Goodness
     … Of course, one of the big causes that keeps these things going is that you’re paying attention to them. You want to get involved in them. So you learn how not to pay attention to them. You starve them. Then all these distractions and other things that pull you away from centering in on the mind don’t have a foundation. They slip … 
  9. The Right Focal Length
     … But given the normal ups and down of human life—when you’re dealing with difficult people, where you’re dealing with limitations of having a body, and the fact that you’re a human being living in a human realm—you really have to focus your primary attention inside, to see what it is in the mind that keeps complaining. What is it … 
  10. Preparing to Meditate
     … So, watch out for the mind when it’s in that state, looking for something else to do, beginning to get a little bit bored with the breath, not paying so much attention anymore. If the breath gets boring, it’s because you’re not paying careful attention. At the very least you’re missing some of the subtleties of the breath. And at … 
  11. Admit Your Stupidity
     … Of course, the discernment there becomes the internal quality, what the Buddha calls appropriate attention. It’s a matter of asking the right questions, questions that help you understand where you’re creating unnecessary suffering and how you can put an end to that. That, for the Buddha, was the big issue in life, the big issue he wanted to address after his awakening … 
  12. The Art of Right Speech
     … So the question was, how was he going to deal with that? And his approach was, after the office volleyball game, before the heart-to-heart talk, he noticed he had everybody’s attention, and so he said, “I want to comment on what fine Christians you are in not giving me a hard time about my being a Buddhist.” There was no heart … 
  13. Paying Off Your Debts
     … All too often, we obscure our own luminosity by paying attention to things outside, not to things inside, paying attention to what other people do and not to what we’re doing. But the Buddha’s discovery was that you have to pay very close attention to what you’re doing. You reflect on what you’re doing. You commit yourself to doing the … 
  14. Why Limit Yourself?
     … So he started paying attention to his intentions. He was able to sort out what was skillful, and what was not. He finally arrived at awakening. That attention to his intentions, he later taught as analysis of qualities, one of the factors for awakening. It’s precisely the factor that brings an end to doubt, an end to the unwillingness to believe that there … 
  15. Calm in the Storm
     … If you don’t feel much energy flow, just notice what aspects you do notice, and pay attention there. Gradually, as the mind settles down, you begin to sense other areas as well. We’re trying to give the mind a good solid place where it can settle down and stay with a sense of interest, because this will keep you in touch with … 
  16. The Languages of the Mind
     … Here we’re working on a whole vocabulary of concepts to deal with the breath, as a way of anchoring us in the present moment, so that we can watch it, feel at home here, feel comfortable here, and also begin to understand what’s going on, especially in terms of this issue of intention and attention, and the results of your intentions and … 
  17. In Terms of the Four Noble Truths
    The Buddha once said that there’s no one internal quality more useful for awakening than appropriate attention: asking the right questions, looking at things in the right light. And appropriate attention essentially comes down to seeing things in terms of the four noble truths. And the truths here are not issues of just saying, “Well, there is suffering, there is the cause, there … 
  18. Like an Athlete in Training
     … Now when you walk into a modern supermarket, it’s very tempting just to grab whatever attracts your attention. There’s so much. But you realize, if you grab everything, one, you’ll go broke. At the same time, there’s a lot of stuff in there that’s bad for you. So there are two things to keep in mind when you go … 
  19. A Self Rightly Directed
     … Direct your attention inside, and remind yourself that whatever happens in the world, the really important things that you’re going to be taking with you when you leave this world are the qualities you develop in your mind. And it’s not as if you’re just taking, taking, taking from the world and running away. To develop those good qualities, you have … 
  20. Intelligence of the Heart
     … Part of the mind will say, “There are other things I’d rather do.” You have to ask yourself, “These other things, how many of them really are worth it?” There are some things that you have to do that require your full attention, so you give them your full attention. There are a lot of things you can do, though, that don’t … 
  21. Truth Without Air Quotes
     … There are intentions, acts of attention—choosing what to focus on, what not to focus on—perceptions; all kinds of things shaping the things we’re going to see and hear and taste and touch and smell, even before they happen. So no wonder we’re dubious as we get conscious of these different factors and see how they shape even basic things like … 
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