Search results for: "Focus"

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  2. Construction Techniques
     … The fact that they’re actually related is one of the reasons why we focus on the present moment—not because it’s the only thing there is, but because it’s where things start. After all, any bodily action you do is going to start with the breath. Any verbal action will start with directed thought and evaluation. Any mental action will start … 
  3. This Fathom-Long Body
     … We think that we focus on the breath, we focus on the body, for the time being as we get the mind calmed down, and then we want to move on to more abstract and deeper topics for the sake of insight. But if the abstraction gets away from the body, it loses its grounding. And it gets away from where our real world … 
  4. Everything’s Right There
    We focus on the breath because when the mind is focused on the breath, everything you need to know to put an end to suffering is right here. You’re at the right spot. It’s simply a matter of getting used to it, realizing the potentials all around you right here, both in the body and in the mind. In the body, you … 
  5. Shoulds & Ideals
     … Sometimes you focus on what you can comprehend in terms of the stress or suffering; other times you have to focus on the qualities you need to develop. If your mindfulness is weak, if you have trouble keeping things in mind, well, you work at developing it, making it stronger. Every time you realize you’ve slipped off away from the breath, come back … 
  6. Choiceful Awareness
     … Whatever the topic is of your concentration that allows you to have a sense of well-being, focus there. And don’t be afraid of getting attached to it. If you don’t have an attachment here, you’re going to go back to your old attachments. Choose to breathe in a way or choose to focus in a way that gives rise to … 
  7. Just One Person
     … So you focus on the areas where you can do something. The prime area is right here—right here in the heart. So focus your attention here. Bring the heart and mind to the breath and watch it very carefully. If there’s anything disturbing the mind, just let it go. As the Buddha said, try to be committed to relinquishment because it’s … 
  8. The Buddha’s Secret Weapon
     … Find the right amount of pressure for your focus—not so weak that you start drifting off, and not so heavy that it starts interfering with the breathing. Try to get a sense of what breathing feels best. This may involve playing with the length of the breath, the heaviness of the breath, or your sense of how the breath comes in and out … 
  9. De-domesticated
     … So our focus now is primarily inward. As we keep that focus, I wouldn’t say we’ve become undomesticated, because we’ve been domesticated enough, many, many times. We’re de-domesticating ourselves. As a meditator, you’re a de-domesticated person. Your values are very different from the values of the home life. And you want to maintain that. Keep that vision … 
  10. Appropriate Attention
     … Everybody goes through the process of finding that you focus on the breath and then all of a sudden you’re someplace else—as if someone had come up with a big sack and put it over your head, dragged you off, and then dumped you out of the sack someplace else. You wonder how you got there. Well, you have to find your … 
  11. Cutting Through the Hype
     … That makes it unpleasant, so that instead of keeping us here, the clamping down—as soon as we lose our focus or have a lapse of mindfulness—makes us bounce off even stronger. So think of it more as simply keeping in touch with the breath. You’re not trying to squeeze the breath or grab it. Just touch it. When I was first … 
  12. Tending the Flame
     … There’s fire, so ask yourself, “Where in the body is the warmest spot right now?” Focus there and then think of it intensifying and then spreading from that spot, in the same way that the breath energy would spread from the spot where you were focused on it. If things start getting too hot inside the body, then you can think of water … 
  13. Skill
     … You’re going to focus on the breath, and as for any other intention that comes up right now, you don’t need it. And one of the skills you have to learn as you meditate is how to ward off those other intentions. They are going to come. Don’t get upset when they do, just see it as a challenge. Again, it … 
  14. The Burning House
    The Burning House May 4, 2016 We focus on the present moment so that we give the mind a sense of feeling at home here. This is the place where you belong. Now, for most of us, we don’t live here. We live in the past, we live in the future, and come running through the present moment just for a moment, like … 
  15. The Skill of Happiness
     … Is it comfortable? What kind of breathing would be comfortable right now? And you also evaluate your focus: Where’s a good place to focus? You can focus on the tip of the nose, the base of the throat, the middle of the chest, just above the navel—anyplace where you can clearly notice now the breath is coming in, now it’s going … 
  16. There’s Work to Be Done
     … You simply focus on the comfort, ignore the breath, and you blur out. That’s a lack of mindfulness, a lack of alertness, a lack of ardency. Always keep those three qualities uppermost in your mind. These are the things you’re working on right now. Your focus is on the breath, but you’re also trying to bring good qualities of the mind … 
  17. The Brightness of Life
     … We focus on the breath. We focus on thoughts that are nourishing for the mind, because they give us strength. As long as the mind still feels the need to feed and as long as it’s still hungry, let’s give it good healthy food: the healthy food of right effort, right mindfulness, right concentration, right view—all the right factors that we … 
  18. Customs of the Noble Ones
     … You have to want to do it—but you have to learn how to focus your desire properly. If all you can think about is the results, nothing gets done. Nothing gets accomplished. Focus your desire on the causes. You want the mind to settle down and be still, but the cause for stillness is staying with the breath. So focus your desire on … 
  19. Seeds of Becoming
     … The Buddha commented on how, in getting to know other people—getting to know their virtue, their resilience, their honesty, their wisdom—you have to focus on the right aspects of their behavior and you have to be observant. That takes a lot of time. Well, the same point applies to your own mind. You have to focus at the right spots, where craving … 
  20. Strength of Concentration
     … And what do we talk to ourselves about? The formula says that we should put aside all thoughts of sensuality, all concerns about the sensual pleasures today, sensual pleasures tomorrow, and we’re going to focus on three things. The themes of right concentration are the frames of reference in establishing mindfulness, and the three big frames you’re going to be focused on … 
  21. Mindfulness: The Whole Formula
     … how you put things together, how you put names on things, how you come up with thoughts, how you focus on feelings. Sometimes you focus on feelings in a way that makes them worse than they have to be. Or you can blot them out entirely. There’s a lot going on inside, so there’s a lot to see. So you want to … 
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