Search results for: "Focus"

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  2. Balancing the Bases for Concentration
     … So focus on being with the breath. After a while, you may find that there’s a problem. The mind doesn’t settle down the way you want it to. Okay, ask: Why is it? It might have to do with the way you focus. So you can try changing your focus to a different part of the body. It might have to do … 
  3. The Boundaries of Mindfulness
     … We’re sometimes told that mindfulness is a broad, open, accepting mind state that doesn’t really choose what to focus on, doesn’t really choose what to like or dislike. It has no boundaries at all. But the Buddha makes it very clear that when you meditate, you have boundaries. There are proper and improper places to focus your attention. He gives several … 
  4. How to Straighten Out the World
     … So focus your energy on what you can do and leave aside what you can’t. The Buddha’s definition of a wise person is one who realizes that what lies in your power really are your tasks. You focus on those. You don’t take on jobs, you don’t take on tasks that you really can’t do. They’re really not … 
  5. The Brahmaviharas on the Path
     … If you realize that there’s nothing you can do to help them or the situation that you yourself are encountering, then the kindest thing is to develop equanimity toward the things you can’t change, which frees you to focus on the things you can. So goodwill underlies all four of the brahmaviharas. It’s the essential one. It helps you maintain your … 
  6. Explore & Experiment
    As you focus on the breath, try to think of it going all the way down to your feet. Obviously, this is not the air coming in and out through the nose. It’s the flow of energy in the body. It’s a part of our awareness that tends to get obscured because we’re interested in other things. All the interesting things … 
  7. Minding Your Own Business
    When you meditate, you’re learning to mind your own business, to focus on where your real responsibilities really lie. Normally, we’re like people whose own houses are in a mess but, instead of cleaning up their own houses, they go out and they tell other people to clean up theirs. They’re afraid of a rat infestation or a bug infestation, so … 
  8. Laying the Infrastructure
     … Just stay with this one focus on the breath. There’ll be other distractions, too. There’ll be pains in the body here and there, but you don’t have to focus on them. Try to make the breath as comfortable as possible. You can let the pain have whichever part of the body it’s going to have. You don’t have to … 
  9. The Wheel of Dhamma
     … And again, the purpose of that teaching is to get you to focus on the four noble truths. How so? Well, if there’s no self there in the senses, nothing there really is you, then what’s arising and passing away? The Buddha says to focus on the fact that it’s simply stress arising and stress passing away. That gets you back … 
  10. Sort Things Out
     … When you focus everything on being right here with the breath, try to notice when you breathe in: Where do you feel it? It may not be in the same place that you think you should feel it, but notice. This is how you learn things, by putting your preconceived notions aside and just looking at what’s actually happening. So: When you breathe … 
  11. The Knife of Discernment
     … There are all kinds of things you could focus on right now. It’s up to you to choose the right place to focus, the right place to feed. So look around in the body. Where is a comfortable place? At what spot can you watch the breath clearly and comfortably? Try to stay in touch with that place — and stay in touch with … 
  12. Strong-hearted
    When you focus your attention on the breath, you’re focusing on something that only you can know—how you feel the breathing from inside, how you feel your awareness from inside—because this is where the problem is, and this is where the solution will be found. The problem is that we act in unskillful ways. We let greed, aversion, and delusion take … 
  13. Kind & Happy
     … So focus on the breath. How does it feel when it comes in? How does it feel when it goes out? Keep watch on the breath. And keep the breath in mind. In other words, don’t forget the breath. It’s so easy you focus on the breath once or twice and then go wandering off to tomorrow, wandering back into the past … 
  14. Oneness
     … After the fourth jhana, you drop the perception of the form of the body — the still breath allows you to do this — and you can focus on the sense of space permeating the mist of sensations that remains. After that perception of space is unwavering, you turn to focus on what’s aware of the space. That puts you into the dimension of the … 
  15. A Good Place to Not-Self
     … So you want to turn around and focus on the source. Make sure the source is creating something good, and everything else will get taken care of. The source is right here, which is why we meditate right here. We don’t meditate on big abstractions. We focus on something simple like the breath. It’s right here, right next to the mind. When … 
  16. Coming into the Present
     … What are you going to do with them? Are they useful to focus on or not? As Ajaan Lee pointed out, you can really get the mind into a good state of concentration if you focus on them as “breath” as well. In other words, you change your perception. You change the way the mind thinks of the breathing process and labels the different … 
  17. Wise about Pain
     … In the very beginning, you don’t focus on them. Try to focus on the parts of the body that you can make comfortable by the way you breathe. But the question sometimes comes up: To what extent do you work with pains or try to get rid of them? This is where one of the basic principles of wisdom comes in. As the … 
  18. Stay Tuned
     … So let’s focus on the body in and of itself, the sensation of having a body here right now, the sensation of warmth, coolness, motion, solidity. Try to stay focused on that level. Any images or sensations or notions from other levels, just let them go, let them pass. They are going to be here, but you don’t have to focus on … 
  19. Outside of the Box
     … They can sit down, focus on the breath, and stay with the breath with no problem at all. The other type of tree is one in the middle of the forest whose branches are entangled with the branches of the trees around it. If you want to cut that one down, you’ve got to use a lot of strategy: learn how to cut … 
  20. Exercising Discernment
     … Once you’ve determined that this looks like a road that’s going to go to the mountain, you focus your attention on the road. Check every now and then to make sure that the mountain isn’t suddenly appearing in your rearview mirror. But otherwise you focus your attention right in front of you, on the road. The road doesn’t lead you … 
  21. Anchored in the Present
     … In fact, when the Buddha talks about the best way to develop all four of them, he says to focus on the breath. He doesn’t say that when you’ve had enough of the breath, then you drop the breath and focus on feelings or mind or whatever. You basically stay with the breath all the way through. It’s part of the … 
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