Search results for: "Focusing"

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  2. Mental Balance
     … As long as you’re focused on your balance, you’re not going to throw the other person off. In that way, by looking after yourself, you protect the other person. The Buddha went on to say that it’s the same with the practice. When you look out after yourself, you’re looking out after others. But then he went on to say … 
  3. In the Elephant’s Footprint
     … But when he did talk about his awakening, it’s interesting to note that he always focused on one theme, which is the four noble truths. Sometimes he talked about the expansion of the four noble truths into dependent co-arising. But he never mentioned the three characteristics. He didn’t awaken to the three characteristics. He awakened to the four noble truths. And … 
  4. Other People
     … It’s not focused just on one spot. If you’re focused on one spot, sometimes it’s easy to pick up something else as well. It’s as if you have one thing in one hand but your other hand is free to pick up anything else. But if you’re with the whole body, no hands are free, not even your feet … 
  5. Cheerfully Ardent
     … I can’t get anywhere in my meditation.” A deva appears to him and says, “Do you realize how many people are on their way to hell right now, and how much they really envy you, your chance to practice?” So think in ways that lift your spirits and keep focused on the causes. If you’re not glad, try to figure out: “Where … 
  6. Respect for Suffering
     … Stay right here with your basic awareness focused on the breath coming in, the breath going out. This develops two of the main qualities that are important for developing a real foundation of mindfulness, a really solid frame of reference: mindfulness and alertness. The third quality is ardency, being ardent in your mindfulness and ardent in your alertness. Ardent in your mindfulness means that … 
  7. Skillful Selfing
     … You stay focused on the body in and of itself—and here, to do that, we’re going to take the breath as our object. You put aside greed and distress with reference to the world. In other words, anything that’s not related to the breath, anything that’s related to the world right now, just put it aside. Those are the two … 
  8. Admirable Friendship
     … From the blatant problems of aging, illness, and death, he focused in more and more and more on his mind to the point where he didn’t even talk about suffering. It was just disturbance. “What’s the disturbance in the mind? What am I doing that’s causing that disturbance?” If you can pay attention in here and ask those questions and look … 
  9. The Desire to Do Well
     … So keep that desire focused: the desire to do well, to get good results, to keep on learning. That kind of desire will see you through.
  10. Patience
     … So we do the practice, focusing on what we’re doing, rather than getting into an internal dialogue about when the results are going to come, what they’re going to be like, and how we can speed up the practice. Many times our efforts to speed things up actually get in the way. Our practice is pretty simple. Stay with the breath, allow … 
  11. The Sport of Wise People
     … The important point is that you’re focused on the sensations in the present moment. That’s what you’re thinking about and that’s what you’re evaluating. It’s not that you’re thinking about something someplace else or analyzing things in abstract terms. You’re asking very practical questions, focused on what you’re doing. How does this feel? Is this … 
  12. Practicing Your Scales
     … He focused on the big issue in life: Why is there suffering? Why do people create suffering for themselves when they want happiness? What can they do to learn to put an end to that suffering? And he focused on that issue in a way that’s still very relevant thousands of years later. As for the Sangha, he instituted an order where people … 
  13. Values
    When you focus on the breath and try to stay focused on the breath, it’s partly a matter of technique and partly a matter of your values. The technique can be explained in just a few pages—Ajaan Lee’s seven steps take just two or three pages. And they cover a lot of the territory in the technique: focusing on the breath … 
  14. What Should I Do?
     … Of course, right now, while you’re meditating, the answer to the question, “What should I do?” is to meditate—stay focused on the breath. You’re following one of the duties of the noble truths, which is to develop the path. But even there, there are choices. And the choices, as the Buddha lays them out, are useful not only for when you … 
  15. Family Ties
     … You can learn to be more alert, more mindful, more focused, more discerning, to develop greater powers of endurance. So when the Buddha talks about being a warrior, this is where the battle is fought—because this is where you can do the most good. Sometimes we think that a warrior is someone who is willing to take on any battle and doesn’t … 
  16. Up for the Challenge
     … Then beyond that, if the person can get his mind focused on the Brahma realms, then the Buddha says, “Well, remind him that even in the Brahma realms there’s a sense of self-identity. You’re identifying with things, which means that there will be suffering, but it’s possible to let that go.” This is a big challenge, letting go of this … 
  17. Gratitude to Things
     … Appreciation is for the things; gratitude is for the actions, because that focuses you on your actions, what you’re going to do in response. That’s how gratitude keeps you focused on the practice.
  18. What to Keep in Mind
     … It sets out the whole description of right mindfulness and then it simply focuses on one question: What are the different frames of reference that you can use as you’re practicing right mindfulness? It never asks any questions about what it means to be ardent as you’re doing this, or what it means to put aside greed and distress with reference to … 
  19. The Boundaries of Mindfulness
     … He has to stay focused right there on his bowl of oil. In the same way, when you’re focused on the body, you really want to stay with the body and not let yourself get dislodged from it. You want that to be your frame of reference. The Buddha talks about mindfulness of the body as a post to which six animals are … 
  20. You Can Make a Difference
     … The unskillful approach while you’re sitting here and the breath gets comfortable, is that you settle in and you fall asleep because you’ve dropped the breath and you’re focusing on the comfort—the comfort has overtaken your mind. The right way is to create a sense of comfort and then to realize that the comfort’s going to depend on maintaining … 
  21. Four Steps for the Heart & Mind
     … It may take some thinking first to get that decisive, but whatever is needed to get the mind more focused that way and more confident in its focus, think in those ways and then settle down. If any other thoughts come up, tell yourself, “Okay, I’ve already settled this issue. I don’t need to look into it.” Our problem is we think … 
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