Search results for: "Focusing"

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  2. A Strong Mind
     … When you’re developing the mind, you’re not sitting here focusing directly on the mind. You’re focusing on the breath. Or you can focus on the meditation word, buddho. You give the mind something to work with, to come back to repeatedly, because in the course of sticking with that one object, you’ve got to develop certain qualities. You don’t … 
  3. An Admirable Friend — In Memory of Luang Loong
     … There are all kinds of things we could be doing on a Friday night, but we’re here focusing on our breath. Learn to squeeze some concentration, squeeze some mindfulness, squeeze some discernment out of the fact that we have a body that can breathe and a mind that can think and be aware: taking these very basic qualities and gaining the most from … 
  4. Protection, Inside & Out
     … Appropriate attention focuses attention on questions of: What is skillful? What is not skillful? If something unskillful comes up, how do you get rid of it in an effective way? This you learn from listening to others and also from observing yourself. In fact, as the Buddha said, right view—appropriate attention—can come from two things. One is from outside influences. Someone else … 
  5. The Problem of Suffering
     … You’re focusing on the breath coming in, going out. The teachings on the four noble truths, all the various ways of expressing the path, relate to what you’re doing right now. The important thing is what you’re doing. You pick up the Buddha’s teachings as they become necessary, as they become useful. But the first thing is to get the … 
  6. Expanding Your Skill Set
     … And keep it focused in a way that feels just right, not putting too much pressure on it, but also not being so light that you easily slip away. The traditional image is of holding a baby chick in your hand. If you squeeze the chick, you kill it. If you hold it too loosely, it flies away. So you’ve got to hold … 
  7. Capable
     … You keep focused on the body in and of itself—ardent, alert, and mindful—putting aside greed and distress with reference to the world. So you stay with the breath. That’s part of the body and it’s already there. What’s going to make a difference is developing those three qualities of mindfulness, alertness, and ardency. Mindfulness is the ability to keep … 
  8. How the Tree Leans
     … You can be sitting here very still with the mind focused on the present moment. But the present moment keeps changing. The present moment you were focused on just a few seconds ago is gone. The mind is leaning in different directions. As the Buddha said, based on the thoughts that you encourage in your mind, it’s going to lean in that direction … 
  9. You’re Doing Something Wrong
     … either specific perceptions and feelings that you’re focusing on, or the way you’re focusing. That’s where you’re doing something wrong. Which is why you want to evaluate what you’re doing as you’re sitting here watching your breath. When you can admit your mistakes, that, the Buddha said, is a cause for growth in the Dhamma and Vinaya. The … 
  10. Unattractive
    As Ajaan Fuang used to say, the breath is the basis of our skill here, and concentration focused on the breath is the safest of all the concentration practices. It’s the one where you can see most clearly the stages of jhana as the mind settles down. You can see the different kinds of fabrication: bodily, verbal, mental. Bodily, being the breath itself … 
  11. Stick to Your Duties
     … We’re focusing on developing right concentration through right mindfulness and right effort—all of the concentration factors of the path. Make up your mind you’re going to stay with the breath and put aside any other thoughts that have to do with the world. Whatever the world is doing out there right now, that’s not your business. Your business is the … 
  12. Meditation as Play
     … In his instructions on how to focus on the mind while you’re focusing on the breath, there’s nothing that says, “I’ll now breathe in, making the mind grim. I’ll breathe out, making the mind grim.” The instructions are, “I’ll breathe in and out, gladdening the mind.” And how do you gladden the mind? You approach the meditation with an … 
  13. In Accordance with the Dhamma
     … Because he offers different views, different ways for doing things, a different sense of self, but focused on the doing: practicing generosity, practicing virtue, developing concentration, developing your discernment. He gives very clear instructions on how to do these things. So you want to clear away all the encumbrances that get in the way of really focusing where the problem is: your own clinging … 
  14. The Four Noble Truths from Within
     … As you’re focusing on the breath, it’s good to remember that we’re not here worried about the air that scientists might be able to measure coming in and out through the nose. We’re concerned with the flow of energy in the body that we feel directly, because it’s something we can adjust. This process of adjusting our experience, having … 
  15. Adjusting the Flame
     … So you get focused on one thing, get interested in it, and then do your best to make sure that the mind doesn’t drift off either into excess energy or deficient energy. If you have too much energy, the mind is going to want to leave. One of the ways of dealing with that is to focus on the sense of ease that … 
  16. Breath Meditation: The Second Tetrad
     … If you’re focusing on your hands, allow it to spread up the arms. If you’re focusing on your feet, of course, allow it to spread up the legs. Let the breath find whatever rhythm allows that sense of fullness to spread up from those parts. Other people find that a sense of fullness starts in the middle of the chest. Again, allow … 
  17. Strength of Discernment
     … I was talking with someone this morning who was concerned that she was too focused on her work. She has a job where she actually can continue working, and she wasn’t thinking too much about all the people out there in the world who are suffering from the quarantine right now, so she wondered if she was in denial. So I asked her … 
  18. Giving Weight
     … You try to be very clear about where your awareness is focused. You make that focal point the really important issue. Normally, you focus on one thing but then something pulls you away, and you run after it. Your mind becomes a slave, like a dog running after whatever captures its attention. It’s under the power of all the things around you. As … 
  19. Karma-ism
     … What does it mean for things to be *going on? *How do things *go on? *And in particular, what are we contributing to the going on of things? This is why meditation focuses on the mind. Not just to get the mind into pleasant states: You attain the pleasant states so that you can understand, “Exactly what is the mind doing? How does it … 
  20. The World Does Not Endure
     … One is to keep focused on what he calls the body in and of itself: the body as you have it right here, and not the body in the world. You’re not concerned with how it looks. You’re not concerned with how strong it is, how young it is. You’re concerned just with, “What is it like having a body right … 
  21. The Forerunner of All Things
     … This is why we’re focused on the breath, because the breath is right near the mind. I’ve heard sometimes people say “What are you going to do when you die? You’ve been focusing on your breath all your whole life, but the breath is going to leave you.” The reason we focus on the breath is not to get the breath … 
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