Search results for: "Focusing"

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  2. Let Pleasure & Pain Fall Off the Plow
     … So there’ll be a back and forth as the mind begins to settle down and encounters some pain and works with it, either breathing through it or just not focusing on that part of the body. Tell it, if the pain wants to be in the knee, “You can have the knee.” You’re not going to move in with it. That enables … 
  3. The Wall of Discernment
     … What’s the most effective way of breathing right now? What’s the most effective way of focusing the mind right now, so that the breath and the mind can fit snugly together? Then you try to figure out how to maintain that. This, too, is a duty of discernment. You begin to realize that even in concentration there is still some disturbance. And … 
  4. Food for the Mind
     … So when we concentrate the mind on the breath, we want to do it in such a way that the mind gets nourished, that it gains strength from being focused here and is in the proper mood for dealing with the issues that are going to come up. Because many of the issues are things we’d rather not deal with. Many of the … 
  5. The Five Faculties Confirmed
     … In a general sense, conviction is focused on the fact that there is a path to awakening. It’s like being lost in the forest but convinced that there’s a way out. When you’re convinced that there’s a way, you’re more likely to find it. Discernment is what actually finds the way. So the discernment comes from the fact that … 
  6. Self-Starting
    Self-Starting August 29, 2023 Once, when the Buddha was discussing the amazing qualities of a Buddha, he focused on things that didn’t directly have to do with him but with the people who were born during his time. He said that people usually are focused on sensuality, obsessed with sensuality, and they don’t want to hear about renunciation. But it was … 
  7. Cutting Edge Perceptions
     … If the prospect of sitting here for a whole hour focusing on the breath weighs you down, remember it’s only one breath at a time. This breath right here. This breath coming in; this breath going out. This helps keep you focused and doesn’t weigh down the present moment with more than you can handle. This principle applies in a lot of … 
  8. Choosing Freedom
     … There’s the choice of where you’re going to focus your attention and what you’re going to do with where your attention is focused. And that can make all the difference. It may seem like a big responsibility, but it’s also good news. What this means is that as the body inevitably gets older—and there’s going to be illness … 
  9. Admitting Mistakes
     … After all, when you start out, you’re focusing in the direction of stillness, stillness, stillness. When the mind does come to a certain measure of stillness, you have to watch out for sleepiness. So how do you prevent that? Well, you expand your range of awareness, give the mind work to do with the breath, to keep yourself alert, to keep yourself awake … 
  10. Permission to Play
     … Notice where you feel it, the sensations that tell you when it’s coming in and going out, and then keep your attention focused on those sensations. You have to be careful, though, in how you focus. If you put too much pressure on the breath, it starts getting constricted. If your attention to the breath is too light, it slips off and floats … 
  11. Feelings Not of the Flesh
     … You do it through focusing, say, on the breath, and then talking to yourself about the breath. How does the breath feel? Is it too long? Too short? Too fast? Too slow? What would feel good right now? As the Buddha says, you try to give rise to feelings of pleasure, give rise to a sense of refreshment or even rapture, and then you … 
  12. Humility & Confidence
     … It’s simply a matter of sensitizing yourself and exploring, trying different ways of breathing, trying different ways of focusing, seeing what works. When things aren’t working, learn to give yourself pep talks. That’s what the confidence is for. After all, the Buddha said that if this were a path that human beings couldn’t follow, he wouldn’t have taught it … 
  13. A Master of Your Thoughts
     … Or if you find that making the mind stay focused in a certain part of the body gives you a headache or gives rise to a sense of discomfort, you can focus someplace else. There’s no law that you have to stay at the nose or that the breath can be felt only at the nose. After all, the breath is the energy … 
  14. Shaping Your Life
     … The way you’re focusing on the breath right now has an impact on how you’re experiencing the breath. Your concepts about the breath, your concepts about what it means to be focused, your intention in being with the breath: All of these things shape the breath, shape your experience of the breath. You want to get sensitive to them so that you … 
  15. Appropriate Attention
     … Alertness is more focused. It’s focused on what you’re doing, either outside or inside the mind—because that’s what makes all the difference. So we’re here not because the present moment is a wonderful moment, but because there’s work to be done in this moment. And the work that makes the difference is done right here. Know and figure … 
  16. The Energy You Broadcast
     … We’re going to spend more time focusing on what we’re generating from within and sending out. We develop this ability not to simply be reactive. We can respond. The Romantics used to talk about this, of how the way the nervous system works. It’s not simply atoms coming in hitting your nerves, and then your nerves sending atoms bounding back out … 
  17. Mindful to Be Skillful
     … So that’s something else you want to keep in mind as you’re focused on the breath, as you’re focused on feelings, whatever your meditation theme: You always want to do it skillfully. And not just the meditation: With everything you do, that’s something to keep in mind. When you’re dealing with other people, you want to do it skillfully … 
  18. To Suffer Is an Active Verb
     … This is one of the reasons why the quality of alertness in mindfulness practice is focused not on the present moment in general, on whatever happens to pop up in the present moment, but specifically on what you’re doing and the results of what you’re doing. That’s where alertness is focused because that’s where the problem lies—and also where … 
  19. Straightening Out the World
     … The only way to maintain your goodness is to keep it focused where it’ll make a difference. As Ajaan Suwat once said, each of us has only one person—in other words, we’re responsible for ourselves, our own intentions. We can’t be responsible for other people’s intentions. So this is where our work has to begin: right here, right here … 
  20. Truths of the Will
     … You always want to work to keep your mind centered to make your discernment all around so that you’re not just focused on one little thing and ignoring all the other results of that one thing you’re focused on. People who studied with Ajaan Mun often commented he would see implications of things that they missed entirely. His vision was all around … 
  21. Wisdom Through Doing
     … The Buddha’s teachings are all about cause and effect, especially focused on causes coming from the mind and the effects that can either lead to more suffering or put an end to it. So that’s what you want to focus on. He’s not the sort of teacher who would talk about beings far away. He would mention them, but always in … 
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