Search results for: "Focusing"

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  2. A Refuge in Mindfulness
     … like we’re practicing right now, focused on the body in and of itself—in other words, focused on the breath as you’re feeling it right now—the body in and of itself, as opposed to the body in the world. The body in the world is when you’re thinking about whether the body’s up to the work you have to … 
  3. Disenchantment
     … You get more and more focused on the path. Once you get all of your desires for food focused in the path and then can see that it, too, is not really worthy of contentment, that’s when the mind will finally be really inclined toward the unfabricated, going against its old habits of wanting to feed here and feed there. But again, this … 
  4. Antidotes for Clinging
     … That’s precisely the stress the Buddha is focusing on. That’s the important one to notice. Always try to be clear about this distinction. The real problem isn’t the aggregates, it’s the clinging. And the word clinging has a double meaning. It can also mean the act of feeding on something. Where we cling is where we look to feed for … 
  5. Looking for Happiness Inside
     … You put it together by focusing on some feelings here or focusing on perceptions there or thinking about this, evaluating that, noticing this, noticing that. The things you notice, the things you pay attention to are going to shape your experience. What you try to do is to deconstruct these things so that you can see subtler and subtler layers of stillness inside, and … 
  6. The Power of the Will
     … It has to be turned into the will of right effort, the chanda of right effort, the chanda of the bases for success, focused on the causes. The causes for samsara are inside, and the causes for getting out of samsara are inside as well. So we have to look in here to straighten things out. It’s not a matter of simply watching … 
  7. Your Inner Ally
     … Then when the breath starts getting comfortable, what do you do then? We talked earlier this morning about delusion concentration, where things get comfortable and you leave the breath and start focusing on the sense of pleasure. You don’t want to destroy the sense of pleasure. You just stay with the breath. You know the pleasure is right there, but that’s not … 
  8. To Begin the Day
     … So, stay focused on the breath. Think of the whole body breathing in, the whole body breathing out. You may want to build up to this section by section, and a good place to start is down around the navel. Locate that part of the body in your awareness. Watch it for a while as you breathe in and breathe out to see what … 
  9. Abandoning & Developing
     … If you find that your sensual desire is being aggravated, you have to ask yourself, “What am I focusing on in the wrong way?” Usually you find that it’s something you really want. All you can think about is how much you want it and all of its good characteristics, without looking at the drawbacks of actually having whatever that is. You have … 
  10. Specifics
     … If you find yourself, say, focusing on a particular part of somebody’s body, well, focus on the area around it inside the body. You begin to see that it’s not so much lust in general, it’s your habit of focusing on certain things and blocking other things out, then bring in other information to counteract it, bring in the real facts … 
  11. Friends Inside & Out
     … You’re not really focused on “What am I doing right now? What can I change? What’s the actual path that will lead to the results.” It’s like seeing a city on the horizon that you want to go to and focusing all your attention on that as you’re driving there. Of course, you’re going to run into people or … 
  12. All Your Old Baggage
     … noticing what you’re doing with the breath; how you’re focusing on it and which ways of focusing, which ways of conceiving of the breath, are helpful and which ones are not. And then just sticking with it. That’s really all you have to carry right now. All your other baggage you can put aside. If it really has useful things it … 
  13. “My Way”
     … Keep your attention focused there more than outside. Our media nowadays tend to focus on everything outside. We almost live in the screens of our hand-held devices or our computers or whatever. And the important people seem to be the ones who are in the screens. But they’re not. The important person is the person holding the screen. What is this person … 
  14. 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 … 
  15. As They’ve Come to Be
     … You’ve got a sense of “you” right here, where you’re focused. The world in which you’re focused at the moment is the world of your awareness of the body. That particular becoming is going to be really useful for stepping out of other becomings. Because, you know, in the Buddha’s descriptions of establishing mindfulness there are two activities. One is … 
  16. 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 … 
  17. 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 … 
  18. 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 … 
  19. 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 … 
  20. 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 … 
  21. 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 … 
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