Search results for: "Attention"

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  2. Take Responsibility for Yourself
     … You’re not paying careful attention enough. So try to develop that attitude of paying careful attention both inside and out. This is one of the reasons why in the old days in the forest tradition things were not all that explained. You had to look at what other people were doing. If you weren’t sure what to be doing, well, watch when … 
  3. To Depend on Yourself
     … Pay careful attention to your intentions before you act, before you speak, before you think. I know a lot of people who think that’s a big trouble. I’ve heard people say, “Why so much attention on little things like this? Why don’t we just open up to the large oneness around us and let it do its work, do its magic … 
  4. The Best News in the World
     … Heedful in the sense of realizing that if you don’t really pay careful attention to what you’re doing, you’re putting yourself into danger. But if you do pay careful attention, you can avoid dangers. Ardent in willing to do whatever needs to be done. As he said, his quest was the quest for what is skillful. Whatever was skillful, he would … 
  5. Cause & Effect Right Now
     … Because all too often all our attention goes to the stress and we miss the action. We’re looking in the wrong place. This is one of the reasons why when awakening comes it does come suddenly but it’s not totally sudden. The Buddha compared it to the continental shelf off of India: There’s a gradual slope and then a sudden drop … 
  6. Laying the Infrastructure
     … That’s where the work is to be done—not in your anticipation of where you’re going to go, but in paying really close attention to the breath right here and now. This is your path. If you spend all your time looking off to the horizon to see the big mountain we’re headed to, you lose sight of where you’re … 
  7. Taking Responsibility
     … It’s just that you’re not paying careful attention enough, and your attention is not enough all around. But those qualities can be developed if you take responsibility for them. This is a path that’s all about being responsible. That’s what the story of the Buddha’s quest for awakening was about: It’s a path of being responsible. We simply … 
  8. Truths of the Will
     … The Buddha talks of a quality called appropriate attention—yoniso manasikara, is the Pali term. Basically it means looking at things in the right way. And that’s something you can will. Looking at things the right way basically means looking at them in terms of the four noble truths, looking at the world in terms of suffering and the cause of suffering, the … 
  9. Inconstancy
    Try to keep your attention constantly with the breath, all the way in, all the way out. This is what makes the meditation special. Otherwise, you’re with the breath a little bit, and then you’re someplace else. Then back again, then someplace else. That’s the way your mind normally acts. Try to train it in new habits: the habit of staying … 
  10. Kind & Happy
     … And pay careful attention to how the breathing feels. Where in the body do you notice the sensation of breathing? In other words, we’re not just talking here about that air coming in and out of the lungs, but the feeling of the whole body breathing. There’s an energy flow that goes through the body that brings the air in and then … 
  11. Noble Priorities
     … The media keep pointing our attention over there, over there, over there, whereas the Buddha is saying, No, the place you really should pay attention is in here. So as you practice in the world, you have to realize that your priorities have to be different from the priorities of the world. It’s in this way that the Dhamma is counter-cultural not … 
  12. Dealing with Pain
     … One, don’t pay any attention to the pain; pay attention to the breath. Two, use the breath, what you’ve learned of the breath energy in the body, to breathe through the pain. And then three, analyze the pain in terms of those aggregates, those activities that turn the physical pain into a mental pain, so that you can release the mind from … 
  13. Food, Shelter & Work
     … Now focus your attention on the breath. As you breathe in, take a couple of good, long, deep in-and-out breaths, and notice where you feel the breathing in the body. Think of the breath not so much as the air coming in and out through the nose, but as the movement of energy in the body. Where do you feel that energy … 
  14. Choosing & Watching Your Choices
    Focus your attention on the breath. Take a couple of good, long in-and-out breaths and notice where you feel the sensation of breathing most clearly. When we talk of the breath, it’s not necessarily the air, although that may be the prime thing you notice first. It’s more the energy in the body, the process of breathing itself. What is … 
  15. Asking the Right Questions
     … And see if you can ask the right questions—because it’s that combination of careful looking and knowing how to ask the right questions that counts as appropriate attention. That’s how the Buddha defines appropriate attention: learning how to focus on the right questions and put irrelevant questions aside. That’s when you see things you didn’t see before. Everything you … 
  16. Alertness: What Are You Doing?
     … It’s very focused in placing most of its attention on your actions. You see this aspect of alertness all the way through the practice. When the Buddha was introducing the practice to his son, Rahula, he started out by saying that you’ve got to be truthful, and then told him how to be observant—specifically, how to be observant of his intentions … 
  17. Instruct, Urge, Rouse, & Encourage Yourself
     … And give a lot of attention to the Buddha’s shoulds. You should try to comprehend suffering, you should try to abandon its cause, you should try to realize the cessation of suffering by doing what you really should do, which is to develop the path. That’s where you want to urge, rouse, and encourage yourself. Now again, the Buddha sets out those … 
  18. Training in Commitment & Reflection
     … Wherever it feels most prominent, focus your attention there. Then ask yourself if it’s comfortable. “Comfortable” can depend on the state of your body and mind right now. If you’re feeling tense, you’ll want to breathe in a way that’s more relaxing. If your energy level is low, you’ll want to breathe in a way that gives you more … 
  19. The Path Requires Effort
     … First, while you’re practicing with the breath, focus your attention on where the breath seems most obvious, so that you know: Now the breath is going in; now the breath is going out. And stick with it. It’s the sticking-with-it that makes all the difference. Sometimes you hear people say, “I’ve done a little concentration. I know what it … 
  20. Inner Poise
     … If you’re paying attention to your concentration, you’re also helping other people by not interfering with theirs. It’s interesting to think about how the preliminary basic factors of concentration are also the basic factors of speech: directed thought and evaluation. In other words, you bring a topic to mind and then you evaluate it. That’s the process by which the … 
  21. Clearing Your Space
     … There will be some members who just keep talking, and they’re not going to stop, but the reason why they don’t stop is because you’re paying attention to them. So, let them chatter, let them speak as much as they want. You just don’t focus there. You focus on some other part in the mind. Your attention to these thoughts … 
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