Search results for: "Focus"

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  2. Learning by Doing
     … Is there a part of the body you can focus on and not tense it up? I knew someone once who found that the only place she could focus in the body without tensing up was down at the base of the spine, so she had to start there. The point is, though, that as you create the state of concentration, you’re creating … 
  3. Respect for Concentration
     … Sometimes it seems like we’re going against the Buddha’s teachings on inconstancy, stress, and not self when we focus on putting the mind in a state that’s constant, easeful, and ours. We get really absorbed in this sense of oneness and we come to identify with it, both with the stillness and with the object of the stillness as well. It … 
  4. Sending Happiness
     … the way you breathe, the way you talk to yourself in directed thought and evaluation, the feelings you focus on, the perceptions you focus on. What needs to be changed? You can change the way you breathe. How do you direct your thoughts to the breath? How do you evaluate the breath? Or if you find that the mind isn’t willing to settle … 
  5. Virtue, Concentration, Discernment
     … What are its values? And how harmless is the commentator? The commentator will learn how to focus on other parts of the mind—as you’re going through the day, as you’re sitting in meditating—but also, it has to learn how to focus on itself, it has to train itself. For instance, it may be focusing on the fact that the pressure … 
  6. The Perception of Space
     … She tried to focus here, and couldn’t stay here; tried to focus there, and couldn’t stay there. There was no place in the body at all where she could find any comfortable focus. Then, she said, she thought of space—the space around the body; the space permeating through the body. So she focused totally on the perception of space and let … 
  7. Protecting Your Space
     … It’s just a matter of noticing—when you see that focusing on certain things gives more energy to your greed or more energy to your anger—that you learn not to focus on those things. You focus on other things. Or you look at the same thing in a different way. Say there’s a picture that gives rise to lust. Think about … 
  8. On the Path of the Breath
     … And to help yourself along, you might try making the breath more comfortable wherever you focus. For example, as you focus on the back of the neck, notice: Is there tension there? When you breathe in do you build up tension there? When you breathe out are you holding on to tension? What can you do to relax it? This is actually moving into … 
  9. Quiet in Every Way
     … There has to be a focus—the focus of a hunter. Anthropologists say that when they try to pick up the skills of primitive tribes, these are the hardest of all—the skills of a hunter—because being a hunter requires so much mind/body discipline. So we need to be disciplined, even though it takes effort, for we’re here hunting the deathless … 
  10. Timeless Practice
     … That’s where we focus our attention: on the path. It starts with right view and goes to right resolve, right speech, right action, right livelihood, right effort, right mindfulness, right concentration. These are things we try to develop. In the course of developing them, we learn how to comprehend suffering and we learn how to abandon craving, so the focus is on the … 
  11. Levels of the Breath
     … What you’re going to notice depends on which one you focus on; and which one you focus on is going to determine how strong and steady and precise your concentration can be. First you work with the in-and-out breath, which is the easiest to observe and can get the mind to a certain level of concentration, but the in-and-out … 
  12. Always Observe Your Mind
     … So if you really have conviction in the Buddha’s awakening, it means you have to focus on your mind, because the mind in the present moment has a lot of power. The same with the principle of virtue: When you take the precepts, you’re basically setting up an intention, and your intention is what’s going to make all the difference. If … 
  13. The Buddha’s Protection
     … To maintain your focus here and to put aside all unskillful thoughts, the Buddha recommends developing three qualities. The first is mindfulness itself—the ability to keep something in mind. Once you’ve made up your mind to stay with the breath, you remember that, you hold on to that. At the same time, you remember from your past experiences, when disturbances come up … 
  14. Keeping Your Head
     … In other words, you need to have your priorities as to what’s important, what’s not important, and focus on what’s important. As the Buddha said, the sign of a wise person is realizing the duties that fall to you and focusing on those duties, and not taking on duties that don’t really fall to you. And one of your main … 
  15. Hindrances
     … So when you meditate and focus on the breath, it’s not as if you’re running away from potential future dangers. You’re actually preparing for them. As for doubt—doubt about yourself, doubt about the Dhamma—the best way to deal with that is to test the teachings. The Buddha says that if you focus on the breath, you can give rise … 
  16. Listening to the Body
     … If you lose your focus, come back to that one spot. And tell yourself: If all you had to do in this world was to breathe in a way that felt nice in the navel, what would that be like? If you can’t focus on the navel or if that’s too precise a spot, well, just say, the general center of the … 
  17. Virtuous Beginnings
     … When you look at something, do you let your eyes focus on things that give rise to greed? Or do you hold them in check? Do you let them focus on things that give rise to anger? Delusion? Any of the defilements? Or do you hold them in check? Holding them in check doesn’t necessarily mean that you don’t look at anything … 
  18. Metta Meditation
     … It hurts here, it’s tight there, it’s tense here, and if you focus on those areas, they become the little monster in the hall of mirrors. Try to find the spaces between the pains and the parts of the body that feel okay. They don’t have to be great. They just have to be relatively pleasant. Focus on them and allow … 
  19. One Person
     … You have to focus on where you still are in control, the choices you’re making right now, and try to make them as skillful as possible. This is why we come to meditate, because we focus on the mind, we focus on our intentions. The Thai translation for samadhi means a firm intention: You make up your mind to stay with the breath … 
  20. Work on Your Mind
     … Ask yourself, “Where do you feel the breath most clearly right now?” Focus your attention there, and then ask yourself, “What would feel really good right there?” The word “feeling good” here can mean anything from energizing to soothing to relaxing. In other words, what would you like right now, given the state of your body? What would bring things into balance? What would … 
  21. Mindfulness Gets Intimate
    We focus our attention on the present moment because of the way the Buddha taught karma. He said that our actions influence the future, and they also influence the present moment. In fact, it’s our present actions that will determine whether we’re going to suffer in the present or not. So we want to look into the present moment to see exactly … 
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