Search results for: "Focus"

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  2. The World Is Swept Away
     … So try to keep your focus right here. The irony of it all is that the more “right here” you are in your focus, the longer-term the happiness that comes from your actions. As you get more and more skillful at this one point, it has ramifications that go out in all directions. The process of change is something that’s happening right … 
  3. Sources of Lasting Happiness
     … But the Buddha’s main focus was on your karma in the present moment, because the mind is very active. We’re not just sitting here passively receiving impressions. The mind is trying to figure things out: what to do now, where to focus now, how to interpret things. It plays a huge role in shaping how you experience things in the present moment … 
  4. Looking for Happiness Inside
     … The part of the mind that wants to direct this and say, “focus here, focus there,” gets thrown into sharp relief. And you ask yourself: “Who’s talking to whom in here?” You start questioning the very, very basic movements of the mind, until you see an opening where there are no movements of the mind at all. That may sound very abstract, but … 
  5. Tap, Tap, Tap
     … So you have to look and see, “Where’s the intention? How do I filter these things? How do I decide what to focus on, what not to focus on?” That’s the kind of thing you can watch directly. Our knowledge of the world outside is very uncertain. We take educated guesses, we gamble on which sources of information are reliable, which ones … 
  6. A Divine Seat
     … Here again, the Buddha says, feelings can come and go willy-nilly, but you can also induce them by the way you focus on them, by the way you place labels on them. You’ve probably noticed this yourself. If there’s a pain that comes in, and you don’t know where it’s coming from, you get upset by it. But if … 
  7. Stay
     … Then, as you focus there, you’ll find patterns of tension building up as you try to keep it there. Okay, learn what you can let go of without losing your focus. When the Buddha talks about spreading ease and rapture through the body, sometimes it’s more a matter of allowing certain patterns of tension to relax, relax, relax and then the relaxation … 
  8. Staying in Position
     … To do that, you focus on the breath. Try to notice where you feel the breathing process. It can be anywhere in the body. Choose a spot where the sensations tell you clearly that now the breath is coming in, now the breath is going out. Allow the breath in that spot to feel comfortable. That’s getting into position. Both sides of the … 
  9. Inner Discontent
     … When you find that the mind is beginning to lose its focus, what can you do ramp things up so that the focus stays continuous? It’s these little things that make all the difference. So there is something to be content with right here. Content yourself with what has to be done right now, where you are in the practice, what the task … 
  10. “My Way”
     … In particular, the Buddha asks you to focus that power of observation on your actions—your thoughts, your words, and your deeds—to see where they’re coming from and what they lead to. If they don’t lead to something good, then you can change. The Buddha himself said he got on the right track when he learned how to divide his thoughts … 
  11. Full, Focused Attention
    Try to let go of all other thoughts and focus on thinking about the breath. Pose a few questions in the mind: Where do you feel the breath? Where do you feel the process of breathing? Pay attention right there. Try to develop a quality of intentness in what you’re doing, giving it your full attention. Be very careful to keep this in … 
  12. A Game of Chess
     … Where is that most prominent? What happens when you focus on that? Again, you bring an intentional element in to see if you can activate it. Where is the warmth strongest in the body? Focus there first, and then think of spreading the warmth throughout the rest of the body. It’s like turning up the thermostat or experimenting with a new stereo system … 
  13. Respect for Suffering
     … It’s a question of where its focus goes. Sometimes the focus goes into thought-constructs: You think about your next meal, you think about home, you think about school, you think about work. Your awareness is still here but the focus is off someplace else. What you want to do is bring you focus back to your awareness, what you’ve got going … 
  14. The Four-in-One Establishing of Mindfulness
     … So you make your focus *not *on the world. Your focus is on the breath, on the feelings around the breath, and around the state of mind that you can use to maintain continuous awareness of the breath. As for everything else, learn to look on with equanimity, because this is your way out. It’s like that Far Side cartoon with two penguins … 
  15. Insight Is a Judgment Call
    Insight Is a Judgment Call February 21, 2017 As you focus on your breath, try to figure out the best way to focus on the breath. This is a quality called evaluation. It’s pretty simple. You’re with the breath, but there are lots of ways of breathing and lots of ways of being with the breath: where you’re going to focus … 
  16. Still
     … When everything is in place, then you focus on the breath. Remember to think of the breath not so much as the air, but as the energy flow in the body, because that’s what you experience first in the body, and that’s what you can experience anywhere in the body. In the modern world with all our screens, we tend to be … 
  17. The Sublime Attitudes
     … If you want experiences to be good, focus on the source. If you don’t like the kind of experiences you’re having, turn back and focus again on the source. It’s constantly right here, right here in the present moment. The Buddha’s teachings on time are interesting in that even though they do talk about time, they don’t talk about … 
  18. Don’t Hang Around Your Corpse
     … In the forest tradition, the ajaans focus on the two contemplations in the Satipatthana Sutta having to do with the unattractiveness of the body. On the one hand, you can go through the body’s 32 parts. It’s 31 parts in the Canon; the Commentary adds the brain. On other hand, there’s the contemplation of the different stages of decomposition that the … 
  19. Rooted in Desire
     … the way you talk to yourself—what the Buddha calls directed thought and evaluation*—*as you focus your thoughts on a topic and then make comments about it, ask questions, answer the questions. Then there’s mental fabrication: perceptions and feelings. Perceptions are the labels you put on things, the images you use to identify what they are and what their meaning is. Then … 
  20. Balance & Release
    Balance & Release January 27, 2011 When we focus the mind on the breath, we can observe both of them. Ideally, it’s good to be able to observe both of them together. Although some people find it easier to observe the breath, others find it easier to observe the mind. But it’s important to be able to watch them as they interact. First … 
  21. The Mind Undefined
     … In other words, focus your sense of what you are on the things that are really worth desiring. As the Buddha said, we really do define ourselves by our desires, so define yourself around good desires. If we have too clear a notion of what we are as an entity beforehand, it gets in the way of our seeing how mercurial our identities are … 
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